Americas Cup World Series at Venice, Italy - Day 2
by 34th America’s Cup media 18 May 2012 20:44 BST
17-20 May 2012
Local heroes lead the way on historic day of racing in Venice
Luna Rossa crews win Friday’s races, but Energy Team tops the leaderboard
The America’s Cup World Series fleet raced on the Grand Canal of Venice Friday, the historic waters becoming a proving ground for some of the best sailors in the world. Each of the two Luna Rossa crews rose to the occasion, recording a race win, pleasing the local spectators who were out in force both on shore and on the water.
"Today has been a great day for us, with two victories,” said team skipper Max Sirena. “But we want to keep our feet on the ground and look ahead to the next two days. There are still many points to be gained and we need to approach it in the right way.”
While conditions were perfect for racing, with moderate 8-10 knot sea breezes, the challenge came from the narrow, restricted race course, which was shoe-horned into the canal. This forced the boats close together and the crews were obliged to execute an unprecedented number of tacks and gybes as they zigzagged up and down the track.
“The boats are so physically taxing on the guys, it is literally a flogging,” said Kiwi skipper Dean Barker, who agrees that the helmsman has the ‘easy’ job on board. His team sits in fourth place on a tight leaderboard. “You can’t but help but feel sorry for the other guys. At the end of the race their tongues are hanging out and they’re completely spent.”
Loick Peyron’s Energy Team retained their position at the top of the Fleet Racing leaderboard, but not without some nervous moments. The team was in last place at the first two marks of the second race, before making a spectacular comeback on the next leg of the course to round in second place, a position they protected all the way to the finish, maintaining their consistent finishes to date.
The race course, at its narrowest, was only 140 meters, meaning at times crews would barely have trimmed on a sail before they had to make another manoeuver. But the smaller field of play made for incredible spectator opportunities, with hundreds of boats lining the course, and thousands more taking in the action from the shore.
“The Italian people love sailing, they love the America's Cup, and they love Luna Rossa,” Sirena said. “It was amazing how many people there were and how many boats we had on the water. And on Saturday there will be even more!”
Today’s Match Racing did not take place as scheduled. The Semi Finals are rescheduled to Saturday, and will take place following the Fleet Races 5 and 6.
Fleet Racing Championship – Provisional Leaderboard: (after four races)
1. Energy Team…35 points
2. Luna Rossa Swordfish…31 points
3. Luna Rossa Piranha…29 points
4. Emirates Team New Zealand…29 points
5. Team Korea…26 points
6. ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill…21 points
7. Artemis Racing…21 points
8. ORACLE TEAM USA Bundock…16 points
9. China Team…8 points
Match Racing Championship – Semi Final Results
The winners of the Quarter Finals advanced to the ‘best of three’ Semi Finals. No match races were sailed on Friday. The losers of the Quarter Final have been assigned final finishing positions (5th to 9th) in the Match Racing Championship as per the Sailing Instructions.
5. Emirates Team New Zealand
6. Team Korea
7. Luna Rossa Swordfish
8. ORACLE TEAM USA Bundock
9. China Team
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Energy Team still leading (from Energy Team)
Yet another great day for the French ENERGY TEAM in the America's Cup World Series, which started in Venice yesterday. The French team led by Loïck Peyron ended up on the podium twice in the day’s two races (3rd in the first race and second in Race 2). After the four races that have now taken place, Energy Team is once again leading the overall rankings this evening.
On the podium in Race 1
The conditions were very light with just six to eight knots of wind, but there was a fantastic show this afternoon in Venice, where the AC45s are sailing for the first time inside the lagoon just off St. Mark’s Square. At the start of racing at 1400hrs, the catamarans fitted with their sail extensions to make the most of the light conditions, set off on a short leg reaching for 37 seconds. Energy Team with Loïck Peyron at the helm rounded the first mark in fourth place, before threatening Luna Rossa shortly afterwards on a magnificent race course, which nevertheless was extremely tight, forcing the teams to carry out a lot of manoeuvres.
As they unfurled their gennaker, Energy Team was already up in third place, while ENTZ was out in front ahead of Luna Rossa Swordfish. In the Venetian sunshine, it was a magnificent sight when the AC45s started to gybe looking for each puff of air on the lagoon with all its local effects.
The gybing battle was intense in the very narrow Grand Canal, a wind corridor, where the crews had to get things down to the nearest millimetre. At Gate 3, off the famous Arsenal in Venice, the crowds along the water’s edge, where thousands of people had gathered, cheered: the Italian boat Luna Rossa Swordfish made some good choices on this leg and moved into the lead, six seconds ahead of ENTZ and 15 seconds ahead of Energy Team, who sailed perfectly in this match.
The big surprise was the poor performance from Artemis and Oracle Spithill, back in 8th and 9th place, right at the rear of the fleet. There was already a gap of more than 800 metres between the leader and the tail-ender (Spithill), which is a huge gap after just ten minutes of racing. At Gate 4, Luna Rossa Swordfish extended their lead: 33 seconds ahead of ETNZ, 47 ahead of Energy Team, still in third place and 1'05 ahead of Luna Rossa Piranha. These four boats had a rather comfortable lead over the others in the fleet. At the front, Luna Rossa Swordfish took off, thanks to some fresh air (in spite of getting a penalty). Energy Team clawed two seconds back from ETNZ on the following leg... but was threatened by the other Italian boat, Luna Rossa Piranha.
While Luna Rossa Swordfish had the race sewn up, the battle was raging between the three boats chasing them, ETNZ, Energy Team and Luna Rossa Piranha. Loïck Peyron and his men had to work hard to keep Chris Draper in check, as they were becoming very threatening with just 9 seconds between them before the penultimate leg. “Defend! Defend,” Loïck Peyron was probably telling his men... but as attack is the best form of defence, Energy Team managed to gain some ground before the 7th mark. In front of the Doge’s Palace, and the famous bell tower, which dominates St. Mark’s Square, Luna Rosa Swordfish won the race after 31 minutes and 10 seconds. Dean Barker and ETNZ took second place 1'34 later, followed by Energy Team 29 seconds after them. The French therefore took third place or in other words their third podium in three races. Loïck Peyron stated before racing began that he particularly liked this race course, which is complicated, narrow and yet so magnificent. He has shown once again what the French can do.
Second in the second race
The wind was down to just 7 knots from the south-east for the second fleet race this Friday in Venice. Unfortunately, Energy Team got blocked at the start when Artemis attempted a bold move. Shut in, the French had to leave the pack get away ahead of them and set off right at the rear in the first short reaching leg. They had to give it their all to fight their way back. It all went very smoothly, with manoeuvres carried out calmly and without any hitch, and Loïck Peyron and his men began the chase carrying out a lot of gybes. At the front, at that point it was Oracle – Bundock, which led the way ahead of Luna Rossa Swordfish with Paul Campbell-James at the helm. Just as they were clawing their way back, Energy Team unfortunately got a penalty for manoeuvring too close to Team Korea. Ahead of them, there was a real fight going on between the two Italian and two American boats. An amazing sight where each millimetre counted off the waterfront at Santa Lucia. There was a gap of less than 10 metres between the boats as they came together... and then, something incredible happened for the French: making the most of a puff of air, and with two crazy tacks, Energy Team was back in the game. An absolutely astonishing recovery saw them get back to second place. Fantastic! Five seconds later, there was another upset, when ETNZ and Oracle Bundock collided.
Amazing Energy Team
So, in just a few minutes, the French team had moved up six places. On the fourth leg, Energy Team were sitting comfortably in second place, 100 metres behind Luna Rossa Piranha and 100m ahead of Oracle Spithill. What a comeback! "They were in last place at the start!" cried Philippe Presti, the coach for ... James Spithill.
At Mark 4, Energy Team were still in second place, some 25 seconds behind the leader, Luna Rossa Piranha and 12 seconds ahead of Oracle Spithill. At gate 5, at the end of the first lap, Energy Team managed to consolidate their second place, while Luna Rossa Swordfish, their rival for overall leadership, were struggling at the back (7th) and got a penalty. So the French were on their way to getting a great result, but they had to hold on. Gate 6: an extremely quick gybe from Energy Team, right at the boundary line. But thanks to this gybe on the favoured side of gate, Loïck Peyron extended his lead and no longer had to worry. Chris Draper’s Luna Rossa Piranha won the race in style in front of the Lions of Venice, in 30 minutes and 53 seconds. Energy Team would pass in front of the famous lions 1 minute and 28 seconds later in second place. Once again, they were on the podium, just in front of James Spithill’s Oracle, which finished third.
Loïck Peyron : "We were a bit lucky today, as we didn’t get off to a good start. In fact, they were both rather poor. Sometimes it was a bit tricky, and we often took things a bit too far, especially in Race 1. I was really starting to sweat under my helmet. But it all worked out nicely, as if I’ve understood correctly, we’re still out in front at the end of this second day of racing and we have even extended our lead. We always managed to find good speed and we grabbed every opportunity that came our way, particularly in the downwind legs. We’re going to have to keep working at every element of the race. It’s fantastic with the crew. It’s all going perfectly smoothly, even if the lads are feeling a bit exhausted."
So a magnificent achievement from Energy Team, who have not only made it to the podium four times in a row in four fleet races, but are up there alone at the top of the overall fleet racing rankings. In fact, their main rival, Luna Rossa Swordfish only managed to finish sixth in this race. Energy Team grabbed another four points from them in this fourth fleet race in Venice. The consistency of the French team is quite impressive. In four races, they have made it to the podium four times.
ORACLE TEAM USA on short cours racing (from ORACLE TEAM USA)
ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL captured third in today’s second fleet race at ACWS – Venice and now stands sixth on the leaderboard after the first four races.
Teammate ORACLE TEAM USA BUNDOCK holds eighth in the standings at the regatta that has seen the team’s two crews off to an uneven performance.
“Both our boats are struggling at the moment,” said boat No. 5 skipper Darren Bundock. “We have done a lot of crew changes, trying to change things around and move some of the guys who'll be on the AC72 involved in some of the World Series racing. We're obviously paying for that at the moment.”
Racing today was on the San Marco racecourse, inside the lagoon between the island of Lido, the basin San Marco and Punta della Dogana with the finish line placed off St Mark’s Square. The boundaries were so tight that crews were tacking or jibing every 30 to 90 seconds it seemed at times.
“It was an inconsistent day for us and we had some poor starts,” conceded John Kostecki, tactician on ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL. “The Grand Canal race was tight. It felt like a race and work out all at the same time.”
Yet the tight racecourse also provided some thrilling racing. In the second race, aerial views showed the two ORACLE TEAM USA AC45s trading jibes and weaving between the two Luna Rossa yachts.
The water-borne ballet approaching the leeward mark suddenly became crowded when Energy Team and Emirates Team New Zealand charged up from behind in a fresh puff of wind and disrupted the elegant symmetry of the top four.
The crews performed countless maneuvers today as they tried to stay off the boundaries. Race 2 was so physical that Luna Rossa Piranha crewman David Carr was physically sick afterwards.
“Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. It was a tough day,” said Bundock. “Lots of tacks, lots of jibes, getting bounced around a lot – it was a really tight course. You couldn't really stretch your legs at all. You couldn't get away from other boats and when you were in the middle of pack, you just got bounced around. We had chance in one race, had a great start, but just munched downwind and ended up going the bottom mark just about last.”
Racing continues tomorrow with two more fleet races and the semifinal round of the match racing championship.
Update from Artemis Racing
Racing in Venice’s Grand Canal presented a full set of challenges for the nine teams racing in the America’s Cup World Series today.
The French and Italian teams flourished, but it was a tough day for Terry Hutchinson and the crew onboard Artemis Racing.
Second row starts in both fleet races translated into two 7th place finishes. Then a clear start in the third ‘spare’ race (which only counts if racing is cancelled on ‘Super Sunday’) the Swedish team took second.
“It was disappointing. The fleet is too good and the racetrack is what it is. So if you don’t get away clean, or are a bit unlucky, there are not a lot of opportunities. Once you get your nose out and get clear, the race course becomes a lot easier,” said Hutchinson.
“It was a tough day, hard for the guys on the boat. A real whipping! They worked so hard and we are under a lot of pressure out there. There is more to come and therein lies the opportunity. We need to figure out what we can do better to get the boat away clean off the line. The start is everything and there is plenty of room for improvement,” continued Hutchinson.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, racing continues in the Grand Canal with two fleet races and the semi-finals for the Match Racing. Artemis will line up against France’s Team Energy in the semis. The forecast is for similar conditions with 8-10 knots of wind.