Shosholoza beats Luna Rossa for first of two wins

by Team Shosholoza Media on 25 Apr 2007
It was an incredible day for South Africa’s Team Shosholoza in Valencia, Spain on Tuesday.

After three and a half years of gruelling racing and training Shosholoza finally pulled off the big one by slaying Italian giant Luna Rossa and then going on to take a second victory of the day off China team.

The two magnificent wins have put Team Shosholoza fourth overall in a three way tie with the Italian Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team and Sweden’s Victory Challenge after five flights of races in Round Robin 1 of the Louis Vuitton Cup - the challenger selection series for the 2007 America’s Cup.

Today’s victory over Luna Rossa, a former Louis Vuitton Cup winner and the team that South Africa bought their first training boat from in March 2004, was greeted with roars and cheers at sea and on shore as phone calls, emails and text messages of congratulations poured in to the team's base in the Port America's Cup from both fans and opposition teams. The sailors was showered with champagne as they docked and smothered with hugs and kisses.

Of the crew of 17 on board Shosholoza today 13 are South Africans with no previous experience in the America's Cup as opposed to Luna Rossa who has a top drawer international crew with multiple America's Cup experience and a stated budget of 90 million euros opposed to South Africa’s 23.

'At the team meeting this morning I said lets go out and win two races today. And for the first time we did just that. We have been waiting for this win for a week. Yacht designer Jason Ker, helmsman Paolo Cian, me, were sure that we were faster. Against the Swedes and America’s BMW ORACLE we had really bad luck. In both races we were in the wrong place at the wrong moment with the flukey wind shifts. If we had the good luck we had today we could be sitting with five wins already.

'Today we had the good luck. It was our race. We had steady 12 knots. We were faster and we didn’t give them any possibility of hauling us in,' said an emotional Captain Salvatore Sarno.

At the post race press conference South African Olympic sailor and Shosholoza strategist Ian Ainslie also told how he had cried for the first time in a yacht race. 'I was calm the whole way until just before we crossed the finish line and then I just started crying – it was too big an emotional moment that I was sharing with my team mates.'

Captain Sarno’s son Antonio who was 18th man on board Shosholoza for the Luna Rossa race said so many of the team, including himself were crying openly.

' After three and a half years it was the biggest gift for Shosholoza. I have never seen a team so united. It was also good for our Italian helmsman Paolo Cian and tactician Tommaso Chieffi to show the world what they are worth,' said Sarno junior.

The victory against Luna Rossa came in the fourth flight of match races held so far in the Louis Vuitton Cup. After surviving repeated attacks from the Italians in the pre-start dial up the South Africans were on the start line with Luna Rossa but were able to take advantage of the pressure on the left to pull out a 17 second lead at the first windward mark. They extended to 20 seconds in the run down to the leeward gate but then lost some six seconds to round the final windward mark just 14 seconds ahead. The final run to the finish was make or break and a huge release of tension when they crossed 36 seconds ahead to take a magnificent victory off the Italians.

'What was amazing is that the crew held together under such enormous pressure. It’s a great step in the right direction for us,' said tactician Tommaso Chieffi.

It was also a sweet, sweet victory for the South Africans who had almost pulled off an another surprise defeat over BMW ORACLE on Sunday after leading for more than half of the match against the big budget internationally crewed American contenders.

'We can't refer to Shosholoza causing an upset anymore. Right now Shosholoza has got to be a serous contender for the semi-finals. If you had asked me a month ago I wouldn't have put them in the mix,' said America’s Cup race commentator Geordie Shaver

Team Shosholoza won its second victory of the day by beating China Team from start to finish with a final delta of 2.05 minutes.

Team Shosholoza has two tough races tomorrow (Wednesday) when they meet Emirates Team New Zealand and Spain’s Desafio Espanol in Flights Six and Seven.

Louis Vuitton Cup - Tuesday

FLIGHT 4

Match	Team	Delta
1	Emirates Team New Zealandbeat AREVA Challenge	1:55
2	Desafío Español 2007 beat Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team	0:39
4	United Internet Team Germanybeat China Team	4:01
5	Team Shosholoza beat Luna Rossa Challenge	0:36
6	BMW ORACLE Racing beat Victory Challenge	1:18

Bye - +39 Challenge

FLIGHT 5

Match	Team	Delta
1	Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team beat +39 Challenge	1:12
2	Emirates Team New Zealandbeat Desafío Español 2007	1:12
4	Victory Challenge beat United Internet Team Germany	0:56
5	BMW ORACLE Racing beat Luna Rossa Challenge	0:06
6	Team Shosholoza beat China Team	2:05

Bye - AREVA Challenge

Louis Vuitton Cup - Round Robin One - Provisional Leaderboard

Position	Team	Bonus Points	Matches Sailed	Matches Won	Total Points
1	BMW ORACLE Racing (USA 98)	3	5	5	13
2	Emirates Team New Zealand(NZL 92)	4	4	3	10
3	Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 94)	3	5	3	9
4	Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia (ITA 99)	2	4	3	8
4	Team Shosholoza (RSA 83)	2	5	3	8
4	Victory Challenge (SWE 96)	2	5	3	8
7	Desafío Español 2007 (ESP 97)	3	4	2	7
8	Areva Challenge (FRA 93)	1	4	2	5
9	United Internet Team Germany(GER 89)	1	5	1	3
10	+39 Challenge (ITA 85)	2	4	0	2
11	ChinaTeam (CHN 95)	1	5	0	1

 

Date :	24th April
Team Name :	Team Shosholoza
Crew list for	Race one	Nationality	Race two
Helmsman	Paolo Cian	ITA	Cian
Tactician	Tommaso Chieffi	ITA	Chieffi
Navigator	Marc Lagesse	RSA	Lagesse
Traveller (Mast)	Alex Runciman	RSA	Runciman
Runner	Ian Ainslie	RSA	Ainslie
Mainsail Trimmer	David Rae	RSA	Rae
Aft Grinder	Mark Sadler	RSA	Sadler
Trim up	Brett Jones	AUS	Jones
Trim Down	Michael Giles	RSA	Giles
Port Grinder	Johann Spilhaus	RSA	Spilhaus
STB Grinder	Shaun Pammenter	RSA	Pammenter
Mid Grinder	Camron Wills	RSA	Wills
Pit 1	Tim Kröger	GER	Kröger
Pit 2	Solomon Dipeere	RSA	Dipeere
Mid-Bow	Ken Venn	RSA	Venn
Bow	Golden Mgedeza	RSA	Mgedeza
Mast	Charles Nankin	RSA	Nankin
18th Man	Antonio Sarno/ITA		Sandra Sarno/ITA
Skipper	Mark Sadler	RSA