Editorial- No Get out of Jail Card in seabreeze

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 17 May 2007 Welcome to Sail-World.Com’s America’s Cup newsletter for the third day of racing in the Semi-Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

That great human faculty of hindsight says that today, the die was pretty well cast at the start of both races in the Semi-Finals.

Both Kiwi skippers made errors at vital times of the pre-start. Dean Barker copped a penalty when he was caught heading into a gybe by Desafio Espanol, with 50 seconds left on the starter’s clock.

In the second start, Chris Dickson overcooked his run at the pin end, and had to briefly shoot head to wind to clear the startmark, burning off a vital couple of knots in the process before heading off on a split tack start.

In the end neither error had any part to play in the outcome of the racing.

The Valencian seabreeze was unstable on both windward legs. With a rogue right handed shift soon after the start playing into the hands of both European challengers, who established small but very significant leads, which proved to be impossible to overturn.

Emirates Team New Zealand did the right thing on the first beat, staying in contact with Desafio Espanol and contained the damage to a couple of boatlengths. However they were unable to break through on the first run.

Their error, in hindsight, came on the second beat when NZL-92 adopted the unorthodox tactic for them, of splitting away from their opponent – going out to a 1200 metre lateral separation before coming back. Unfortunately for NZL-92 the Spanish received an early Christmas present in the form of another 20 degree shift to the right, and the Kiwis were left to suck the kumara, dropping 36 seconds on the windward leg.

Downwind there weren’t a lot of options, short of the unlikely prospect of the seabreeze turning into an offshore breeze. The excitement level rose by several metres on ESP-97 as they neared the finish line and they realised that they weren’t going to be tin-hatted in this series. In contrast to the very low key Kiwi reaction to race wins, the Euro’s were hugging each other before the finish and the spectator fleet went off once the outcome was certain.

Behind them it was pretty much the same, except the two who love to dance at a distance, played a much closer game today, and the lateral separation was much reduced to 400 metres or so at the most. Well short of the 1700metres we had seen, at one point, the day before

Downwind, Dickson tried to gybe on Luna Rossa’s air to reduce the margin and then play his trump card, of powering over the top of the lead boat. In previous matches BMW Oracle have looked very strong using this ploy, as the spinnaker's power looks set to rip the mast out - and it is not a game for the faint-hearted.

However USA-98 just could not reduce the separation. Luna Rossa only had to maintain a loose cover upwind and down. ITA-94 gained out of a second right hand shift, dropping USA-98 back to 250 metres at the top mark. She was able to attack and reduce this by 100metres at the finish. It was not enough.

In the big picture, the heat is well and truly back on BMW Oracle Racing, having climbed out of the hole in the second Semi-Final they are back in it again. USA-98 now has the statistic of having led on only one out of the past 16 legs in the last four races. If they do have the much vaunted fifth gear, then they are keeping it well and truly under wraps, and the body language aboard USA-98 is grim. The Smiling Assassin has been doing a lot of frowning lately – except at the finish line yesterday!

For Emirates Team New Zealand there is a little to be concerned about. ESP-97 is reported to have had a measurement change going into today’s race. If so, she looked the better for it, and seemed to have NZL-92's mesasure. As the race progressed the Spaniards looked to play more on confidence – buoyed to some extent with the knowledge that they had a pre-start penalty in the bag.

What the Kiwi’s do from here is a little hard to say. Certainly they won’t be wanting to get out to 2-2.

Given NZL-92’s strengths on the course side of the start line, and their ability, of late, to score good fast starts, it is a little hard to understand why they need to mix it with the matchracing topguns in the pre-start, when the potential for loss is great and the gains relatively small. Their Vanderbilt start against USA-98 in the last Round Robin looked a much better option for them.

Of real concern are the shifts in the seabreeze, which are playing heavily into the hands of the weather teams and the Torben Graels of this world. For BMW Oracle Racing that failure with the headfoil against China Team in Round Robin 2 is looking very expensive, as the Brazilian ace is at his masterful best.

There will be no America’s Cup newsletter tomorrow, as a layday is scheduled, back in action Friday/Saturday (NZT)

Good sailing

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

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