Emirates TNZ- Good racing weather, good wins

by Warren Douglas on 5 May 2007
Two flights of races were completed off Valencia today, with NZL 92 continuing its unbeaten run in round robin 2 of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Six of the 11 flights scheduled have now been sailed, and the revised regatta programme disrupted yesterday by thunderstorms, is back on track.

Flight five, the first raced off Valencia today shook up the leaderboard.

Joint leaders this morning BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa squared off. USA 98 won; picking up two more points and were alone at the top with 29 points, with ITA 94 second on 27.

Then Emirates Team New Zealand, third on the leaderboard, raced fourth-placed Desafio Espanol. NZL 92 won, gaining the points and moving to five points clear of Spain.

At the end of today‘s racing USA 98 and ITA 94 were joint leaders again.

BMW Oracle had a bye in flight six. Luna Rossa had a comfortable win over Areva Challenge so they were back at the top with Oracle on 29 points. (Luna Rossa has yet to have a bye and has sailed one more race than NZL 92 and USA 98).

NZL 92 beat South Africa, which puts NZL 92 only one point adrift of the lead and five points ahead of ESP 97 which is fourth.

Racing started on time, with sailing conditions, a south-easterly of 9 – 12 knots, the best for the regattas so far.

The match of the day on the south course was Emirates Team New Zealand against Desafio Espanol, the flight five race that was abandoned on Thursday.

The Spanish boat has shown good speed and crew work and tactics have been sound, so racing promised to be close.

The start was even, with NZL 92 claiming the right and using it to control the first beat, first getting their bow in front and then making small gains with every tack.

As they closed on the top mark, ESP 97 was forced well above the layline, setting up NZL 92 for a textbook rounding but with a slim 19 second advantage.

Grant Dalton: 'They were right on us for those first two legs and we really had to work hard on retaining control. We did not have a big buffer and one lapse on our part and it could have been a different story.'

'We had a good second beat again completely in control and we extended to 42sec at the third mark.' The margin at the finish was 43 sec.

NZL 92 won its race against RSA 83 by 29s. 'It was close as we expected. They have been big improvers since last year and they gave BMW Oracle a fright a few days ago. We were not going to give them any leverage out from the start and then kept it tight.'

'Once we had control on the first beat only a mistake by us was going to change anything. Once again crew work was solid and tactics kept us out of trouble.'

At the first mark it was close with RSA 83 only 10 seconds behind; at the second mark the margin was 13 seconds ; 18 seconds at the third and 29 at the finish.'

'We sailed a couple of good races,' Dalton said. 'We took nothing for granted, went for small gains. A win by 10 seconds is as good as one by a minute. The points are the same. It’s just harder on the nerves.'

Tomorrow’s weather: south=east wind of 10 – 15 knots, temperature 12 – 23 deg, sunny, humidity 55%.

TODAY’S SAILING TEAM
Skipper - Dean Barker
Tactician - Terry Hutchinson
Navigator - Kevin Hall
Strategist - Ray Davies
Traveller - Mark Mendelblatt
Pit - Barry McKay
Runner/pit - Tony Rae
Mainsail trimmer - Don Cowie
Main grinder - Chris Ward
Trimmer upwind - Grant Loretz
Trimmer downwind - James Dagg
Grinder - Rob Waddell
Grinder - Jono Macbeth
Mast - Matt Mason
Floater - Grant Dalton
Mid-Bow – Richard Meacham
Bow - Jeremy Lomas

TODAY’S RESULTS
Flight 5
SWE 96 beat GER 89 +1.18
USA 98 beat ITA 94 +19s
ITA 99 beat ITA 85 +2.07
RSA 83 beat CHN 95 +2.01
NZL 92 beat ESP 97 +43
Bye – Areva Challenge

Flight 6
ITA 94 beat FRA 93 +1.16
ITA 99 beat GER 89 +34s
SWE 96 beat ITA 85 +1.03
ESP 97 beat CHN 95 +3.45
NZL 92 beat RSA 83 +29s
Bye – BMW Oracle

CHALLENGER SAIL NUMBERS
Emirates Team New Zealand – NZL 92
BMW Oracle Racing – USA 98
Luna Rossa Challenge – ITA 94
+39 Challenge – ITA 85
Team Shosholoza – RSA 83
Areva Challenge – FRA 93
Victory Challenge – SWE 96
Desafio Espanol 2007 – ESP 97
Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team – ITA 99
United Internet Team Germany – GER 89
China Team – CHN 95

RANKING AFTER FLIGHT SIX
1 USA 98 BMW ORACLE Racing 29
1 ITA 94 Luna Rossa Challenge 29
3 NZL 92 Emirates Team New Zealand 28
4 ESP 97 Desaf�o Espa�ol 2007 23
5 SWE 96 Victory Challenge 22
6 ITA 99 Mascalzone Latino 18
7 RSA 83 Team Shosholoza 16
8 FRA 93 Areva Challenge 13
9 ITA 85 +39 Challenge 6
10 GER 89 United Internet Team Germany 5
11 CHN 95 China Team 3