Le Defi grabs a lifeline

by Fiona McIlroy on 16 Nov 2002 Le Defi Areva knocked the wind out of Victory Challenge's sails on Saturday afternoon, as they passed the Swedish crew up the final beat and took the gun 34 seconds ahead in their fourth quarterfinal match.

Heading into Saturday's races the Swedish crew seemed to have the series wrapped up, but a good wind shift up the final beat saw those dreams dashed as the French crew rounded the fifth and final mark 17 seconds ahead.

The win means a lifeline for the French who are desperately trying to make it into the quarterfinals repercharge.

The race started off in a similar fashion to the previous three.

A fairly even start saw Victory Challenge slightly ahead and to out to leeward and Le Defi slightly behind to windward.

The Swedes were able to outspeed the French from the early stages of the first beat leading FRA69 around the top mark by 18 seconds, mark two by 17 seconds, mark three by 24 seconds and mark four by 31 seconds.

But the French were not giving up without a fight and made a huge comeback up the final beat, stealing the lead from the men in black and crossing on starboard forcing SWE73 to dip behind.

Victory Challenge tried in vain to luff the French up before the mark, but their unsuccessful attempts saw Le Defi round the final mark ahead.

The mental frustration on board Victory was then compounded when their spinnaker got a twist, which didn't unravel for a good couple of minutes into the final downwind run.

So Victory Challenge will face Le Defi again on Sunday, as to will Team Dennis Conner and GBR Challenge as both pairings have a 3-1 scoreline.

Meanwhile, Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing are through to the semifinals, starting on December 9 and OneWorld and Prada have been knocked down into the quarterfinal repercharge, which begins on November 23.

Source: nzoom