This week’s VOR podcast includes one of the giants of the sport – Paul Cayard. A former Star World Champion, winning Whitbread skipper, and a World
Sailor of the Year, Paul talks about the America’s Cup, the TP-52 circuit, the World Sailing League, and the new look Volvo Ocean Race. There’s also
the latest from Valencia with America’s Cup website editor Peter Rusch, and news regarding the VOR going to India. — http://www.volvooceanrace.org/podcast

Big day today. Two flights with a nice 10-12 knot sea breeze. The big match of the day was the battle of the Louis Vuitton Cup leaders, Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle. This match was run in the first flight. The boats crossed the starting line pretty evenly, both on starboard tack, but with Luna Rossa to windward. Luna Rossa eked out a small advantage on a long starboard tack drag race and protected the right the rest of the beat to the first mark. On the run the boats seemed very even but BMW Oracle was able to sail a bit lower and get into a threatening position as the lay line approached. This forced Luna Rossa to gybe early, before the lay line to either end of the gate and BMW Oracle decided to cross behind Luna Rossa and set up for an inside position on the left hand (looking downwind) gate mark and with starboard tack advantage as well. Shortly before the gate, Luna Rossa gybed to port and attempted to cross but BMW Oracle was too far advanced and Luna Rossa was forced to gybe back and take the right hand gate while BMW Oracle gybed and took the left gate. This allowed BMW to get to the favored side up wind and that was pretty much it. The boats seemed very close in speed and it was a case of the boat who makes the last mistake loses. These two teams may not see each other for a month if there are to meet again in the Louis Vuitton Cup finals.

The other big news of the day was that Mascalzone Latino had their win over Desafio taken away last night by the jury for an illegal use of the backstay. The infringement came as Mascalzone reattached its upper backstay on the second windward leg of the race on Wednesday. The rules state that you can race with the upper backstay detached from the runner block or attached, but you can not change it once the race starts. The jury can award penalties in varying scope anywhere from nothing to a fine to disqualification. In this case they mandated a resail which will most likely be done tomorrow after flight 7. There is only one flight scheduled tomorrow. This race is do or die for Mascalzone to stay alive in the battle with Desafio and Victory Challenge for the 4th spot in the semi-finals.

Team New Zealand has been quietly winning races and is just one point behind Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle.

Luna Rossa, Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle are virtually assured a place in the semi-finals. The picture on who the fourth team is, is going to start becoming clear quickly. In less than a week, seven of the 12 teams will be out of this America’s Cup.

On location in Valencia, Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson interviewed Paul Cayard for CNN’s MainSail programme. For a glimpse of the Desafio Espanol base, the America’s Cup basin and Cayard’s views on who will win the America’s Cup, click on the following link: Video: MainSail interviews Paul Cayard*

A big day on the water in Valencia. The breeze was 7-9 knots so still on the light side. What is apparent after the first 9 flights is that there are 7 teams that can win any race. This is great for the spectators.

In the first Flight of the day, Victory beat Areva which was important for the Swedes who are trying to stay in the hunt for the fourth spot in the semi finals along with Mascalzone Latino and Desafio Espanol. The Swedes were penalized early in the race and the French were not slow. But in the end the Swedes got a big enough lead to make the penalty turn on the finish line and win the match.

Mascalzone and Shosholoza had a tough battle but in the end Mascalzone had the edge. Shosholoza continues to show very good upwind speed. They start well and usually get the correct side of the course. They will upset a few more tams before Round Robin 2 finishes. The first America’s Cup Team from South Africa has a lot to be proud of.

In the second flight Luna Rossa beat Team New Zealand. On their entry, Dean Barker made a mistake and immediately the Kiwis were down a penalty. Then near the top of the first beat, Team New Zealand tacked a bit too far away from the Italians who were able to live to windward on port and round the first mark first. Only at the end of the final run were the Kiwis able to get in front of Luna Rossa but then it was too little too late. This Kiwi team seems very beatable and the Italians have been the ones to expose that. Desafio beat Victory challenge in that all important match amongst rivals for the fourth semi final spot.

In the Mascalzone Latino-BMW Oracle Match, we saw a very aggressive team from the USA putting a lot of pressure on the Italians and a tight tacking duel up the first windward leg. Near the top of the beat, BMW Oracle protested several times and on one occasion Mascalzone did tack too close and was given a penalty. This changed the face of the match and shortly thereafter BMW passed the Italians and stretched to a comfortable win. I think BMW was a bit faster than Mascalzone.

Tomorrow the challengers should be able to finish up Round Robin one with some very exciting matches. All the matches in flight 10 and 11 will be fairly even as the pairing list was constructed in a way to pit the closest adversaries in the last flights. Luna Rossa vs. Mascalzone Latino for the Pride of Italy race, and the last match of the day, BMW Oracle vs. Team New Zealand.

Well we got one in today. Still very light wind and the forecast for tomorrow is a bit less than today…so marginal.

Today we had a NE gradient that was altered by the thermal heating on the land which pulled the wind right, closer to perpendicular to the coast line, and this made the wind speed drop. It was not a strong thermal because we are not getting the really high temperatures that we will see in June and July.

So we got one race in 8 knots, the right was favored on the first windward leg. In the first match of the day, Germany got the right side of the start and first leg against Luna Rossa and led for the first half of the first windward leg. Luna Rossa split off the line for 2 kilometers before heading right. That impressed me that they were willing to take such a large gamble against a team like Germany. Eventually Luna Rossa won fairly comfortably.

In the next match, Shosholoza led BMW Oracle for three quarters of the race. Shosholoza won the right side of the starting line and played the right to lead at the first mark comfortable. Down the run the boats seemed equal in speed. At the bottom of the first run, Shosholoza had some indecision on board as to which mark to round there are two no adays, they use a gate and they shrimped the kite (Dropped the spinnaker in the water) and had to cut it loose. Still they held the lead most of the way up the second windward leg and finally BMW Oracle over took them. Once they did, BMW Oracle quickly put 300 meter on Shosholoza. It was interesting to see how much having the correct side of the race course was worth to the slower boat.

Next we saw Victory beat the Chinese but again only after letting the Chinese lead for a while by winning the right.

Next we Team New Zealand taking command over +39 easily. Just a much faster boat for the Kiwis.

Finally, Desafio Espanol had a great start over Areva of France and led at the first windward mark by 80 meters. On the first gybe the Spanish broke the spinnaker pole and shortly thereafter the French boat passed them. The bad news was that the Spanish had no spare pole and no real repair kit so while the recovered a lot of distance on the second windward leg to round the second top mark just three boat lengths behind, they lost 300 meters on the final run having to sail without the pole again. A real shame for Desafio.

Mascalzone had a bye in that flight.

Tomorrow, the big match in the first flight is Desafio vs. Mascalzone. This could be a very important match for determining who goes to the semi finals. With Mascalzone getting a leg up by beating one of the big three last Friday (TNZ), and with Desafio suffering a loss to Areva, this is almost a must win race for Desafio.

In the second flight if we get that far, BMW Oracle will take on Luna Rossa who are both undefeated in this round and share the top of the leader board.

Forecast for the tomorrow is a bit less wind than today and for Tuesday is less wind than that. In fact, the forecast for the rest of the week is not that great.

On Tuesday, I am going back to San Francisco for a week or so to be with may family. I will come back to Valencia toward the end of Round Robin 2 to see the determinant matches to decide which seven of 11 will be going home and which four will be going onto the semi finals.