Louis Vuitton Pacific Series at Auckland, New Zealand Day 10
by Keith Taylor 9 Feb 2009 07:40 GMT
30 January - 14 February 2009
Cup Racers are ready for Challenger Sail-off
Racing in the Challenger Sail-off stage of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup takes place on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour tomorrow, following the completion of Gold Fleet competition today.
Two sudden-death races will be sailed to decide which boats will go through to complete the lineup for the challenger quarter finals.
In competition today, Switzerland’s Alinghi won her fourth Gold Fleet race to cement her already-confirmed top seeding and an automatic berth in the challenger final. She won handily against the Italian boat Luna Rossa.
Newcomer Damiani Italia Challenge scored an upset victory over British Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie on TEAMORIGIN after he broke the start line and had to return to restart. The victory guaranteed Damiani a place in the first quarter final on Wednesday
Host team Emirates Team New Zealand sailed in their final race before taking their place as a Louis Vuitton Pacific Series finalist next Saturday but succumbed to their old nemesis Russell Coutts at the wheel of BMW Oracle Racing. Oracle’s win took them to a berth in the other quarter final on Wednesday.
TEAMORIGIN will race tomorrow against France’s seventh-seeded Pataugas K-Challenge to decide the quarter finalist to meet Damiani Italia Challenge. In the other match, Luna Rossa will race against sixth-seeded China Team for the right to race against BMW Oracle Racing in the other quarter final.
The eighth and ninth seeds, Greek Challenge and Team Shosholoza sailed their final match today to determine their final placing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. The newcomer Greek Team, skippered by Kiwi Gavin Brady won, to place ninth overall. The South African Team Shosholoza with Italian match racer Paolo Cian at the helm is tenth overall.
The results table and scoring chart for the regatta can be accessed at Latest Louis Vuitton Results.
The event web site www.louisvuitton-pacificseries.com has content in English French and Italian. Race reports, press reports, features and photographs are being updated daily. The site includes a link to live streaming radio commentary about the racing originating from Auckland’s radio BSport Sailing 103FM.
The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is organised in association with the New Zealand Government, Emirates Team New Zealand, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Auckland City and SKYCITY Entertainment Group.
LVPS starts the countdown to the final (from Warren Douglas, Emirates Team New Zealand)
The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series now enters a new stage - the challengers go into a round of knockout races while Emirates Team New Zealand starts preparing for the final.
Emirates Team New Zealand goes through to the series final which starts on Friday. Alinghi, by winning the second round robin has qualified for the challenger finals which will decide which team goes up against ETNZ. The “knock-out” sail-off will determine Alinghi’s opponent.
Monday was a bad day on the water for Emirates Team New Zealand, finishing round robin 2 of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series with three losses.
Grant Dalton said: “We didn’t start well … but after that we sailed OK. I have absolutely no worry with our crew work. It is great, but we have seen throughout this regatta that a bad start can be the beginning of the end.
“Add into the mix a couple of shifts that go the wrong way and there’s little chance of recovery against opposition that good.”
On today’s 27sec loss to Oracle, skipper Dean Barker said: “We have to stop making the silly little mistakes that have been the story of our second round robin performance.
“The pre-start is all about crucial decisions at critical stages. We had Oracle in a lot of trouble but gave them a chance to break out of it. We could easily have had the left, I chose to make it harder for them and it backfired.
“Then we didn’t get all the shifts we needed and that meant we had no opportunity to find a passing lane.”
Barker is confident the team can turn it around for the final. “We will spend some time de-briefing – examine what’s working and what’s not. Whoever we end up racing in the final will be pretty hot. We’ve got the guys and the ability to turn things around. We’re not happy about making mistakes, but learning from those mistakes will make us stronger for the finals.”
At the post-race press conference BMW Oracle Racing skipper Russell Coutts summed up the series so far: “One of the great things about this regatta is that we have seen that all these teams are competitive. They all can win races.
“I feel that this is a fantastic feature of this event. The racing is so close, so intense, it’s an open event now. Any of the teams still competing could win this event.
“The key to being successful is being consistently good and that’s the challenge for all the teams… and it will be tough to have that consistency in a format like this.”
Dalton’s last word: “Today we were not sharp enough. We have to get back to the old form.”
Pataugas by K-Challenge will race against TEAMORIGIN in the Challenger Sail-Off tomorrow (from Stephanie Nadin, Pataugas by K-Challenge)
The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series' Round Robin 2 was completed today, and «Pataugas by K-Challenge» now knows who its opponent for the Challenger Sail Off tomorrow will be (10/02): the British team, Team Origin, who just lost against Damiani Italia Challenge. The racing schedule of the Challenger Sail Off has been moved to tomorrow instead of the 11 to avoid any risks, as the weather forecast doesn't look good for the initial date. In the other Challenger Sail Off, Luna Rossa will race against China Team.
Stephane Kandler, CEO de K-Challenge: «It could have been France-Italy, but it will be France-England for the Challenger Sail Off. Team Origin did an impressive job so far, and they certainly look like the favorite. But we saw the past week that any team can beat any of the other competitors. Now all the results will come out on a match by match basis, and everything will be possible. We improved regularly since the beginning of the event, and even though it has been difficult, we finally qualified. Clocks have now been reset, and it is up to us to catch our chance. The team spirit is positive within the team, and I trust that tomorrow they will give us the “big” reference match that we miss and that they will achieve our goal.»
Pataugas by K-Challenge´s crew members are now in a preparation and concentration mode for tomorrow´s race, as a win could allow the French team to carry on the competition in the quarter finals, which is a very motivating collective objective given that the team improved a lot since the beginning of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.
The winner of the Challenger Sail Off between Pataugas by K-Challenge and Team Origin will race against Damiani Italia Challenge in the quarter finals.
The winner of the other Challenger Sail Off between Luna Rossa and China Team will race against BMW Oracle Racing in the other quarter final.
Greek Challenge scores 3rd consecutive win over Shosholoza (from Pierre Orphanidis)
It was three out of three for Greek Challenge on Monday and a fantastic end to their participation in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. The America’s Cup newcomers from Greece met the South African team for the third time, and were victorious in the sail-off for 8th challenger spot in this prestigious event.
Similar to the other two races, the prestart was aggressive but again Brady got the upper hand, crossing the line with great style in what was described as one of the most convincing starts of the regatta. The Greeks stretched out a lead in the first beat, at times leaving Shosholoza 120 meters behind. The crew carried out an excellent spinnaker hoist after the mark and soon Brady put a lid on Cian’s ambitions in the run, rounding the leeward gate comfortably ahead.
Trying to play it safe, the Greeks sailed conservatively in the 2nd beat, giving Cian the opportunity to momentarily come back. Shosholoza then tried to get the umpires in the game by forcing a possible port-starboard incident at the second weather mark but didn’t succeed. The Greek boat was on the left layline powering on towards the mark while Shosholoza was slowing down on the right one. The two boats were on collision course but Brady had more than enough space to safely round the buoy ahead of the South African team.
Greek Challenge didn’t give their opponent any breathing space in the last run, making sure they matched them gybe for gybe. A good tactical call on the last stretch allowed the Greek boat to take advantage of a puff of wind on the right side of the course and gain an additional couple of boat lengths, crossing the finish line half a minute ahead of Shosholoza.
The Greek team leaves Auckland on a very positive note. The sailing team was formed a mere month ago, trained only one week in Valencia onboard the K-Challenge boats and then another few days in Auckland, prior to the start of official racing. The goal of sailing competitively has been achieved by the Greek team and the 3 wins are the icing on the cake. The foundations have been laid for more success in the future.
Quotes of the day
Gavin Brady (NZL), helmsman of Greek Challenge: “It’s a pity the event ends here for us. The Greek crew has accomplished a dramatic improvement throughout the last couple of weeks and we are indeed impressed.
I can't sail aggressively without proper boat handling by the crew and everybody did a nice job at the start. We sailed very well, sometimes too conservatively, giving Paolo Cian the opportunity to come back but we kept our lead throughout the race.
Cian tried to put the umpires in the game in the 2nd weather mark but they didn’t have any chance. There was no way we could have gotten into trouble since we were accelerating towards the mark while they were slowing down. In addition, we once again carried out excellent gybes and were able to get a nice puff at the last stretch of 2nd run and gain a couple of boat lengths more.”
Sotiris Buseas (GRE), aft grinder and Greek Challenge CEO: “For Greek Challenge it was the right decision to come to the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. It is the right platform for world-class sailing and on any given day any team had its chance to win. We learned a lot from our Kiwi and South African crew, in fact, we learned a lot from any sailor that raced against us and we deeply thank them for that.
We will now return to Greece and transfer our knowledge and know-how to the rest of the Greek sailing community. This is not the end of our campaign, just the beginning”.