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Flights 4 and 5 Louis Vuitton |
 Shosholoza making waves
Finally today the racing for the Louis Vuitton cup started in 7-8 winds on the North and South courses and the wait was worth it by with tight racing and some big upsets. The upper winds changed direction giving Valencia the winds they were famous for.
The new South African team Shosholoza upset the status quo by beating one of the powerhouses Luna Rossa. We got to see some classic Chris Dickson aggressive sailing. There were several matches where the boats were so close that one would keep tacking on top of them until they were forced out sideof one of the laylines.
In the first race: New Zealand vs Areva,
New Zealand to leeward and quickly jumps out
in front where they keep a close cover for the first leg, tack for tack.
Mazcalzone and the Spanish
horse raced until after a series of meetings where Mascalzone would be sent out the right, the Spanish had them outside the starboard layline. Spain wins.
In the Germany – China race, both boats are pretty close but China loses distance in a series of tacks and can only follow once outside the layline. In Oracle vs Sweden, both boats start even but Oracle just boat speeds the Swedes and leaves them behind.
The big upset of the day is Shosholoza vs Luna Rossa.
Sosholoza starts to leeward of Luna Rossa both on starboard. The
Italians tack away after Shosholoza shows some speed and the South
Africans take advantage of a good lift after they tack onto port
following Luna Rossa. They keep a tight cover and this time don't choke
at the critical mark roundings and manouvers.
Second Race
New Zealand was very aggressive in the pre-start manouvers with some
last excitement as both boats were very early and New Zealand just
luffed up over the committee boat to start. The Spanish had a early
lead on port side but it was back and forth. Coming together, the
Spanish try to leebow NZ but eventually gets sailed out to the layline.
NZ retook. First cross, NZ coming in on stb, leebowed Spanish. NZ
leebows the Spanish out past the port layline. 31 s advantage NZ wins ,
they have won 3 out of 4 races. With Luna Rossa starting on the port
side
Oracle kept their starboard advantage after the start. They sailed
Luna well out past the port layline and the windward mark. They used
their starboard advantage upwind and down and kept themselves between
the mark(s) and Luna Rossa. Still boat for boat, on the last leg to the
finish the two came together in extremely close jibes three times. One
jibe before the last, Oracle came down on Luna and jibe to port just in
front of them. They then drove down hard forcing Luna to jibe away
since they were sailing low and slow. Oracle carried on, jibed and
then came in on a screaming reach to cross the line half a boat legnth
ahead of the two time losers of the day. Ouch. |
