Fisher's View- Holy Toledo !

by Bob Fisher on 15 May 2007 The odds against it happening were very long, and it needed a specific type of performance to happen, but the records will always show that Luna Rossa beat BMW Oracle Racing in the first of their semi-final matches in the Louis Vuitton Cup by a massive 2:19.

In the words of the old blues number: '2:19 done took my baby away.' And that is just how Larry Ellison looked as, arms folded, his boat eventually crossed the finishing line. The body language said it all. He was far from being the happy man that has been seen before on BMW Oracle, steering the boat on the last leg of easy victories. This was a man disturbed.

And the disturbing factor had been five-time Olympic medallist, Torben Grael, the cavalier tactician of the Italian boat. He fed the information to James Spithill, who had the courage and good sense to listen to the advice he was offered to pull off the unexpected result of the day. Spithill sailed the boat immaculately.

He won the left hand side (always Torben’s preferred option) at the start and after the two boats had drag raced for five minutes, Dickson tacked away, seeking better wind on the right hand side of the course. Not today Dicko. It was where Grael said it would be and half way up the first beat, Luna Rossa was shown to be 165 metres ahead on the gain line.

The left continued to work for Grael, even though the split was almost a mile between the two boats. When Luna Rossa rounded the first mark with a 52 second lead, many were convinced that the race was over. Grael again went left, gybing to do so, and Dickson went right. This time the right paid in the shifty 10-13 knot breeze that came off the shore.

At the leeward mark the fun began as the two converged and it needed all of Spithill’s acquired assurance in the match-racing manoeuvres to claim the left hand buoy of the 'gate' that Grael preferred. Dickson went the other way and into his own oblivion. At the top mark, Luna Rossa led by 1:21. There was no coming back from that. Worse was to happen.

As the boats neared the finish, the wind swung violently and Luna Rossa was again on the right side of the shift and crossed the line while BMW Oracle all but wallowed. It was a crushing defeat.

Oh, and yes, there was another semi-final held, and an exciting one to boot. But it didn’t have the same significance. Emirates Team New Zealand was expected to beat Desafio Espanol, and did.

The pre-start had its moments and while Dean Barker, with the prior knowledge from the weather team that the right was favoured engineered that side of the start, with a little help from a current that ran to leeward down the line, but Matt Wachowicz, the navigator of Desafio Espanol claimed that with 1:15 to go, John Cutler, the tactician said: 'I can do anything you like with this guy.' Helmsman Karol Jablonski decided to go left and just sail close to the Kiwis and force them off to the right.

Once ahead – 1:03 at the first mark – tactician Terry Hutchinson kept it close, lost a little ground, but when the wind did an about turn just before the finish, was in the right place and the Kiwi boat cruised home to a 43-second victory.

Both sides declared they would adopt the same plans for the next race, but it is dubious that the defender will remain as it is now. A bright blue painted torpedo keel bulb was spotted inside the Cup Village on the back of a truck heading towards the Alinghi base.