25.06.2005
Day 2 of the fleet racing a repeat of the first
Another day with a good race and a bad race for Emirates Team New Zealand on the second day of fleet racing at Valencia.
A flawless first race of the day saw NZL 82 establish a lead almost from the start. They then controlled the race from the front through four legs right to the finish. The win gave the team 28 points after three races, back at the top pf the Louis Vuitton Act 5 leaderboard with SWE 63 and Alinghi both on 27.
A penalty incurred as NZL 82 rounded a congested first mark in the second race effectively took any chance of repeating the win.
Rounding the mark in third place only 19 seconds off the pace, NZL 82 fell back to 10th on completing the 360 deg turn. While the breeze down the leg was a better 10 – 12 knots, the crew was given few opportunities to dig themselves out of a deep hole.
But slowly NZL 82 started threading its way back through the fleet as the crew worked on a damage limitation strategy to salvage as many points as possible from the race.
By the end of the run NZL82 was 8th and after the second windward beat was 6th, but fleet leader SWE 63 was sailing away with more pressure.
The breeze softened to 7-8 knots as the race progressed further limiting NZL 82’s chances of climbing back into the top three. NZL 82 finished sixth.
This result took NZL 82 from first on the leaderboard to fourth equal on 35 points with BMW Oracle. Sweden leads on 38 points with Alinghi second on 37 and Luna Rossa on 36 is third.
Earlier, NZL 82 took control of the first race of the day. Claiming the pin end of the start line NZL 82 took the left and soon had the bow in front. The lead extended slowly with USA 76 sitting right on NZL 82 and only a few metres behind.
Crew worked to establish control and sailed well to control the race and beat back some determined attacks by BMW Oracle and Alinghi.
Quote from today:
Terry Hutchinson, tactician:
“In the first race Dean a great job on the helm and we were able to get a good lead on BMW Oracle. Once we were in the lead it wasn’t easy to stay there but we were comfortable – more or less. We just had to protect our lead. And that’s what we did.2
On the second race of the day:
We did at the start what we wanted to do, and although we got the left side of the course it wasn’t enough to pull us out of the traffic, so when we went for the lay line We didn’t have enough room so we got the penalty fault on Luna Rossa and Desafio Español.
Dean and I are still building an intuitive sailing relationship and that requires more practice. We work well together and we have two years until 2007.
Race three finishing order:
NZL 82 12 points, SUI 75 11, USA 76 10, FRA 60 9, ITA 77 8, SWE 63 7, ITA 74 6, GER 72 5, ESP 67 4, + 39 3, RSA 83 2, CHN 69 1.
Race four finishing order:
SWE 63 12 points, ITA 74 11, SUI 75 10, USA 76 9, GER 72 8, NZL 82 7, FRA 60 6, ITA 77 5, ESP 63 4, +39 3, RSA 83 2, CHN 69 1.
Rankings after four races:
Victory Challenge 38 points
Alinghi 37
Luna Rossa 36
Emirates Team NZ & BMW Oracle 35
K Challenge 30
Mascalzone Latino 26
United Internet Germany 22
+ 39 Challenge 19
Desafio Espanol 18
Shosholoza 11
China Team 6
Contacts: Warren Douglas Miriam Torres
+34 600 940 652 +34 647 822 265
Warren.douglas@emiratesteamnz.com miriamtb@yahoo.com www.emiratesteamnz.com
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