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 LOUIS VUITTON TROPHY REGATTA : AUCKLAND

 

 

 

A WIN AND EXTRA POINT FOR TEAMORIGIN CLOSES UP THE SCOREBOARD

 

 

 

FOUR TEAMS NOW TIED ON 3 POINTS EACH WILL LEAD TO A THRILLING LAST TWO DAYS FOR THE ROUND ROBIN

 

 

LOUIS VUITTON TROPHY AUCKLAND REGATTA

SUNDAY 14TH MARCH

 

TEAMORIGIN won their race today against the Russian Synergy team in an exciting race that was close until the Russians experienced a spinnaker drop problem leaving Ben Ainslie and the British team to take a comfortable win.

 

In the other races today, the all-French derby between ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) and Aleph (FRA) led to a win for ALL4ONE giving them a solid 3 wins and 2 losses so far. An exciting race between Emirates Team New Zealand and Azzurra, currently the top ranked teams on the leaderboard and the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice finalists saw the Kiwis prevail despite them breaking a spinnaker pole during the race and managing to keep the lead and win by 42 seconds. In the final race of the day, the race between Artemis and Mascalzone Latino provided thrilling excitement to the end, the Swedes incurred a penalty and waited right until the finish line to do their turn, allowing Mascalzone to take an important race win.

 

Start gun for the third race for TEAMORIGIN was fired at 1315 with 16-18 knots reported on the race course. As the two teams approached the line, Synergy came in from behind at pace and tried to put pressure the British team, they both split tacks just off the line with TEAMORIGIN taking a small jump and heading out to the favoured right hand side. Synergy kept pace well as they headed out to the left.

 

The course area today had placed the Bean Rock lighthouse right in middle of the course with a ‘restricted zone’ around that area. This lead to Synergy having to tack across to avoid the restricted area. At the first cross with TEAMORIGIN on starboard, it was pretty close but TEAMORIGIN had a narrow lead and was holding most of the cards as they tacked back to their right side. Synergy was then not able to tack away because of the ‘no-go’ zone of Bean Rock. This manoeuvre further benefitted the British team as they managed to box out the Russians. Both boats tacked onto the layline with Synergy managing initially to hold on to the weather hip of TEAMRIGIN but they were eventually squeezed out by bad air from TEAMORIGIN. At first windward mark, TEAMORIGIN headed round first with 12 seconds lead.

 

Both teams executed bear away hoists but there was a small twist on the gennaker of Synergy. The two teams did a simultaneous gybe and Synergy was trying hard to cast some wind shadow on TEAMORIGIN as they headed downwind. The breeze was up to 15/16 knots but quite flukey so pretty hard conditions to read. TEAMORIGIN sailed smartly to extend to a three length lead, keeping clear ahead but covering their opponent. At the bottom mark Synergy executed a pour drop being set up for the wrong mark and could not get their kite down. The Russians  had to sail past the mark before they sorted themselves out and by then TEAMORIGIN’s lead was 48 seconds.

 

Up the second beat, TEAMORIGIN kept their cool and sailed smartly and safely, the audio onboard enabling the spectators to hear the smooth and streamlined communications on the boat and between the crew. By the second windward mark, Ben Ainslie’s lead had extended to 1 min and 7 seconds. The last downwind leg went without incident and TEAMORIGIN took the win by 1 minute and 18 seconds  – now giving them 3 wins and 2 losses on the scoreboard.

 

There are two more races in this Round Robin with TEAMORIGIN still to race Artemis and Mascalzone Latino. ETNZ have an undefeated score line with 5 wins but 4 teams now all have 3 wins and 3 points on the board so there is a close battle on for the second golden ticket spot.

 

Kelvin Harrap, TEAMORIGIN Afterguard Coach, commented after the race, “We got the basics right today, we were in control by the top corner of the first beat, the crew work was smooth and efficient and all went according to plan. Now we need to focus on winning our next two races to finish the round robin in the best possible position.”

 

Race results today:

Race 1: All4One (FRA) beat Aleph (FRA): 1m 6s

Race 2 : ETNZ (NZL) beat Azzurra (ITA): 42s

Race 3: TEAMORIGIN (GBR) beat Synergy (RUS) : 1m 18s

Race 4: Mascalzone Latino (ITA) beat Artemis by 1min 3s

 

Race wins/losses after day 5 of racing:

1^st : ETNZ                    5 wins/0 losses                                  5

2^nd : Azzurra                3 wins/2 losses                                  3

2^nd : TEAMORIGIN   3 wins/2 losses                        3

2^nd : ALL4ONE             3 wins/2 losses                                  3

2^nd : Mascalzone         3 win/2 losses                                    3

6^th : Artemis                2 wins/3 losses                                  2

7^th: Aleph*                  1 wins/4 losses                                  0

7^th: Synergy                0 wins/5 losses                                  0

(*docked 1 point today for collision)

 

Race schedule for tomorrow, Monday 15^th March, is as follows:

Race 1: ETNZ (NZL) vs Aleph (FRA)

Race 2 : TEAMORIGIN vs Artemis (SWE)

Race 3: Mascalzone (ITA) vs Azzurra (ITA)

Race 4: Synergy vs All4One (FRA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 TEAMORIGIN WIN SECOND RACE ON DAY TWO AGAINST All4One by 21 Seconds

TEAMORIGIN’s second race in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta today resulted in a second win, as skipper Ben Ainslie sailed a clean race against Team French Spirit-Pages Jaunes.

 

 

Having not raced since Saturday when TEAMORIGIN opened the Louis Vuitton Trophy with a win against the Russian Synergy team, the British team were eager to get back out and into the competition against their first of two opponents scheduled for Tuesday, Team French Spirt-Pages Jaunes skippered by America’s Cup veteran Bertrand Pacé. On board TEAMORIGIN as 18th man guest was Formula One personality Eddie Jordan, himself no stranger to competition at the highest level.

 

 

Racing started on time today and the British crew were up against a master of match racing and they enjoyed playing the pre-start game in stable mediums winds managing to position themselves to take up the left hand side of the course off the line. The French opponent took the right hand side and a third of the way up the first leg Pacé held a small advantage. 

 

The timing of TEAMORIGIN’s return across the course to attack the opponent was masterful. Knowing that they were at a slight disadvantage on the left tactician Iain Percy called for a tack to cross the course and engage the other boat. Some tight lee bow tacks close to the French boat in the final part of the first weather leg showed who was tacking fastest and the British boat pulled into a position to round the first mark with a two boat length advantage. From then on the British team pulled ahead and managed to stay in control of what was ultimately a close race, crossing the finish line with a 30 second advantage.

 

 

Team Director Mike Sanderson commented shortly after finishing: “The nice thing about today was that we had 12/13 knots of breeze on the race course, the most we have seen since we have been in Nice. We have had relatively little practise in those conditions - and so every minute on the boat is really valuable to us. We had an even start, went to the left and they [TFS-Pages Jaune] went right and got slightly ahead half way up the first beat. But we played the shifts well towards the end of first beat and got ahead and then stayed in control to the finish".

 

 

 

Eddie Jordan, no newcomer to sailing, really enjoyed the race, “That was really impressive and a smooth sail.”

 

The team now has a long wait through the day until their scheduled second race against the other Franco-German team ALL4ONE, skippered by two time America’s Cup winner Jochen Schueman, who also won its first match this morning against Sweden’s Artemis.

NO Racing for TEAMORIGIN, Monday 09th Nov 2009

No Racing for TEAMORIGIN, Sunday 08 Nov 2009

 

Just two races were completed today, Sunday 8th November, on Day Two of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta. Emirates Team New Zealand and Artemis took victory in their respective races against ALL4ONE and Team French Spirit-Pages Jaunes. The third race of the day, between Synergy and BMW ORACLE Racing, and the fourth between TEAMORIGIN and the Italian Azzurra team, were not sailed due to lack of wind. The forecast for Monday is for winds of between 15 and 20 knots from the North East which should yield good sailing conditions with flat water.

 

From Monday the second pair of ACC boats (ITA - 90 & 99) will be available again and the pace of racing should accelerate significantly with possibly as many as eight matches being raced.

 

The Race Committee has published the pairings schedule for Monday.

 

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice

Round Robin One – Schedule of Racing for 9th November

 

Flight 1

Match 1                  Azzurra (75)                                       vs             BMW ORACLE Racing (93)

Match 2                  Emirates Team New Zealand (99)     vs             Synergy                   (90)

Flight 3

Match 1                  TFS - Pages Jaunes (75)                    vs            TEAMORIGIN  (93)

Match 2                  ALL4ONE                   (99)                   vs            Artemis (90)

Flight 4

Match 1                  BMW ORACLE Racing (75)                vs            ALL4ONE (93)

Match 2                  Artemis (99)                                          vs            Azzurra (90)

Flight 5

Match 1                  Artemis (75)                                          vs             Emirates Team New Zealand (93)

Match 2                  BMW ORACLE Racing (99)                 vs            TFS - Pages Jaunes (90)

 

TEAMORIGIN has just one match on Monday against the French TFS - Pages Jaunes. TEAMORIGIN's race will be in the second flight of the day which means it should start at about 11:00 CET. You can follow it online with the Virtual Eye hybrid video tracking with expert commentary by clicking here:

 

http://publish.vx.roo.com/wwwsailtv/lvtrophy/?vxTemplate=sailtv-900-lvtrophy.swf

 FIRST BLOOD TO TEAMORIGIN 07 Nov 2009

First blood to Britain’s TEAMORIGIN in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta today. Skipper Ben Ainslie forced a penalty on the Russian team in the pre-start which proved to be the key moment of the race giving them an advantage that converted to a 59 second lead at the finish.

 

The British crew managed to position their assigned boat FRA-93 well in the final part of the pre-start phase, hussling the opposition team towards the line early and managing to catch the Russian boat, led by Karol Jablonski, in a compromised position to which they failed to respond correctly. Tactician Iain Percy explains:

“With a minute to go to the start gun Ben caught the Russian boat a little downspeed in the final approach to the line and he managed to hook them to leeward. They were then lazy about keeping clear and the umpires flagged them correctly with a Red Flag penalty.”

Knowing that the Synergy team had to complete a penalty turn straight away after crossing the start line was hugely beneficial to the British team. The importance of the move and the early advantage allowed TEAMORIGIN to dictate the path it took around the track to get the best winds and extend to a lead of more than three minutes at one point.

With wind conditions light and blowing from the city out to the race course and Nice’s Baie des Anges being a stretch of water that few people have raced extensively on before, local knowledge is thin on the ground. Iain Percy explained that: 

“...on a day like today it is important to be in front with the shifty breeze so that you can pick where you want to go on the race course and not be dictated to by the other boat.”

 

To make sure that no patches of wind went un-noticed strategist Rob Greenhalgh spent most of the race up the mast watching the puffs come down the course. 

“A light and shifty morning, we knew the wind was going to go left generally so we kept that in mind all the time. The wind went very light and fickle towards the end of the second run allowing the Russians to close the gap marginally but we were always in a strong leading position.”

Skipper Ben Ainslie was satisfied with his team’s ability to spot the right way to go today but warns that there are many potential traps to fall into over the next two weeks of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta.

“With the conditions being really hard it is always going to be about keeping the boat moving fast and staying the right side of the breeze. Our team did a really good job of keeping it moving as fast as possible and the afterguard kept us in phase today. It is a nice way to start, but it is obvious this is going to be a really difficult event to be consistent in.”

Team Director Mike Sanderson summarised TEAMORIGIN’s opening day as:

“Great fun. Great fun to get racing today and be the first match of the regatta. We had an exciting start. The boat we used, FRA-93, felt great and we did not feel vulnerable at any stage in the race. The shore team have done an awesome job in equalising these boats speed-wise and mechanically. This is a good start for TEAMORIGIN.”

 

 

Results Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice Cote d’Azur
Results of Day 1, Round Robin One

TEAMORIGIN (GBR) beat Synergy (RUS) by 59 seconds
Emirates Team New Zealand beat Team French Spirit-Pages Jaune (FRA) by 1’36”AS ALINGHI, the America’s Cup defenders, and Team Origin, the British challenger, battled it out in the final of the iShares Cup on the windless waters of an Amsterdam dock yesterday, new hope emerged of a peaceful solution to the legal war that has dogged the America’s Cup for the past year.

Ernesto Bertarelli, the founder of Alinghi, has held a series of private meetings with the major challenging syndicates, including Larry Ellison of BMW-Oracle and Sir Keith Mills, owner of the British-based Team Origin, to establish a binding format for future editions of the America’s Cup.

Until recently, after a series of legal rulings in the US Supreme Court, it seemed certain that the next Cup would be a match between Alinghi and Oracle alone, but the latest edict from the courts, which found in favour of Alinghi, and a belated outbreak of common sense, has produced a marked softening of attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic.

“We’ve wasted time and money and we’re back at square one,” said Bertarelli. “Larry and I might be a lot closer than the media and some people think. Our strategy has failed, everyone has realised that this is not constructive and we now have an opportunity to build something really successful for the future of the America’s Cup.”

If this is not just brave talk, the new schedule would involve a series of Acts between the challengers and possibly Alinghi in the old America’s Cup boat next season and a newly designed AC boat for 2010, followed by a full America’s Cup series in the early summer of 2011. The role of Keith Mills and Britain’s Team Origin has been critical to the potential compromise. If successful, the new initiative would be timed perfectly for Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy, Britain’s triple and double Olympic gold medallists, who were both on the dockside in Amsterdam yesterday outlining their plans for the next four years.

Ainslie only recently revealed that he was battling ill-health as well as the rest of the fleet in winning his third successive gold medal in Beijing. Three days before the start of the Olympics, Ainslie contracted mumps. “I looked like Elephant Man,” he said. “But I tried to keep it quiet. It was a story I didn’t need.”

Since being hit by glandular fever in 2004, Ainslie has had to manage his health carefully, but he is committed to winning a fourth Olympic gold in home waters in 2012. “I have to make sure that I take time away from it all sometimes, which is hard,” he explained. “I’m certainly aiming to be at the Olympics again in 2012, but it won’t be easy. The biggest thing is fitness. I’ll be 35 by then and you’ve got to be superfit when you get back into the boat.”

The GB sailing team will hold a planning meeting this week to set out the agenda for the next Olympiad, after which Percy and Ainslie fly to Bermuda to rehone the match-racing skills that will be needed for the next America’s Cup, whatever the date.

If logic prevails – and reason is not an obvious feature of America’s Cup history – Ainslie will be back at the helm of an AC boat next summer, with Percy as his tactician, and Team Origin, who were ready to go a year ago under the leadership of Mike Sanderson, will be back in business. An America’s Cup in 2011 will leave Percy and Ainslie with 14 months to prepare for the Olympics.

“I’m a big believer in being able to go away and do other things,” says Percy, who helmed the Italian +39 syndicate in Valencia at the last America’s Cup. “You can get stale if you have to commit to staying in small boats for four more years. Ben and I have done that and we’ve proved that we can do the America’s Cup and win a gold, though, in my case, it was close, I admit.

“Touch wood, we can get back on track with the America’s Cup now. The great thing with Team Origin is that we’ve stuck together over the past year, though nothing much has been going on. We’ve got a lot of work to do to beat Alinghi at match-racing, we know that, but we’ve got brilliant, talented people in the team and, almost more important, we’re all good mates.”

In the absence of the America’s Cup, Alinghi and Team Origin have been engaged in a season-long duel for the iShares Cup, a pan-European series raced in Extreme 40s, high-powered catamarans capable of speeds of up to 40 knots. Races are short and sharp, even in the limited breeze of a beautiful Dutch autumn afternoon, but in only its second full season, the iShares Cup has attracted enough interest from sponsors, sailors and spectators to encourage realistic thoughts of further expansion into the Middle East and Asia in the next two years.

“We’re trying to find the balance between sporting credibility, which is important for the sailors, and putting on a show,” says Mark Turner, CEO of OC Events, the organisers of the series. “We’re trying to be different and radical, but we need to keep this tight and compact, maybe 10 boats and 10 strong brands, and we need the best guys to be racing these boats.”

The presence of Alinghi, Team Origin and, in Cowes, a guest appearance from two Oracle boats has brought the iShares Cup real credibility, a sort of mini-America’s Cup, within the world of sailing and with potential sponsors. By the end of the second day of racing yesterday , Alinghi had increased their lead in the overall series, with TO, skippered by Rob Greenhalgh, slipping away in the light winds. At least, for once, the competition was on the water, not in the courts.

 

TEAMORIGIN: OVERVIEW It's been two months since our last newsletter and we are well into our “summer” sailing season. Extreme 40 events have provided more action that we might have expected and TEAMORIGIN still heads the leaderboard after three events, Speedboat is building up to a transatlantic record attempt and all eyes have been on Ben Ainslie, TEAMORIGIN Skipper and Helmsman, competing in the Finn class in the Beijing Olympic Games and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson competing in the Star class – both winning gold medals – an incredible result for Ben, Iain and Bart, for TEAMORIGIN and for British sailing!   BEN AINSLIE TAKES GOLD FOR GREAT BRITAIN It was an historic day (Sunday 17 Aug) for Great Britain’s sailors as Ben Ainslie sealed Finn class gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Regatta in Qingdao. Five-time Finn World Champion Ainslie, who is also Skipper and Helmsman of TEAMORIGIN, successfully defended the title he won at Athens 2004 to become Britain’s most decorated Olympic sailor of all time, surpassing Rodney Pattison’s previous record of two golds and one silver, a feat Ainslie had matched thanks to his Laser silver (Atlanta 1996), Laser gold (Sydney 2000) and Finn gold (Athens 2004). Ben’s medal race had been rolled over to Sunday after light winds put paid to any chance of deciding the silverware on the intended Saturday, but in often monsoon conditions on the Yellow Sea Ainslie retained his crown in emphatic style romping to a race win to seal gold. Victory in Qingdao has seen Ainslie match Germany’s Jochen Schumann and Russian Valentin Mankin’s three golds, one silver Olympic sailing haul leaving only Dane Paul Elvstrøm, winner of four consecutive golds between 1948 and 1960, with more Olympic sailing gold. Brazilian legend Torben Grael has won five Olympic sailing medals – two gold, one silver and two bronze. Ainslie said: “It felt like it would never come but there was great breeze and to win the race as well, I am a happy man. Conditions have been really tough, the light winds have been a real strength of will but today was a complete turnaround. I approached the race a bit differently to yesterday, as because the breeze was so light yesterday I couldn’t let Zach get away from me but today I was confident that with my boat speed and fitness I could get away and it all came good.  “You take each Games as it comes. Each one has been tough and we’ll see what happens in the future but I’ve enjoyed every minute of my Olympic sailing career, I’ve been very lucky. The draw of 2012 and racing on your home waters is huge. It's a long way away but if I've got a chance to be there and do well, I'd love to do it." Rod Carr, RYA Chief Executive added his congratulations: “For me, Ben’s gold medal proves that he is the greatest dinghy sailor in the world at the moment. His record is only bettered by Paul Elvstrom. In many ways Paul and Ben are similar characters; slightly shy and retiring onshore but supremely determined and talented in a boat. His attitude and talent are an inspiration to thousands of young Brits who aspire to follow in his wake.”   (Photographs: Rick Tomlinson / James Taylor)   percy and simpson make it a hat trick Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson at the Beijing Olympics 2008. (Photographs: Richard Langdon /www.oceanimages.co.uk ) As we write this newsletter TEAMORIGIN's other representatives in the Beijing Olympics, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson have struck Gold in the Star class, making it a golden end for Team GB at Beijing 2008. Percy and Simpson’s gold is Britain’s sixth sailing medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which surpasses the Brits’ medal total at the past two Games in Athens and Sydney, where Britain won five medals apiece. Iain and Bart’s Star race boat was designed and developed by Juan K, TEAMORIGIN’s Principal designer. It also means for the third successive Olympics, Britain finishes the regatta as the world’s top performing sailing nation, and leaves Britain’s sailors with their best Olympic medal haul for 100 years.   extreme 40: hyeres and cowes events completed: teamorigin still in the lead     Three of the five events have now been completed in the iShares Cup Extreme 40 sailing series and TEAMORIGIN hold the lead by a narrow 1 point margin. The series has extremely close racing, with Alinghi hot on the heels of Rob Greenhalgh and his team and BMW Oracle Racing joining the line up in Cowes where we finally saw some America’s Cup teams racing against each other!   At the Hyeres event, fresh and pretty much perfect conditions greeted the teams and the full quota of races were carried out. TEAMORIGIN managed a spectacular capsize on the first day and so had to work hard to get back to 2nd place for this event. Alinghi took its first event win after finishing 5 th in Lugano. Skandia Cowes Week is the world’s biggest sailing event and the Extreme 40’s added drama and action with their 3 days of racing. The wind was hardly ever less than 25 knots and most teams (except Alinghi) managed a capsize and our TEAMORIGIN boys did a fantastic job of recovering back to take 2nd place overall but really pushing the Alinghi team to the limit. Looking ahead to the next two events, Rob Greenhalgh commented “ The 2008 Extreme 40 circuit has so far lived up to expectations. Competition has been significantly higher than last year. 2008 has seen us finish 2 nd at each event – a good consistent result. We have however made some errors, capsizing at the last 2 events. We are currently holding a 1pt lead over Alinghi for the series. Kiel is going to be critical to the final standings. We are going with the aim of winning the event to help secure our overall series standing.” (Photographs: Ian Roman )   speedboat completes its first event and prepares for transatlantic Speedboat, the Juan K designed 100 ft super maxi yacht competed its first event back in June taking line honours in the Newport to Bermuda race. There were 12 of TEAMORIGIN sailors onboard, led by Skipper Mike Sanderson. The team have been planning a transatlantic attempt for some months now and are holding an optional window of the months of September and October to take it on should the right weather pattern present itself. Mike is also working with yacht owner, Alex Jackson, to put together the ongoing programme for the boat and TEAMORIGIN sailors – more news to follow on this soon….. (Photograph: Cory Silken for SailingScuttlebut.com)       charles dunstone's tp52 competes in cork and cowes weeks Charles Dunstone, investor and partner in TEAMORIGIN, continued campaigning his TP52 ‘Rio’ in TEAMORIGIN colours, competing in both Cork and Skandia Cowes Weeks. Charles sails with a number of the TEAMORIGIN squad sailors onboard including James Stagg, Ian Weighell, Matt Cornwell and David Carr. Rio finished 2 nd in its class at Skandia Cowes Week gaining two significant race wins during the week. (Photograph: On Edition)   coming up during the next few months... End August : Ben Ainslie, Iain percy and Andrew Simpson return home to the UK after the Olympic Games, next newsletter will feature interviews with them and will outline plans for their next sailing activities Aug 29 th to 31 st : iShares Cup Extreme 40 event, Kiel, Germany Sept 19 th to 21 st : Final iShares Cup Extreme 40 event in Amsterdam, Holland with Ben Ainslie attending Speedboat transatlantic attempt and ongoing programme to be announced shortly Follow TEAMORIGIN activities on www.teamorigin.com TEAMORIGIN SUPPORTED BY...

 

 

TEAMORIGIN FALLS TO AZZURRA IN FIRST MEETING OF SEMI FINALS

 

Thursday 19th November 2009 - Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice-Côte d’Azur

   

 

TEAMORIGIN fell to its opponent the Italian Azzurra team in the first match of the best of three semi finals of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice today.

 

Skipper Ben Ainslie took TEAMORIGIN in from the left hand end of the start line and engaged with the Italian team straight away in a dial-up that took the pair over the line for the next couple of minutes. The low wind speeds meant that the ability to get into a controlling position from the initial left hand entry was tricky and in the final approach to the start line the TEAMORIGIN afterguard opted for a position close to leeward of the Italian team with maximum speed expecting to be in a position to be able to attack further up the course. But approaching the line the pair, both a bit late, split with the Italians on the right.

 

The first beat saw TEAMORIGIN chase the Italians to the starboard tack layline which TEAMORIGIN’s navigator Ian Moore found more accurately than the Italians, who overstood by a couple of lengths.

 

Without having crossed, the pair sailed all the way to the top of the course, TEAMORIGIN to leeward moving forwards and eventually being in a position to attack. The Italian team had overstood the weather mark allowing the pair’s tracks to converge as they approached the two boatlength circle around the first mark. The rules say that if the outside boat crosses the imaginary two-boatlength circle clear ahead of the inside boat then they are not obliged to give them space to round inside. TEAMORIGIN crossed the two boatlength circle and luffed to close the door but had not broken the overlap in the eyes of the on-the-water umpires and the Italians were therefore permitted to sneak through the gap between TEAMORIGIN and the buoy to round the first mark with an advantage of just eight seconds.

 

That advantage grew at every mark turn in spite of the British team’s every effort. The failing winds made it more and more of a one-sided course and increasingly difficult to stay close to the leader and get into a position to attack for the lead.

 

  

 Team Director and runner-man on board Mike Sanderson     summarised the day’s racing thus: “That was a disappointing way to start the semi finals for sure. We had a bit of miscommunication on board before the start which meant that we ended up late to the line. But the boys did a great job to get back into it by the top mark and at that point we unfortunately had a difference of opinion to the umpires as to when we entered the two boatlength circle. We felt we were safely clear ahead when we entered the circle but that was not to be their decision and so we trailed into the first mark. Azzurra did a lovely job thereafter of protecting their lead to take the win. At the end of the day, to win the semis, one team still has to win two races - we just used our

 

 

AN IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY IN CHALLENGING CONDITIONS

LOUIS VUITTON TROPHY AUCKLAND : DAY 3 : Wed 10th March

TEAMORIGIN showed strong form this morning with a stylish victory over the French/German All4One team. The British team won the start and went on to use the shifts and extend their lead to win by an impressive 1 minute and 33 seconds.

In the other races so far today, ETNZ took a win over Mascalzone Latino after the Italians suffered gear failure; In race 3 Azzurra beat Synergy and Artemis beat Aleph in race 4.

A short delay to today’s racing allowed the wind to settle in from the South West and be blowing at 7 knots at the time of the first start. The first warning signal was fired at 1245 lining up TEAMORIGIN with All4One. A still building breeze and an incoming tide made for challenging conditions, where neither the wind nor the tidal choice was clear. From a spectator’s point of view however it was perfect as the course was laid within the confines of the Waitemata Harbour and Auckland City’s waterfront, race fans on the Okahu Bay waterfront to the South and the Devonport waterfront to the North listening to the FM radio commentary had front row seats.

TEAMORIGIN skipper Ben Ainslie controlled the start beautifully leading All4One into the start box, judging perfectly the return and final approach to the start line to win the right hand side of the course in spite of the Franco/German team’s posturing in the final countdown. The right side of the course proved to be strongly favoured with a stronger tide in the deeper water, something that then put the British boat in a position to benefit first from the wind oscillations before its opponent could get to them. The pair were split for most of the first beat converging only twice before TEAMORIGIN rounded the first mark with a healthy 26 second lead.

At the first mark, All4one did a gybe set to get to shallower water and less adverse tide and TEAMORIGIN quickly gybed to cover. The pair worked hard on the downwind leg with the trailing boat attempting to cast some wind shadow on TEAMORIGIN, initially making some inroads but with both teams very polished with their manoeuvres downwind, it was all about not making any small mistakes. At the approach to the gate ALL4ONE may have gybed a little late allowing the leading boat to gain some more ground to start the second lap with a lead of 24 seconds – all still very close.

Up the second beat however, TEAMORIGIN kept to the right side and played the shifts with precision. At the first cross TEAMORIGIN was ahead by 80m and seemed to be totally in phase, extending in the building breeze and shifty conditions. At the approach to the second windward mark, TEAMORIGIN tactician Iain Percy, talked of right hand windshifts for the last downwind leg. The British team made impressive gains down the final leg building the lead to almost 320m (13 boat lengths) and took the race by more than 90 seconds, the biggest winning margin of the regatta so far.

Iain Percy, TEAMORIGIN tactician, was talking about a big right hand windshift for the last downwind leg, the two teams headed down to the finish. TEAMORIGIN made impressive gains down the final leg building the lead to almost 320m (13 boat lengths) and they took the win by 1 minute and 33 seconds – an impressive final leg to say the least.

Iain Percy, TEAMORIGIN Tactician, commented after the race, “We had a great start, Ben and the boys gave us a nice advantage off the line and picked the right side of the first beat. Despite being in the lead throughout the race, it was a scary one as we were seeing 30-40 degree wind