Louis Vuitton Cup - Semi Finals Day 2
by 32nd America’s Cup media 15 May 2007 09:52 PDT
BMW ORACLE Racing earn a comeback win
BMW ORACLE Racing earned one of the great comebacks in the 32nd America's Cup, beating Luna Rossa Challenge after trailing by as much as 58 seconds at the first windward mark. The American team was 14 seconds behind at the beginning of the final run, but made a great pass down the left hand side of the race course, streaking past what appeared to be a slower Italian boat.
In the other pairing, Emirates Team New Zealand won the start off Desafío Español 2007 and extended away on the first upwind leg. The Spanish slowly gained the rest of the way, but never really threatened the comfortable Kiwi lead.
There were ideal sea breeze conditions on the waters off Valencia on Tuesday, with Easterly winds from 10 to 14 knots. A large spectator fleet enjoyed the action on a sunny afternoon.
Match 1 - Emirates Team New Zealand beat Desafío Español 2007 - DELTA 0:40
Emirates Team New Zealand enjoyed a pleasantly uncomplicated match against Desafío Español, with Dean Barker winning the start and taking a few early windshifts to steer NZL 92 to an early lead. By the first mark, the Kiwis were already leading by 1 minute 15 seconds. That would be the biggest delta of the match as the Spanish were fast downwind, making ground on both offwind legs to reduce the gap to 40 seconds by the finish. But never for a moment did the New Zealanders look seriously threatened, and now they are 2-0 up in the series.
Match 2 - BMW ORACLE Racing beat Luna Rossa Challenge - DELTA 0:13
James Spithill took the fight to Chris Dickson in the pre-start and made it pay, taking Luna Rossa to an early lead off the starting line. Unlike yesterday's match between these two, which was notable for big splits up the windward legs, Luna Rossa's tactician Torben Grael kept a tighter game in the steadier, moderate onshore breezes for today's racing.
At the first mark the Italian lead was a surprisingly large 58 seconds, but Dickson switched on the pace downwind, with USA 98 storming up behind ITA 94. By the leeward mark the gap was down to 20 seconds, with the Italians rounding the gate and heading off to the right and the Americans taking the left.
Up the next windward leg the match was very tight early, with Spithill only just hanging on to the lead. But then both teams were happy to diverge on opposite tacks, until at one point they were more than 1500 metres apart across the course. However when they came back together at the top of the course, there was nothing to choose between these two, and Dickson was so close that he was able to initiate a luffing match close to the top mark.
Spithill and his crew kept their nerve to tack around the mark first, just 14 seconds ahead of Dickson, but the American hoist was much smoother and USA 98 was poised to pounce. Grael decided to defend the right-hand side of the course, but it was the last weapon in his armoury as USA 98 again showed superior downwind speed to sail around and through the Italians' cover to sneak across the finish line ahead, completing a stunning and crucial turnaround for BMW ORACLE Racing.
Louis Vuitton Cup - Monday's Semi Final matches:
(the first team to win five points in each pairing advances)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
|---|
| Emirates Team New Zealand | 1 | 1 | | | | | | | | 2 |
| Desafío Español 2007 | 0 | 0 | | | | | | | | 0 |
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total |
|---|
| BMW ORACLE Racing | 0 | 1 | | | | | | | | 1 |
| Luna Rossa Challenge | 1 | 0 | | | | | | | | 1 |
Update from BMW Oracle Racing:
BMW ORACLE Racing goes 1-1 in semi-final
USA 98 stages dramatic win against Luna Rossa Challenge
BMW ORACLE Racing staged a dramatic come-from-behind win against Luna Rossa Challenge in Valencia today to square the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final at 1-1.
In an extraordinary show of determination, tactical racing and boatspeed, USA 98 turned a 58 second deficit at the first windward mark into a 13 second lead at the finish, moving into the lead with downwind pace on the final run to the line. It was an enthralling match, which left the adrenalin pumping in the spectator seats and had the BMW ORACLE Racing crew elated at the end.
“The guys did an absolutely fantastic job,“ said BMW ORACLE Racing owner, Larry Ellison. “Chris Dickson and the boys did an incredible job of getting us into the lead and then defending when Luna Rossa was right on our wind. It was amazing to watch.“
Race summary: The Italian team got away ahead at the start and, after USA 98 put in a couple of downspeed tacks to clear their wind, the Luna Rossa yacht jumped away to an early lead. Racing in a south-easterly seabreeze of 12-14 knots, Luna Rossa Challenge led around the first mark by 58 seconds. On the first downwind run, Chris Dickson and the USA 98 afterguard played the subtle shifts in pressure and direction to make huge gains. Coming into the leeward gate, the two yachts split, with Luna Rossa Challenge opting for the right hand side (looking upwind) and USA 98 charging in for a fast rounding of the left hand end, just 20 seconds behind.
Up the second windward leg, the two crews split laterally across the course. By the time the two yachts were approaching the windward mark, Luna Rossa Challenge came in hard from the right on starboard tack. USA 98 ducked behind their transom on port and then, as the Italian team tacked to cover, BMW ORACLE Racing drove up hard underneath. The two yachts luffed head to wind before Luna Rossa broke away to lead around the second windward mark by 14 seconds.
Once again, USA 98 attacked downwind and, after initiating a gybing duel from behind, moved into the lead. Luna Rossa worked onto the windward hip of USA 98 and tried to blanket its breeze as the two yachts charged down towards the finish. The USA 98 crew defended vigorously, working to free their air and finally pushed out into a clear lead to cross the line 13 seconds ahead of the Italian team.
Quotes from BMW ORACLE Racing owner, Larry Ellison: “On the first windward leg, we never felt we were out of it. We think we are pretty quick and felt we could work our way back into the race. We certainly never gave up. At one stage we were 12-13 boatlengths behind, but it was a day of big oscillations in the wind and we played the shifts all the way.
“We had great crew work all the way around the track. Chris Dickson did an awesome job on the helm and the trimmers did an awesome job. Coming down the final run, Luna Rossa Challenge gybed right onto our wind. Chris Dickson did an amazing job of wriggling out of it, soaking down when he had to and driving up when he had to. I am just in awe of what the guys did. With the series squared at 1-1, right now I feel great about tomorrow.“
In the other semi-final, Emirates Team New Zealand went 2-0 up against Desafio Espanol.
Update from Luna Rossa:
The Americans even the score
At the 5 minute signal on the race course sunny skies and 9-12 knots of wind from the east south east. At 3.05 p.m. Luna Rossa enters the pre-start box from port and BMW Oracle from starboard: both meet in a dial-up and then fall off on opposite tacks. Chris Dickson, helming USA 98 tries to hook ITA 94 who instead sails away and succeeds in controlling her opponent, slowing down the Americans. Spithill crosses the start line with an advantage of over a boat length while USA 98 tacks several times in an attempt to shake off Luna Rossa’s close cover. The afterguard on board the Yacht Club Italiano’s boat elects to defend the right hand side of the course and half way up the beat Luna Rossa has an advantage of over 200 meters. BMW Oracle rounds mark 1 with a 58 second delay. On the first run after a series of crosses in the center of the course USA 98 makes up some of the distance and rounds the leeward gate twenty seconds after ITA94. Once again the Italians choose to sail on the right and USA 98 continues to soak up Luna Rossa’s margin. Close to the end of the beat Spithill squeezes his opponents to wind and sails away faster. Luna Rossa has a 14 second advantage at mark 3. After a couple of gybes to cover USA 98, ITA 94 heads off towards the left hand side of the course, separating. Halfway down the final leg the Americans pull in the lead and win the race. Luna Rossa crosses the finishing line 13 seconds later.
Michele Ivaldi, navigator on Luna Rossa, at the end of the race said: “We had a great first beat. We sailed a bit off phase on the first run and burned away the lead we had. We then had a good opportunity at the second top mark. The shift gave BMW Oracle a real good advantage and they soaked up the margin. The dial–up at the end of the beat is a classic situation which can occur at the top mark. We, as other teams, have been practicing this scenario and decided to perform a ‘slam dunk’ (tacking on your opponents’ wind to stall their sails) One must know how to attack and how to defend in these cases.”
Update from Desafío Español 2007:
Desafío Español 2007 lost today in the second day of semifinals
In the pre-start the Spaniards opted to leave on the right side, closely marking the New Zealand boat which managed to depart in front of Spain at the last moment. The Spanish boat left on the preferred side but more slowly and at the beginning of the upwind leg the New Zealanders were a length ahead. Soon the Spanish boat turned to the right, a manoeuvre which was responded to by the New Zealanders, who had a greater pressure of wind and had already stretched their lead to two lengths.
Halfway down the leg the Spanish team turned to the left, the Kiwis continuing down the opposite side and after another crossing, the lead held by the New Zealanders had increased to four lengths. The Spaniards tried to recover, turning towards the centre, but the New Zealanders were faster and as they reached the top marker the Kiwis were ahead by 1:15 minutes.
In the first downwind beat Desafio Español 2007 tried to find a stronger wind on the left side and halfway down the leg they turned their sails towards the right and managed to win back eleven seconds before passing the leeward gate. However, the team had a problem as they lowered the spinnaker and lost vital seconds. The Spanish team began the second upwind leg trying to shorten the distance between them and their opponent, who never stopped marking the Spaniards. But the New Zealand boat reached the top marker with an additional four seconds advantage in comparison to the previous leg.
However, it was on the last downwind leg when Desafio Español 2007 achieved a greater recovery with a stronger wind behind them than their opponent and with some skilfull manoeuvres they managed to shorten their rival's advantage by nearly half a minute. Finally, Desafio Español 2007 crossed the finishing line 40 seconds behind the New Zealand team.
Desafío Español 2007 had HRH Prince Felipe as the crew member number 18 today. Yesterday HM the King Juan Carlos accompanied the Spanish crew in their first semifinal regatta, and today Prince Felipe also wanted to show his support for the team.
This is the third occasion that Prince Felipe has visited the Spanish syndicate. In May 2006 he sailed with the Spanish crew as team member 18 on board ESP-88, and on 15 April of this year he also visited the Spanish team, although on that occasion the lack of wind caused the postponement of the training session planned for that day.
Tomorrow Desafio Español 2007 will again face the Emirates Team New Zealand at three in the afternoon on the northern regatta course.
Comments:
Pablo Rosano, pitman: "We are focused and motivated to defeat them. Every day we go out on the water thinking that we are going
John Cutler, tactician: "In the pre-start we wanted the right side because we thought that there would be more wind and a change of wind direction, but when the wind got up we were already on the left side of the New Zealanders.
We have to continue to work well, concentrating more on the departures and on the first wind changes. We have the potential to do things well and being in front we know that we can defeat them."