Desafío Español suffers a broken spinnaker pole

by Desafío Español 2007 media on 23 Apr 2007 Desafío Español 2007 were unable to win against the French team Areva. A break in the spinnaker pole in their first leg with the wind behind them meant that the regatta, although led from the start by the Spanish, finished in victory for the French syndicate.

Desafio Español 2007 was dominant over their opponent in the pre-start, defending the right side and maintaining their position. The Spanish team entered the course beside the committee boat, and with a wind speed of 8 knots, they began to take the lead early in the first leg. As they crossed for the first time they were leading the French team by a length and a half. They sailed against the wind across the middle of the race course and after another turn the Spanish team were already two lengths ahead of their opponent, increasing this to three before reaching the right hand side lay-line. Continuing to mark their rival, the Spanish team progressed to the top marker whilst their opponent won some ground with a small change of direction.

Upon arrival at the marker, Desafío Español 2007 was a length ahead of their rival and as they began to sail with the wind behind them they managed to increase their lead to three lengths as they sailed down the right hand side. The French team changed their sail direction in an attempt to sail between the Spanish boat and the wind and thus gain advantage. The Spanish team’s spinnaker pole then suffered a breakage at the end of it which led to problems in managing the spinnaker and thus caused the Spanish boat to lose speed progressively. As a result of this loss of speed, the French passed the Spanish team in the middle of the downwind leg and took the lead. Desafío Español 2007 saw their comfortable lead disappear due to the breakage of the spinnaker pole and arrived at the leeward marker one minute behind the French.

The only hope for the Spanish was to win ground back as they sailed against the wind for the second time and they threw themselves into this difficult task, gaining on the French thanks to their superior speed and maneuvering and reducing the French team’s one minute lead to fifteen seconds as they passed the top marker after sailing a spectacular leg. However, the Spanish team once more had to face a downwind leg with the damaged spinnaker pole, which prevented them from counting on the same speed as they had against the wind.

Once again the French challenger escaped and despite the partial reparation that the Spaniards had been able to carry out on the spinnaker pole by connecting a pole to the end of it, the French team crossed the finishing line 2 minutes ahead of the Spaniards.

The second flight of the day had to be postponed due to the wind dying. With only six knots in both the north and south regatta courses, the Commission postponed the second flight at 16.35.

Tomorrow Desafío Español 2007 will face Mascalzone Latino in the first flight and Emirates Team New Zealand in the second.

Karol Jablonski, the helmsman, commented: 'Today we have lost two points but there are still another 18 regattas to take place. We are still at the beginning and there is a lot of ground still to be covered. Each and every regatta is important and in each one we are going out to win'.

Marcos Iglesias, the spinnaker trimmer said 'the spinnaker pole broke after a manoeuvre within one and a half minute. It wasn’t positioned either very high or very low but broke in a straight line. At the moment we still don’t know why it broke. There are eighteen regattas left to race and we are capable of winning them all. We have a very fast boat and there is nothing to worry about. Tomorrow we will have to go out to win both races. If we think that Mascalzone is our direct rival, we will have to beat Team New Zealand.'

Round Robin 1 classification:

BMW Oracle – 9 points
Luna Rossa – 9 points
Emirates Team New Zealand – 6 points
Mascalzone Latino – 6 points
Victory Challenge – 6 points
DE 2007 – 5 points
Areva Challenge – 6 points
Team Shosholoza – 4 points

+39 – 2 points
United Team Germany – 1 point
China Team – 1 point