Louis Vuitton Trophy - Live updates - Racing underway after delay

by Richard Gladwell on 16 Mar 2010
Sail-World presents live race updates from Day 8 of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Emirates Team New Zealand are first up against Synergy.However the wind has been up and down in strength and with substantial variances in direction, and there has been two delays thus far.

Wind conditions in the race area are averaging 12 kts with gust to 20 kts from 209 degrees which is well around to the south and quite cold.

In the opening match Emirates Team NZ have led Synergy around the top mark by a margin of around 26secs, after the Russians led for much of the first leg, but elected to split tacks and paid heavily burning a 65 metre lead. Team NZ went onto win by around a minute.

In the second match of the day, the French team Alpeh were convincingly beaten by over 500 metres by Azzurra (ITA), winner of the last event in Nice. Putting the Italians into 4wins 2 losses, and leaving the French with just one point on the board despite taking two wins including that of Emirates Team NZ.

In the third match Artemis (SWE) led All4One (FRA) by 130 metres halfway up the first leg, and went on to comfortably win the Match and go to three wins and three losses

In the fourth match Mascalzone Latino led from start to finish despite a late comeback by the British, and won by just 5 seconds. MCL goes onto 4 wins and 2 losses, TeamOrigin is on 3 wins and 3 losses and come against Artemis in the next Match (being Day 6's racing which was postponed to today).

The first of the postponed flights from yesterday, got underway at 1600hrs local time with TeamOrigin against Artemis. Both yachts were expected in the middle four, however the racing was full of action in the fresh 20kt breeze.

After a close beat and run, TeamOrigin picked up a penalty at the bottom of the run after her flogging spinnaker touched Artemis. The Brits neatly executed the penalty, and got one back at the top mark catching Artemis in a port and starboard, in an unforced error on the run TeamOrigin gybed onto port when almost overlapped with Artemis, who grabbed the opportunity, finished the job and got a penalty on the Brits who obliged with a broach, forcing Artemis to keep clear and TeamOrigin copped a second penalty - handing Artemis a convenient win.

The penultimate match was an all Italian affair, a close race with no love lost. Mascalzone Latino took the win to finish as second top qualifier.

Race format: for the rest of the regatta (courtesy of Emirates Team NZ):

At the end of the round robin each team has raced every other team once to determine a ranking used in the following stages of the event.

1. Elimination round one – the competitors sail a knockout series, using the rankings from the round robin so first vs. eighth, second vs. seventh, and so on. The two highest ranked teams (using the round robin ranking) that win their matches in this round advance directly to the semi-finals. The two lowest ranked teams (using the round robin ranking) to lose their matches in this round are eliminated.

2. Elimination round two – the four remaining teams are paired and race for the two remaining semi final berths, with the winner from each pair advancing and the loser eliminated.

3. In the semi-final, the four remaining teams are paired and race a ‘first to two points’ series. The winner from each pair advances to the final.

4. In the final, the winners from each semi-final pair race a ‘first to four points’ series to determine the winner of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland.

The above format is called the MacIntyre System, named for Ken McIntyre who developed it for Australian rugby league tournaments in the 1930s. Today it is widely used in top sports tournaments.

The system makes each race meaningful for each team, right up until the moment they are eliminated. It rewards teams that build a good record in the round robin by referring back to that ranking at later stages, yet it allows teams that improve over the course of the regatta to advance if they keep winning.