Act 8 Day 3- USA-76 in cliffhanger with NZL-82

by BMW Oracle Racing Media on 2 Oct 2005 In the most dramatic match of the 2005 America’s Cup class season, BMW ORACLE Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand battled each other all the way round the course, swapping leads and displaying superb boat-handling skills on both yachts.

The spectator fleet off Trapani on the Sicily coast were treated to a superb spectacle as the match went through several lead changes and hung in the balance all the way to the finish line with the New Zealand boat just edging a win by the narrowest margin. In a rising wind and boisterous seas, the two teams flirted with danger in a no-holds-barred battle on day three of the Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 regatta.

The feature match came after a very comfortable win by USA-76 over the French K-Challenge team in the opening flight of matches earlier in the day.

Race One summary (USA-76 vs FRA-60):

USA-76 gained an immediate advantage by jumping away to a one-boatlength lead across the startline after shutting the French team out at the Committee Boat end of the line. Racing in an 18-knot breeze that shifted so far to the right that the committee had to change the course midway through, USA-76 was never threatened by the French team.

Every mark rounding saw a bigger margin until the BMW ORACLE Racing crew crossed the finish line to win the match by 2 minutes 44 seconds.

Race Two summary (USA-76 vs NZL-82):

The tone of the match was clear from the start as Chris Dickson and the BMW ORACLE Racing crew were the aggressors, hounding the New Zealand team away from the favoured left side of the track and taking the early advantage. USA-76 maintained a close cover up the first beat and led around the windward mark by two boatlengths. With the wind building to 20 knots, the two yachts roared down the leeward run side by side, with spray flying off their bows. A significant left hand windshift turned the run into a reach, however, and NZL-82 was able to use its windward position to advantage and gain the lead. At the leeward mark rounding, the two yachts spun around the mark, with USA-76’s bow just centimeters away from NZL-82’s transom.

Up the second windward leg, USA-76 kept the action very close, constantly attacking NZL-82 until, at the top of the course, NZL-82 was forced to luff up hard to fight USA-76 off. The BMW ORACLE Racing team had more momentum, however, threw in a fast tack and then tacked back onto starboard to attack the New Zealanders once more.

The move succeeded and USA-76 had the inside overlap going into the mark rounding, luffed NZL-82 away from the mark and led around. On the final run to the finish, NZL-82 again climbed up into a windward position and was able to roll over the top of USA-76 to regain the lead.

Once again, the battle was on, as skipper Chris Dickson and the USA-76 crew threw gybe after gybe at the New Zealanders, attacking their air and constantly closing the gap. In boisterous conditions, with the wind up around 20 knots, the yachts were on a knife-edge and the slightest mistake would have spelled disaster. Right at the finish line, the two yachts surged for the line, neck and neck with USA-76 gaining every second. But, NZL-82 just managed to hold its position and took the win by 3 seconds.

Quotes from Chris Dickson, USA-76 skipper, on the match against NZL-82: ‘We took a lot of positives from the race. Our weather calls were great, our afterguard got the tactics spot on, we won the start, we had excellent upwind speed and we out-tacked them twice. We were disappointed we did not come away with the point.

‘We felt we had a 90% good day. We were slick in nearly every department. Team New Zealand had 91%, so good on them.

‘They passed us on the two downwind legs. We had some problems with both of our spinnaker sets and one of our gybes, which put us on the back foot. Once we recovered, we caught some good waves and had good speed and we nearly got back in front. We probably gained 12 seconds and only needed one more wave. We had good surfing conditions, which we don’t often see. When you get it right, there are big gains to be made.

‘We felt we got all the important things right. A couple of things we would normally take for granted, we slipped up on. They turned out to be very important.

‘We had no breakages or gear problems. A big thumbs up to the shore team. All that leaping through waves and crashing and banging puts the boat through a real test and it has come through with flying colours.’


Team Standings:
Alinghi 5pt
Luna Rossa Challenge 5pt
Emirates Team New Zealand 4pt
BMW ORACLE Racing 4pt
K-Challenge 3pt
Victory Challenge 3pt
Team Shosholoza 2pt
United Internet Team Germany 1pt
Desafio Espanol 2007 1pt
China Team 1pt
+39 Challenge 1pt
Mascalzone Latino Capitalia 1pt