21.06.2005
Regatta ends well for Emirates Team New Zealand
A good end to the first Valencia regatta today with a 17-second win for Emirates Team New Zealand over fancied BMW Oracle.
The win in the last race - and 10 wins out of 11 starts over the regatta - gives the team second place overall behind Alinghi.
BMW Oracle is third overall and Luna Rossa fourth.
The match today was in many ways a mirror image of yesterday’s disappointing match with Alinghi, but with a result favouring ETNZ.
NZL 82 had a good start, got a good shift off the line and then controlled the race to the end. NZL 82’s lead fluctuated from about two boat lengths to six as BMW Oracle attacked and attacked but could not break through.
Grant Dalton said the team sailed well today: “They did a great job in the pre-start and we exercised control from the start. Once we were clearly in the lead there was no way we were going to let it go. On the second beat they threw tack after tack at us.
“We felt comfortable when we were six boat lengths ahead ahead of them and nervous on the last downwind leg when they closed in to two boat lengths.
“The crew worked really hard to give us this win. . The grinders will be tired big boys tonight. They deserve their day off tomorrow.”
NZL 82 got the start the crew wanted – to the left of the line. The yachts separated and then NZL 82 got into a line of breeze and quickly started opening a gap, slowly at first, metre by precious metre and then as they got a little shift, more rapidly.
NZL 82 tacked to cover USA 76 and went to the right of the course, extending the lead to almost 175 metres before the US yacht started to claw back some distance.
But NZL 82 was able to hold them off and approached the mark with an advantage of about 125 metres which translated into 32 seconds on the stopwatch.
NZL 82 was never troubled on the run covering USA 76 and going through the leeward gate to the left 31 sec ahead.
On the beat the American boat threw everything they had at NZL 82. Tack followed tack as they tried to break through. NZL 82 matched them tack for tack – there were 31 of them-on the 2.2 mile leg – and held on with a comfortable four boat length lead for the leg, rounding 23 seconds ahead.
BMW Oracle closed the gap on the second run but could not catch the Kiwis and NZL 82 was 17 seconds in front as they crossed the line.
The team has a day off tomorrow and indextenance on Thursday before starting the fleet races on Friday.
Final ranking:
1: Alinghi
2: Emirates Team New Zealand
3: BMW Oracle
4: Luna Rossa
5: Victory Challenge
6: Defasio Espanol
7: K Challenge
8: Mascalzone Latino
9: +39
10: United Internet Team Germany
11: China Team
12: Shosholoza
Quotes from today:
Dean Barker:
On today’s race:
It was really good to bounce back like that. It was good that the guys were so confident after yesterday’s loss. They sailed a good, solid race. I could not have asked for more.
I think we sailed better as the regatta progressed after missing a couple of months sailing the big boats as NZL 82 was shipped to Europe and we set up the base here.
We had a comfortable advantage right through the race and we were not forced to make quick decisions.
Tactician Terry Hutchinson
On today’s race:
We did a much better job today…. Dean nailed the start and then we waited for the puff. We were in no real hurry. Once we crossed to the right we knew we were going to win.
It was no different than the race yesterday against Alinghi, but with a different outcome. We sailed well today and it is good to see the boys bounce back from a loss.
We can expect a few losses in the Louis Vuitton series in 2007 so it will be important to be able to get right back into it
On the regatta outcome:
It’s hard to feel ecstatic about finishing second. But the worst thing we could do right now is beat ourselves up for losing one race.
Syndicate sail numbers:
Emirates Team New Zealand – NZL 82
BMW Oracle – USA 76
Team Alinghi – SUI 75
Luna Rossa – ITA 74
K Challenge – FRA 60
Mascalzone Latino – ITA 77
+39 Challenge – ITA 59
United Internet Team Germany – GER 72
China Team – CHN 69
Victory Challenge SWE 63
Team Shosholoza – RSA 8
Desafio Espanol – ESP 63
Contacts: Warren Douglas Miriam Torres
+34 600 940 652 +34 647 822 265
Warren.douglas@emiratesteamnz.com miriamtb@yahoo.com www.emiratesteamnz.com
|
