 |
 |
News
20.05.2006
Evening News Act 11 Day 2
Alinghi fighting for the top
Wind, waves and an Alinghi win
Alinghi executed a masterful start off the line, to windward of the fleet and at the preferred committee boat end. Ed Baird, at the helm, snatched an early advantage and raced for the left hand side of the course. SUI75, the Defender’s old boat, loving the conditions, 15 knots and a steady sea way, climbed up the pack to lead out to the left. A tousle with BMW ORACLE Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand saw Alinghi tack on top of them and pull away to lead around the top mark by 17 seconds. Creaming downwind, Alinghi raced the centre left hand side, rounded the left hand gate 39 seconds ahead of their closest rival Team Shosholoza and headed out to the right in a shift. Coming into the 2nd windward mark, they approached from the centre, sailed out to the right hand layline and rounded 44 seconds ahead of the fleet, this time with Emirates Team New Zealand chasing. With a clean hoist, they hurtled off downwind to finish 1 minute 19 seconds ahead of the pack.
Fleet Race 4 – a third place
Alinghi crossed the start line at the favoured, committee boat end of the line, just to leeward of BMW ORACLE Racing and ½ a boat length behind, powered up and heading for the right. An early scrap again with Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW ORACLE Racing forced the Swiss boat back into the centre. Fighting their way back up the fleet and over to the right, Alinghi crossed ahead of +39 to climb into 4th place in the approach to the windward mark to round 54 seconds behind the leader Luna Rossa Challenge and second boat around, BMW ORACLE Racing. Hunting down the pack-leaders on the left hand side, Alinghi made the best of a right hand shift to head back into the centre and claw the leaders back. They rounded the right hand mark 1 minute 4 seconds behind and took the right. The Swiss team held their ground and fought Mascalzone Latino Team Capitalia off coming into the right hand layline to round the 2nd windward mark 1 minute 32 seconds behind and in 3rd place. Alinghi sailed the left hand side in dying 9-11 knots of breeze, less than the last race, and came into the finish line from the left with enough pressure to get their bow across and take third place.
INTERVIEW OF THE DAY IS NEW ZEALAND TRIMMER, SIMON DAUBNEY.
What are the differences from a trimmer’s point of view between fleet and match racing? “There’s not much difference in trimming between match racing and fleet racing, except in the pre-start with the backing of the genoa, the coming out, the building and the circling, which has different implications for sail trim. In fleet racing, it’s all about having good speed off the start line, so you really have just got to be concentrated on building your speed and trimming for that.”
Does fleet racing affect your sail choice?
“There is a difference in choosing the sails. Tactically you might chose a different sail if you are very close to a competitor and you think you might be sailing higher modes upwind or lower modes downwind. But, you generally just pick the right sails for the different conditions.”
What do you think of your result today?
“It’s a good result for the team in general that we can make so many crew changes from yesterday and still go out there and have a winning day.”
And a word on tomorrow’s race, the decider for Act 11?
“It is a very important race tomorrow. We have got to make sure we don’t do anything stupid. We don’t need to win it, but we do need to sail smart to keep at the top. The start will be pretty critical.”
