2000 Kenwood Cup - Day Six
by Susan McKeag 6 Aug 2000 08:27 BST
KIWIS TAKE THE LEAD
USA Wins Two Races
Orion takes a knock and retires hurt
When the sun shines, the big Waikiki rollers are occasionally topped with
white and the warm Trades blow at a steady 18 to 20 knots, there can hardly
be any better sailing on earth than here in Hawaii. That is why owners
bring their boats and their crews two thousand miles and more, to race the
winds of Paradise. Thus it was today: perfect sailing conditions for the 27
boats in the 2000 Kenwood Cup.
USA and New Zealand shared the podium today with Ken Read steering Makato
Uematsu's Farr 50 Esmeralda to first place overall in both the morning's
ocean triangle and the afternoon's windward/ leeward, but with the Kiwi's
putting in a sufficiently solid performance to take over the lead in the
series from their great rivals, Australia. By the end of the morning race,
New Zealand had closed to within a point of Australia. By close of play,
the Kiwis were four points clear.
USA's chances of capitalizing on Esmeralda's double-bullet performance were
dealt a blow - literally - when misfortune befell Philippe Kahn's Farr 40
Orion just twenty minutes into the first race of the day. Coming into the
windward mark on port, Orion found herself caught by Samba Pa Ti and
Liberte Express coming in on starboard. Orion began to tack, inside the
two-length zone , and as Samba crossed her bow the latter's boom-end
clipped Orion's forestay. Worse was to come. As Orion turned through the
tack her stern swung hard into Liberte Express' topsides.
Orion immediately acknowledged her fault as Liberte's protest flag
fluttered - but the price turned out to be more than a mere time penalty.
Examination quickly showed that Orion had damaged herself cruelly: the
transom-to-hull joint had split from the deck edge all the way down and
round to the backstay chainplate, and in addition there was an ominous
crack running along the starboard deck-to-hull join from the corner of the
transom forward. Unable to crank her backstay and fearing further damage if
the rig were tensioned, Orion withdrew from the race and headed for the
lifting dock at Alawai Marine. It would be better to miss two single-point
scoring races than risk further hurt that might keep the boat out of the
triple-scoring long race on Monday. Orion hopes to be out on the race
course again tomorrow, for the Champagne Mumm Trophy races.
In the J-105s, Jose Cuervo's chances of reducing Charade's title lead in
that class's Pacific championship took a knock when a seizure of the
headsail furling gear forced them out of today's second race just before
the start.
With a plethora of protest flags a-flicker at backstays in both races the
International Jury appear to have a long evening ahead of them - results of
both races, race 7 in particular, are therefore provisional - but it is not
thought that any of the protests will affect the overall standing in the
main team competition.
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