Alinghi wins Race 5 of America's Cup after sail horror on NZL-92

by Richard Gladwell on 29 Jun 2007
Dean Barker entered from starboard and adopted the unorthodox tactic of not engaging Alinghi in the dial-up preferring to dive astern and force Alinghi above the startline.

Both then reached across to the starboard side of the startline, above the start box, with Alinghi brushing Emirates Team New Zealand off by passing to windward of a large spectator boat, as NZL-92 passed astern.

They turned to line up for the start with NZL-92 to leeward and trying to hold SUI-100 above the Committee Boat.

Both lined up for a slingshot start with NZL-92 just to leeward, forcing Alinghi to break off and go for the starboard end of the line, in a breeze of 14-16 knots from 122 degrees.

Leg 1 After the start, NZL-92 also tacked onto port tack and followed Alinghi across sailing right up the starboard layline

There was nothing between the two boats, which was surprising, given that Alinghi was expected to perform the better of the two in the moderate sae breeze.

This was almost a repeat of the previous race, with the boats going for the opposite corner and with NZL-92 to windward, and at the same separation as the previous day of around 150 metres.

With two minutes left to run to the starboard layline, Brad Butterworth comments 'we need a right hander' which would be essential for the boats to knock (get a header) and for Alinghi to be able to cross. As they crossed the layline the margin was even.

NZL-92 was first to tack above the layline followed by SUI-100, and it was just a matter of the two running into the layline. After an initial gain to Alinghi of 7 metres, NZL-92's positional advantage came into play and the Kiwis cranked out to a lead of around a boat length metres a third of the way back into the top mark.

It seemed that Emirates Team New Zealand had overstood the top mark by a greater margin than necessary, allowing Alinghi to survive better than would otherwise have been the case, and the margin remained static at about 15 metres.

NZL-92 led around the top mark by 12 seconds.

Leg 2

A good set by Emirates Team New Zealand and a slower set by Alinghi let the separation creep out to 60 metres.

NZL-92 had a small tear in their spinnaker, which soon developed into a major tear as the new one was being hoisted.

The second spinnaker was not attached to the pole end and ripped out of bowman Jerro Lomas's hands as it filled and it flew to leeward.

NZL-92 had one shredded spinnaker, up which it could not clear, a second which was attached by the halyard and sheet only and a third was hoisted which promptly wineglassed (twisted) and would not clear into a full set.

The first spinnaker was retrieved in two pieces, the second was a chase boat drop and the third was set properly.

Eventually the wineglass wound out of the third spinnaker but Alinghi had worked out to 150 metres lead.

Meanwhile Alinghi sailed through to leeward, clear of the pandemonium to windward, and turned a 50 metre deficit into a 40 metre lead, and NZL-92 sailed bareheaded with the old spinnaker flying, the second being dropped and the third developing into a wrap.

The margin at the bottom mark was a lead of 26 seconds to Alinghi of around 100 metres. Alinghi took the starboard gate with Emirates Team NZ going for the port.

Leg 3

On the second beat the boats separated out to around 600 metres before coming back into the cross with Alinghi 80 metres ahead.

As the breeze increased to 18 knots, the boats split tacks again, with Team New Zealand winding Alinghi back by 10 metres each cross, with the margin now down to 70metres. Surprisingly Emirates Team New Zealand seemed to be the better performer going to windward in the strongest breeze of the regatta.

The breeze had some useful variance in direction forcing Alinghi to maintain a closer cover on NZL-92, as the Kiwis looked for the shifts.

After staying in the centre right of the course, Emirates Team New Zealand elected to cross back into the centre and head for the port layline. Alinghi extended slightly back out to 90 metres as the boats headed across on starboard.

Both came across the port layline before heading for the mark and a bearaway set, with Alinghi leading by 100metres or 24 secs at the mark

Leg 4

Alinghi popped out to a 125 metre lead after setting a gennaker with NZL-92 going for a spinnaker, maybe by force rather than design.

The two separated out with NZL-92 running out on starboard gybe for 680 metres separation before coming back in. However the margin between the two remained the same at around 105 metres.

As they continued down the run, NZL-92 worked the puffs with a 700 metres separation laterally, halfway down the leg.

As they merged, NZL-92 made a big gain, dropping the lead back to 60 metres.

Staying in the centre of the course the two swapped gybes as NZL-92 had taken 40 metres out of Alinghi's lead since the top mark.

They split gybes again, with NZL-92 not being able to close the gap. At the finish the margin was just 19 seconds.

Alinghi go into the lead in the Match 3-2.

Comment:

Emirates Team New Zealand were very unlucky not to have won this race and can take great heart out of their efforts.

A small, almost cosmetic tear in the spinnaker, in a part of the sail which will eventually blow and erupted as Emirates Team NZ were taking the precaution of peeling (replacing) spinnakers. The incident cost a lot of ground and the lead.

On the positive side, Dean Barker exposed Alinghi’s weak points in the start and were a clear winner.

Upwind the New Zealanders looked the best they have all regatta and had the edge on Alinghi in conditions which Alinghi were expected to excel.

Downwind NZL-92 was the faster of the two by a useful margin, and if this breeze continues we are in for a very interesting end to the regatta.