BID ON CAYARD’S GEAR

Paul Cayard has graciously donated a few items of his personal Desafío Español team gear that can be to bid on. Maybe you didn’t turn the handles during the Spanish team’s outstanding campaign, but you can look like you did. Better yet, you will be taking the gear directly off Cayard’s back, arguably one of the most decorated and influential sailors in the sport. Bids are tax-deductible, with the proceeds benefiting youth sailing. The gear now on the auction block is his jacket, vest, and backpack.

Details at www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/07/cayard

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Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals-Day 6

Luna Rossa is in the Louis Vuitton Finals. Desafio lives for another day!

Today BMW Oracle made a change. Chris Dickson was off the boat and Sten Mohr took his place as helmsman. Little change for the American boat. The nice thing was to see Larry Ellison back onboard, supporting his team. It was even nicer to see him congratulating his crew after the race, surely a tough moment for all. Dickson showed for the press conference and offered sincere congratulations to the Italians. He stated that in his opinion they were beaten in many areas this week and that no one thing stood out as a glaring weakness of BMW Oracle. Needless to say he got many probing questions on this subject. He also stated that Ellison has already stated that he will continue pursuing the Cup but has not decided who will be involved, Dickson included.

At the start today James Spithill got the better of Mohr, taking the favored end of the line. The boat did the work from there and the crew never missed a step. The final delta was 33 seconds. A moderate celebration has erupted at the Italian base and two days off is the order of Francesco de Angeles, leader of the team.

With their backs against the wall, the Spanish won a very close race against Team New Zealand. A slightly better start for Karol Jablonski gave the Spanish a 30 meter lead early and the Spanish never relinquished the lead. The biggest lead was 80 meters, so it was hand to hand combat all the way but the Spaniards pulled it off. Fifteen seconds was the margin at the finish. It is a beautiful thing in sport to see a team, confronted with mortality, that raises its game and lives for another day.

I am still getting some medical treatment for my elbow from Pablo, the Desafio physiotherapist and the sailors, whom I worked with for two months, asked me to come down to the dock this morning to wish them well. It was a big moment as you would expect. Would they be heading out for the last race of their campaign? They answered the question magnificently.

So a 7th race will be necessary on Tuesday for this semi-final. Probably most people expected Team New Zealand to win this series 5-0 or 5-1. Probably TNZ expected that too. That is why they chose the Spanish, rather than either of the other two. We will see if it was a good choice.

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Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals-Day 5

The picture could not be more clear. James Spithill has Chris Dickson’s number. The Kiwi skipper of the American boat is making too many errors in the critical prestart phase leaving his team with little hope at the start. Two penalties in today’s prestart. I can’t remember the last time that happened in racing at this level. Dickson is not sailing his best. He is better than this. Has the pressure already gotten to him in what is essentially the quarter finals? For certain he is in great difficulty. His personality and style of leadership is not conducive to garnering unconditional support. Can he rally the troupes to come back from 1:4? What is going to save him and BMW Oracle?

On Luna Rossa, they have an ace. Three out of five starts have been KO’s for Spithill. His composure is impressive for the youngest man on the boat. Luna Rossa is slightly faster upwind than BMW and about the same downwind. The team has now acquired the maximum of confidence.

BMW Oracle is the only team without the flag of their country, USA, on the boat or at the base. Does that strike anyone else as strange? They say that there team is too international to have just one flag, so they have ten small flags in front of their base. But Luna Rossa is the more international team, 14 countries and 7 onboard to BMW’s 4, yet the Italian flag flies proudly over the base. Spain is the same. Most of the teams here are very international. Alinghi, more American and Kiwi. Flag; Swiss. A flag is one of the most basic forms of signalling unity. It has been that way for thousands of years. It is just one sign of a strange chemistry, or lack there of, with in BMW Oracle.

Larry Ellison was not onboard today for the first time. Did someone feel his presence exuded and undue pressure on the after guard? If today was a test of that theory, looks like they are better off with him in the crew. Where will he be tomorrow?

Peter Isler is the man they send to every press conference to deflect the ever more intense questions of the media. He is doing a heroic job! Will there be a change tomorrow on BMW? It is almost to the point of “why bother”. The great probability is that they are going down so the question is, what is the most elegant way to do that.

In the other semi final, the Kiwis are doing their job in a operating room standard. Nothing flashy, just solid work from start to finish. The boat is going well too so a margin of 1:49 was produced today in favour of the Kiwis. Most likely this one will be over tomorrow. The Spanish have made a great pass forward in qualifying for the Semi finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup but they are not quite at the level of the Kiwis yet. The Kiwis have competed in every Cup since 1987 so 20 years. The Spanish have done well and are well positioned to launch their continuation for the next Cup.

If things continue as they are setting up, we will see a rematch of the 1992 Louis Vuitton final; New Zealand vs. Italy.

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Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals-Day 4

A defining day. Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand win. Are they going to be the LVC finalists? It is starting to look that way.

After an even start, Dickson’s best so far, the Italians carved out a 20 meter lead after a long port tack to the right side of the course, with BMW Oracle to leeward and ahead, but not enough ahead. The boats looked very even through this phase of the race. Then Luna Rossa, with surgical precision of ‘Jesse James’ Spithill on the helm, pushed BMW Oracle over the right layline through a series of tacks and that was about all she wrote for the boat with USA on its sails but no American flag anywhere in sight. Not on the boat, not at the base.

With a 60 meter lead at the leeward gate, and heading out to the favored right side, Luna Rossa gave all of its fans a bit of a heart tremor by letting BMW Oracle split out to the left on the second windward leg. A new record for separation was set; 2780 meters or 1.6 miles! A one degree shift in BMW’s favour would have been all that was required to take the lead. Luckily for the Italians, they came back together near the top of the leg having gained 50 meters. For those of us used to match racing, we were scratching our heads. Was it really necessary to split 1.5 miles when you have proven to have a boat that is at least as fast as your opponent, and you have the lead, and you have the favored side? Isn’t it possible to stay within the same time zone as your opponent? Do you get more points for winning by 150 meters instead of 50?

Anyway, I guess we just have to get used to this style of sailing from Luna Rossa. The same thing happened in race two on Tuesday, but it cost the Italians the race.

One interesting thing about BMW Oracle, after Tuesday’s serious starting lesson at the hands of Spithill, Dickson put a larger rudder in his boat. Now with the added wetted surface, the American boat seems slower downwind which was their point of strength in the first two races.

In the other match, Team New Zealand had a slightly better start than the Spanish and slowly built a lead up the first beat. They matched and marked every move of their opponents, and that was that. Here too, these two boats are pretty evenly matched in speed. He who wins the start, wins the race 95% of the time.

So we are 3 to 1 in each of the semi final matches. Thing are getting tight for the teams with just one point. The odds are going against them. Can they change something? Are they going to come out with something special tomorrow. We will have to wait and see.

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Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals-Day 3

Luna Rossa showed us how it is done today. Another great start by James Spithill gave Luna Rossa the right side of the course and a 29 second lead at the first mark. On the run, Luna Rossa covered like it is written in the text books. They spent some of their lead to gain insurance. Up the second windward leg, more of the same, covering every tack of BMW Oracle and stretching to a comfortable 230 meter lead at mark three. A cruise down the run and job done. This race was more satisfying to watch than the first race on Monday as Luna Rossa kept a tight grip on their lead, never letting Oracle have a glimpse of daylight, and never any hope of passing. Completely different tactics than yesterday.

So far, it has been all Luna Rossa. BMW hasn’t done a thing in this series. Luna Rossa has been in control of all three races, leading at every mark. They brought home two victories and gave one away yesterday. Was yesterday December 25th? Still, the message to BMW Oracle is clear. This Italian team is going to be tough to beat. Somehow, BMW Oracle is going to have to get off the starting line with at least an even start.

In the other match, a great start by the Spanish helmsman Karol Jablonski gave them the right on the first windward leg and the lead at the first mark that they never relinquished. Further, Jablonski put a penalty on Dean Barker at the start so in the end, the victory for the Spanish was by almost two minutes!

Obviously, with the boats being so close in performance, the start has become critical.

A nice steady sea breeze was the order of the day, about 12-13 knots. Perfect. These were the conditions that gave Valencia the nod when it came to choosing a venue for the Cup. The first four days of Round Robin one seem far away in the distance now.

Lay day tomorrow, then back in action on Friday with race four. Standby.

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Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals-Day 2

Opportunity lost for Luna Rossa today. Putting BMW Oracle behind 2-0 would have been a big step toward winning this semi final and the Italian boat seemingly had the job done. In the more competitive of the two semi finals, the young James Spithill of Luna Rossa shut out Chris Dickson of BMW Oracle at the start and the Italians sailed smoothly to a 58 second lead at the first windward mark. A sea breeze of 15 knots was in place for the first windward leg and in those conditions, everyone expected a fairly easy ride for Luna Rossa from there. However, Luna Rossa chose not to cover BMW Oracle on the first run and 230 meters of the 280 meter lead was eaten up and the American boat round the leeward gate just 50 meters behind. This put the American boat back in the race and in practicality, it all started again at that point.

Up the second windward leg, Luna Rossa again separated a large distance before tacking to converge more than one mile! When the two came together, there was just a two boat-length lead for Luna Rossa. A great move by James Spithill, defending against an attacking Dickson near the windward mark, preserved a 40 meter lead for the Italian boat. Down the final run, again the Italians split and BMW Oracle went from being behind by 40 meters, to a lead of 40 meters. A final attempt to cover the wind of the American boat failed and the BMW Oracle went on to take the win by 13 seconds.

It was more a case of Luna Rossa losing the race than BMW Oracle winning the race.

In the other match, Team New Zealand made easy work of the day by getting a significantly better start and gaining on the first windward leg. Then, in contrast to the style of the Italians, the Kiwis never split much from their opposition, even if they have a 300 meter lead. This series seems to be well in hand for the Kiwis.

This decidedly different style of sailing by the Italians has puzzled the media here and given huge anxiety to the Italian public following the race on television. Peter Isler, the American Navigator, explained their pleasant surprise at the style of the Italian’s lack of covering and acknowledged that the open water allowed them to make the most of a very bad situation after the first windward leg and make a huge gain on the run, certainly more of a gain than any boat speed difference would create.

One more set of races tomorrow, then Thursday is a lay day.

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Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals-Day 1

Following a front that passed through the area Sunday night, a moderate Westerly wind was in place early this morning on the waters off Valencia. The westerly wind is quite shifty and puffy as it is coming off the city. This made for some tricky racing.

In the first match, Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle got of the line fairly evenly with BMW Oracle to windward on starboard tack. The boats drag raced out to the left with very little changing between them. This is the best look at the relative speed of the boats that we would get all day. After that, Luna Rosa tacked to port and BMW Oracle tacked in front of them in what looked like quite a strong position but Luna Rossa climbed out to windward and lived for a long speed test back toward the middle of the track. At the 3/4’s mark, Luna Rossa had a 2 boat length lead. From there Luna went left and BMW went right and the left paid. Luna at the top mark by 29 seconds.

Down the first run, Luna gybed first into the middle of the course and there was less wind there. The boats arrived at the gate together but with Luna able to round the left gate and head left while BMW went right. Luna tacked onto port to match BMW after about four minutes but the whole time both were on port, Luna gained. At one point, Luna Rossa had a 400 meter lead. At this point, Luna Rossa just sailed the wind they had without regard to BMW. The two boats were never in the same wind so classic match racing tactics would have brought Luna Rossa back to BMW Oracle. Luna tactician Torben Grael is the best at these difficult and shifty breezes and he did a greatest job today even if some of the Italian spectators would have liked a little tighter cover at times.

On the final run, Luna sailed more in the same wind as BMW Oracle, albeit from in front, and went on to win by over 2 minutes. Right at the end of the race the sea breeze came in and pushed the westerly off the course. This exaggerated Luna’s lead which really would have been about 30 seconds. For Team New Zealand and Desafio, this shift was a bigger deal and the final pair sailed the last mile of the race upwind!

In the TNZ-Desafio match, TNZ got the first shift and maintained the lead all the way around. At times, Desafio made big gains to erode TNZ’s lead. There did not seem to be an appreciable speed difference between the Spanish and the Kiwi’s but then again, today was not the day to read speed.

It was a day of sailing the wind you had. Tomorrow should return to more stable conditions. That should allow us to better interpret the speed of the boats.

For us with Italian TV, it could not have started better. I big win in the first race of a series for Luna Rossa means huge audience for the days to come.

This evening I went to visit 180 members of the St. Francis Yacht Club who are on the Commodores Cruise here in Valencia. Nice to see so many friends. After that I Went to a function by the Yacht Club de Monaco in the Valencia Super Yacht Marina to celebrate the arrival of “La Belle Classe” classic yachts Tuiga (1909), Ivanhoe (1938) and Eleonora (replica of 1910).

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Update from Valencia

The Spanish finally did it today. The Swedish lost their race to Team New Zealand despite a great start by Magnus Holmberg and leading around the top mark. The Kiwi boat was just better suited to the 10 knots winds of today and got inside the Swedes at the bottom mark, took the right side up the second beat and that was it.

The Spanish actually lost their match to BMW Oracle but several hundred meters but because the Swedes also lost, the Spanish celebrated their first entry into the Louis Vuitton Semi finals after four attempts. The horns and fireworks were going off like the 4th of July over here as the Spanish boat came back into the America’s Cup Harbor.

+39 beat China team easily and the French disposed of the Germans. In the Italian derby, Luna Rossa beat Mascalzone in a similar fashion to NZL vs. Victory. Mascalzone helmsman Jes Graham Hansen got a great start over James Spithill but the leaner Luna Rossa just had too much speed for the high prismatic Mascalzone in today’s 10 knots.

What is left for tomorrow’s last flight of Round Robin Two is the big showdown: BMW Oracle vs. Emirates Team New Zealand. The winner will win the Round Robins and have the right to chose their opponent for the semi finals. The forecast is for 10-12 knots of wind so it should make for a great match.

The other matches of the day are: Desafio vs. Luna Rosa, Mascalzone vs. Victory, +39 vs. Germany and Shosholoza vs. Areva.

All four semi finalists are racing in two matches tomorrow so we may have a preview of the semi finals.

I unfortunately will miss the race as I am flying home for a few days with my family. No report tomorrow.

There has been some great racing in these two round robins but in the end, their aren’t any real surprises in the top four. Sure Victory or Mascalzone could have been there, but they did not win the races they had to win. So the teams will have four days off then the battles resume on Monday May 14. It will be interesting to see what the semi finalists are able to do in these four days to improve their performance.

TNZ and BMW will race for sure tomorrow as they have something to fight for. But will Luna Rossa and Desafio? Would they be better served with 25% more time to prepare for the semis? Even just one more day of rest? You will know before me. Enjoy!

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Update from Valencia

Another perfect day on the Med- 12-15 knots from 125, sunny and fairly smooth seas.

The big race of the day was Luna Rossa vs. New Zealand. New Zealand got a slightly better start and slowly, over 20 tacks, eked out a small lead up the first windward leg to lead by 17 seconds. On the first run, The boats held about the same delta of 17 seconds with New Zealand still leading the way out to the right on the second windward leg. There was much opportunity for Luna Rossa and TNZ went on to win by 5 boat lengths.

The win for TNZ will most likely set up their race with BMW Oracle on Wednesday as the deciding race as to who will win the round robins and have the right to pick their opponent in the semi finals.

The other big match was Desafio vs. Victory challenge of Sweden. A win by Desafio would have clinched the last semi final spot for them. However, facing a must win situation, the Swedes came out and got the job done. It was a close match but the Swedes led the whole way and won by just one boat length. The Spanish are still in a very comfortable spot; a lost by the Swedes in either of their last two matches(TNZ and Mascalzone) or a win in either of the last two races for Desafio (BMW Oracle, Luna Rossa) will put the Spanish into the semis.

+39 put on a great show, winning the start and stretching all the way around the course to beat Shosholoza by 235 meters. Very well sailed by Ian Percy and Ian Walker.

Mascalzone, and its starting helmsman Graham-Hanson, had a KO going in the prestart against BMW Oracle up until the last second as they went over the line early on an unforced error, which allowed American boat the easy win.

Tomorrow’s big matches are the Italian derby of Luna Rossa and Mascalzone Latino and Desafio vs. BMW Oracle which Desafio won in the first round. Victory meets Team NZ.

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Update from Valencia

The big match of the day was Mascalzone vs. Shosholoza and they did not disappoint. In a toughly fought pre-start Paolo Cain, the helmsman of Shosholoza, was able to get a penalty on Mascalzone which ultimately made the difference in this close race.

Mascalzone won the start and held the lead the entire race, sometimes opening up a lead of 150 meters which made some spectators think they would execute the penalty turn then and there, and keep the lead. However, the wind was on the lighter side, 9 or 10 knots, and it was quite shifty, so the amount of lead was never solid. Mascalzone waited until the finish line to make the penalty turn and they did not have enough of a lead to cross the line first, so the win went to Shosholoza. Mascalzone was eliminated from the semi-finals at that moment.

It is interesting to see the different techniques used for the penalty turns on the finish line.

+39 has authored the “staysail” turn where, after dropping the gennaker, the boat luffs into the wind with the staysail up (but rolled), so no windage. Once the boat crosses through the eye of the wind, they unfurl the staysail and use it to pull the bow down and across the line.

Today, Mascalzone went with the traditional genoa up, spinnaker down, luff up and tack technique. One could see the boat laboring to luff into the wind, with the genoa trimmed in and the main not in quite enough. Did this make the difference? I think the staysail would have worked better today.

Another interesting thing is that most teams are rounding the starting mark in doing the penalty. To me, this takes too much space. I would prefer to do the turn just above the line, away from the buoy so as not to have to worry about hitting that too. Of course, by rounding the buoy, you have protection from an oncoming starboard tack boat by way of Rule 18…room at the mark. Anyway, nothing is conclusive yet and it is interesting watching the teams figure out the best technique.

There were no surprises in the other matches: BMW Oracle beat +39, Victory beat Areva, Team New Zealand defeated China and Desafio continued their march into the semis by defeating Germany. Luna Rossa had a bye.

Tomorrow’s big matches are: Luna Rossa vs. Team New Zealand and Victory vs. Desafio. A win by Desafio will put them into the semis and Victory out. A win by Team New Zealand over Luna Rossa will most likely allow the final race of Team New Zealand vs. BMW Oracle to be the decider as to who wins the round robins and therefore, who gets to pick their opponent in the semi-finals.

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