Luna Rossa is 3rd in the provisional scoreboard

by Luna Rossa Media on 7 Apr 2007 At the start of the first race conditions on the course today saw sunshine, calm seas and ten knots of breeze from the east.

On the line Luna Rossa incurs in a penalty for failing to respond to a luff by Pierre Mas at the helm of China Team. Having offloaded her penalty ITA 94 heads off towards the right hand side of the course and is momentarily in the lead taking advantage of a rotation of the wind.

At the first mark Luna Rossa is fifth with a 48 second delta from Alinghi. The positions don’t change on the second leg but on the third one ITA 94 quickly makes up ground and at the mark is third, less than ten seconds behind Mascalzone Capitalia Team in second place. The last run is hard fought with Luna Rossa, ITA 99 and USA87 all vying for the second place. Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team gets his way followed by Luna Rossa, third, in front of BMW Oracle.

As the second race of the day kicks off weather conditions have worsened. Wind is blowing up to 15 knots and it is raining on the course. Shout out start for Luna Rossa who from the Committee Boat side heads out towards the right with Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi trailing behind. At the first weather mark ITA 94 leads by 17 seconds with SUI 91 and NZL 84 in her wake.

After an initial separation Luna Rossa gibes to cover her opponents and at the leeward gate stretches out increasing her gain to 27 seconds on Alinghi who is second. Halfway up the beat SUI 91 soaks up part of the margin, but ITA 94 repels the attack defending the right hand side of the course.

At the next cross Alinghi, on port, tacks very close to Luna Rossa who protests. SUI 91 rounds the mark first but is inflicted a penalty and offloads it immediately after the spreader mark. Luna Rossa passes in the lead once again with NZL 84 sailing about one hundred meters behind her. Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi alternate their attacks on ITA 94 reducing the distance. On the left NZL 84 finds more pressure and in the last meters is able to pull ahead of Luna Rossa and win the race.

Luna Rossa is 3rd in the provisional scoreboard (46 points) one point behind Emirates Team New Zealand 2nd and nine points away from Alinghi in the lead.
Tomorrow the last two fleet races of Act 13 are scheduled.

Crew
Runner/Trimmer - Francesco de Angelis
Helmsman - James Spithill
Tactician - Torben Grael
Navigator - Michele Ivaldi
Afterguard - Ben Durham
Traveller - Andrew Horton
Runners - Michele Cannoni
Main Trimmer - Nacho Braquehais
Main Grinder - Daniele Bresciano
Trimmer - Daniel Fong
Trimmer - Manuel Modena
Grinder - Romolo Ranieri
Grinder - Philip Trinter
Pitman - Tom Burnham
Mast - Massimo Gherarducci
Mid-Bow - Paolo Bassani
Bow - Andy Fethers
18th Man - Nelson Piquet, three times F1 World Champion

Today’s results - Flight 4

1 - Alinghi (SUI 91) in 1:15:05
2 - Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team (ITA 99) at 1:07
3 - Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 94) at 1:24
4 - BMW Oracle Racing (USA 87) at 1:25
5 - Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 84) at 1:48
6 - United Internet Team Germany (GER 89) at 2:18
7 - Team Shosholoza (RSA 83) at 2:31
8 - Victory Challenge (SWE 96) at 2:37
9 - Desafío Español 2007 (ESP 97) at 2:48
10 - AREVA Challenge (FRA 93) at 3:16
11 - China Team (CHN 95) at 4:04
DNS - +39 Challenge (ITA 85)

Flight 5

1 - Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 84) in 1:13:23
2 - Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 94) at 0:04
3- Alinghi (SUI 91) at 0:16
4 - Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team (ITA 99) at 0:49
5 - Team Shosholoza (RSA 83) at 1:46
6 - Desafío Español 2007 (ESP 97) at 1:47
7 - Victory Challenge (SWE 96) at 1:50
8 - AREVA Challenge (FRA 93) at 2:02
9 - United Internet Team Germany (GER 89) at 2:17
10 - BMW Oracle Racing (USA 87) at 6:09
11 - China Team (CHN 95) at 35:27
DNS - +39 Challenge (ITA 85)

Provisional Scoreboard

(Ranking - Team - Points)

1 - Alinghi (SUI 91) - 55
2 - Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 84) - 47
3 - Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 94) - 46
4 - Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team (ITA 99) - 45
5 - BMW Oracle Racing (USA 87) - 39
6 - Desafío Español 2007 (ESP 97) - 37
7 - Team Shosholoza (RSA 83) - 33
8 - United Internet Team Germany (GER 89) - 22
9 - Victory Challenge (SWE 96) - 21
10 - AREVA Challenge (FRA 93) - 20
11 - +39 Challenge (ITA 85) - 17
12 - China Team (CHN 95) - 11

Tomorrow's program - Saturday, April 7th 2007 - two fleet races