Editorial- The dogfight off Valencia

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 27 Jun 2007 Welcome to Sail-World.Com’s America’s Cup Newsletter for the third race of the 32nd America’s Cup.

We made the comment after Race 2 that 'in the end, it is not going to be the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog that will determine the outcome'.

How true those words were off Valencia today, as the most exciting race in America’s Cup history, bar one, unfolded.

After leading by a large margin soon after the start, Emirates Team New Zealand had it all come apart after a late takedown forced by a sudden windshift at the leeward mark resulted in the spinnaker sheet becoming jammed in the jib clew, and NZL-92 was crippled as each tack required the spinnaker to be fed from side to side, and she could not respond to Alinghi.

After getting out NZL-92 out of phase, Alinghi pounced and set up in a glorious left handed shift on the Emirates Team New Zealand hip and got right back into the boat race.

Some more cunning boat placement on the remainder of the beat, saw Alinghi climb back into the lead and into a position where they could put a double-whammy on NZL-92 at the top mark. SUI-100 squeezed NZL-92 on port, leaving the hapless Kiwis to suck their bad air and then have to tack to round the mark 15 seconds in arrears.

What should have been a regulation covering job to the finish went out the window when Alinghi let NZL-92 out to the starboard side and didn’t/couldn’t get across to cover.

While the Kiwis gained it still wasn’t enough to win, until they got a call of more pressure out of the left, which was a header for the red spinnakered boat.

In these conditions such a call is a gold-rush as the increase in pressure means more boat speed, and the direction from the left is a header which means that NZL-92 could sail more directly towards the mark.

Looking for knocks downwind is bread and butter for any skiffie, and in their man up the mast in the form of Adam Beashel, NZL-92 had one of the best pedigreed skiffies on the planet. His dad Ken Beashel is one of the great 18ft skiff sailors, and was also a key part of the Australia II team in 1983. Brother Colin was on board Australia II as mainsheet trimmer.. So the Kiwis had a very good pair of eyes above, connected to a brain that had been nurtured for these occasions.

Once set in this position, it was just a matter of the evening breeze holding to the finish line, and NZL-92 could return the Swiss compliment at the top mark. Snatch the lead, cross ahead, gybe in front and go straight to the finish – an unbeatable hand in this game of yachting poker.

At 2-1 down Alinghi is cornered but by no means beaten. It's early days, still, in this regatta.

They proved surprisingly fast in the lighter airs of 7-10 kts which were thought to have been the Kiwis forte.

Their boat placement was good when shown a glimpse of a get out of jail card. And, clearly Alinghi rattled the Kiwis when they crept past at the end of the second beat erasing a massive lead. Had they held this advantage to the finish Alinghi would have been cock-a–hoop, and justifiably so.

As we predicted before the series, the Alinghi crew have a weakness in their afterguard caused by a number of factors, not the least of which is some serious target practice against strong competition, such as occurred in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The racecourse off Valencia is like a golf course of four long three and bit mile fairways, all littered with bunkers. Driving down this course requires the utmost concentration and an afterguard that is well meshed together; which doesn’t make major mistakes; can recover from minor ones and seizes every opportunity handed to them by a competitor.

One of the reasons Emirates Team New Zealand won the Louis Vuitton Cup was because they had been tested under the sort of fire we saw today, and emerged as the surviving Challenger. Replicating the intensity of this theatre in an in-house program is near impossible, and Alinghi look to be a day late and a dollar short in this regard.

The other point is that we are not seeing a typical America’s Cup, due to the closeness of the boats – in spite of them having small edges in some conditions. What we are seeing is a normal matchrace of the type seen in one designs. Clearly each sailing team will play to their strengths on board. If it is a boatspeed race, then Alinghi probably have the edge, but if the afterguard’s brains start hurting with the tactical challenge, then Emirates Team New Zealand will probably prevail.

But in the end it will be the size of the fight in the dog that will count, and that’s why Emirates Team New Zealand won today.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor