LV Act 6 Day 2- BMW Oracle Racing has two wins

by BMW Oracle Racing on 27 Aug 2005 BMW ORACLE Racing remains at the top of the leaderboard in the Louis Vuitton Act 6 regatta after adding two more wins to its tally in tough sailing conditions off Malmö today.

Towards the end of the afternoon, the wind was constantly above 20 knots and several teams suffered damage.

Four teams now share the top of the leaderboard: BMW ORACLE Racing, Alinghi, Luna Rossa Challenge and Emirates Team New Zealand.

In the first match of the day, USA-76 came from behind in the first windward leg to overtake the French K-Challenge team and then extended its lead to win by a comfortable margin.

After several delays while the Race Committee waited for the wind conditions to stabilise, the second match got under way against hometown favourites, the Swedish Victory Challenge team. USA-76 skipper Chris Dickson and the BMW ORACLE Racing crew led from the start and had established a solid lead when the Swedes were forced to withdraw because of gear damage.

MATCH ONE SUMMARY – USA-76 vs FRA-60

Although BMW ORACLE Racing won this race by a comfortable 1 minute 12 second margin, the result came after a hard-fought battle in the opening leg.
The French team had the early advantage and led most of the way up the first beat. However, as the two yachts closed the top mark, Chris Dickson and his crew on USA-76 established an inside overlap and then luffed up hard, forcing the French to keep clear.

The move created the overtaking opportunity and USA-76 led around the top mark. The first downwind leg was still very tight, with the French team riding down the entire leg right on the BMW ORACLE Racing yacht’s transom.
But, the USA-76 team were not to be denied and on the remaining two legs extended their lead to finally post a convincing win.


MATCH TWO SUMMARY – USA-76 vs SWE-73

USA-76 established an early lead, coming off the startline ahead and to leeward of the Swedish team on starboard tack. That early advantage was translated into a 22 second lead at the first windward mark.

On the spinnaker run, both yachts were flying downwind, sending white spray flying. The BMW ORACLE Racing team led around the leeward mark with a 34 second advantage and had just begun their second beat to windward when the headsail ripped out of the forestay foil on the Swedish yacht and they withdrew from the race.

It only remained for USA-76 to complete the two remaining legs of the course to take the win and add another point to its regatta total.

QUOTES:

Ian Burns, Navigator, on the first race against the French team: ‘We always felt our speed against the French team was pretty good. At the top mark, the course was skewed and we were the right side of the windshift. We luffed them to create a bit of a gap, rather than going around the mark overlapped.’

On the delays before the second race: ‘We prefer to have fair racing in good conditions rather than rush into something marginal. We felt that Race Officer Harold Bennett made good decisions in difficult conditions.’

On the second race against the Swedish team: ‘We felt we definitely had the measure of them in terms of boatspeed. We felt pretty comfortable against them and probably did not push our boat to the limit.

‘Some boats are better optimised for slower speeds. In the light airs, the Swedish team proved pretty hard to beat. We found the last regatta in Valencia a bit frustrating because it was in very light air. Here it was nice to get out in some breeze and really get some speed up. Our sail programme is pretty well developed in the higher wind ranges so we are quite happy to get out in a breeze.’

On completing the race under spinnaker even though they could have sailed more conservatively once the Swedish team withdrew. ‘We did talk about not hoisting the spinnaker, but the boys were pretty happy to be racing in a good breeze and wanted to show it.’

Positions after Day Two:
1= BMW ORACLE Racing (4-0)
1= Alinghi (4-0)
1= Emirates Team New Zealand (4-0)
1= Luna Rossa Challenge (4-0)
5 Desafio Espanol 2007 (2-2)
6= K-Challenge (1-3)
6= Victory Challenge (1-3)
6= +39 Challenge (1-3)
6= Team Shosholoza (1-3)
6= Mascalzone Latino Capitalia (1-3)
6= United Internet Germany (1-3)
12 China Team (0-4)