Louis Vuitton Cup- Another breakdown mars Race 3, Emirates Team NZ win

by Richard Gladwell on 20 Aug 2013
Racing got underway in the delayed Race 3 on San Francisco Bay, in Race 3 of the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the wind at the top of the range, blowing 18kts.

After a better start from Luna Rossa's Chris Draper, the two boats were even off the start line, with Emirates Team NZ just nudging ahead at the reach mark.

At the first gybe, Emirates Team NZ showed their class dropping to just 29kts at the bottom of the foiling gybe, while Luna Rossa were 7kts slower at the same point.

That set the scene for the rest of what proved to be the final leg of the race, with Emirates Team NZ slowly stretching away - both in term of a slightly higher speed through the water, and a much better performance in the gybes - however judging by what has been seen in the Defender Trials, the Italians may be faster than the US Defenders on this point.

At the bottom mark, Emirates stretched to a lead of 21 seconds and were clear by several hundred metres.

Upwind the Kiwis let the cat out of he bag, showing blistering upwind speed hitting 27kts at one point and being regularly in the 25-27kt range.

But behind them the Italians had suffered a breakdown, believed to have been triggered by winding out an override on a winch just after tacking at the leeward mark. That action seemed to break a sheave in the wing control panel, and their race was over -despite one attempt to carry on regardless.

Upwind Emirates Team NZ backed off to a more regulation 21-23kts upwind, and cruised to an easy victory and gained their second point of the seven required to progress to the America's Cup Match.

Increasing winds prevented racing for the second race of the day. Lighter winds are expected tomorrow according to the earlier forecast from Predictwind, however that day is scheduled as a day off. click here to see more

Images from Race 2