7:30 AM Tue 16 Mar 2010 GMT
TEAMORIGIN concedes two important matches at the end of the Round Robin phase of the Louis Vuitton Trophy leaving them in sixth ranked place and therefore they are set to sail against third ranked place ALL4ONE in tomorrow's Elimination Round One.
Mike Sanderson, Team Director, rounded up the day, 'What a day, amazingly close racing but not our day results-wise. There were still many positives which we have to build on and we simply need to go out and win tomorrow.'
The middle grouping of the eight teams competing in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland has seen five teams on a spread of just two points for the last couple of days and as we approached the end of the Round Robin stage of the competition the fight for points was red hot. Coupled with that has been a certain amount of delay due to adverse weather and a need to get the programme finished. Most teams had two matches programmed for Tuesday and TEAMORIGIN's pair were drawn back to back.
Light shifty winds caused an initial short delay to Tuesday's programme that got underway mid-morning. The wind increased during the day to up to 18 knots but remained gusty with large regular direction oscillations.
TEAMORIGIN v Mascalzone Latino
TEAMORIGIN's first match was against the new Challenger of Record for the America's Cup Mascalzone Latino. With a port entry and a biased line the British team tried to get across the starboard entry boat in the pre-start and made it but at a cost of being deep in the unfavourable sector of the start box. The Italian team was able to gybe tightly behind TEAMORIGIN and then remain in control of the pre-start eventually causing TEAMORIGIN to be late and on the unfavoured side of the start.
Mascalzone sailed fast and in phase with the wind shifts covering TEAMORIGIN up the first beat and not letting them get away. The Italian team rounded the first mark with a comfortable lead of 32 seconds.
Both did straightforward bear away spinnaker sets and heading down the first downwind leg. TEAMORIGIN used the opportunity to come from behind and see if they could get close enough to cast some wind shadow on their Italian competitors. Both boats did a simultaneous gybe but the Italians kept their cool.
At the bottom gate, the leading Italian boat took advantage of the phase of the wind shifts and rounded the left hand mark, TEAMORIGIN rounding just 20 seconds behind. On the second weather leg, the gap closed down a further four seconds leaving an exciting run to the finish to conclude the race. TEAMORIGIN gybe set and took full advantage of the better pressure coming to them from that side. They closed the gap right up but, with the wind shift they had benefitted from, the leg had become one sided and it finished with a straight reach into the finish with the British team losing an important race by just five seconds.
TEAMORIGIN v Artemis:
TEAMORIGIN's second opponent of the day was the Swedish Artemis who were on equal points going into the match. And what a race!!! By far the most exciting of the regatta so far with five lead changes and three penalties.
The race started close and remained so up the first beat with the pair just six seconds apart at the first weather mark, TEAMORIGIN trailing. Tactician Iain Percy called for a gybe set at the top mark which set the team up to run almost straight at the leeward gate following a fairly significant left hand shift.
The team picked up the gusts and benefitted from the close trailing position on the run and by the time they were approaching the leeward gate had caught up and were overlapped to windward. Artemis continued to keep the pressure on and as both teams started to prepare for the spinnaker drops, a luff came from Artemis at the same time as the spinnakers dropped. TEAMORIGIN's spinnaker flew out a long way to leeward touching the Swedish boat's spinnaker pole. For this the British team collected a penalty.
Quick thinking on the part of the Ainslie-led crew and the position they found themselves on the course meant that they had to tack around to get back to the leeward gate something that saw them simultaneously offload their penalty. At the same time the Swedish team went for the right hand buoy, perhaps the less favoured buoy, allowing TEAMORIGIN to round the nearer mark, recover quickly and head off upwind on the second beat in an advantageous position.
The pair traded tacks up the beat, Artemis in better phase with the shifts and managing to eek out a small advantage that they maintained all the way to the top mark. That advantage wasn't enough to allow the Swedish team to have the luxury of leaving the right hand side of the pair at the last convergence, but they did. This gave the British team a small opportunity to get back into the game and the Ainslie/Percy partnership did not miss it. He had the powerful starboard tack rights as the Swedish boat made its final approach to round the mark. Ainslie pushed into the gap with rights and called foul. The Umpires gave a penalty to the Swedish team and TEAMORIGIN rounded ahead.
|
|
|
The last run to the finish should have been relatively benign for the British team. All they had to do was finish close to their opponent, even if they let the Swedish boat pass them they would win because of the penalty they carried. It wasn't long before the pair were locked together again and sailing on port gybe almost laying the finish line.
The tension mounted and the Swedish boat initiated a gybe to port. Simultaneously TEAMORIGIN committed to a gybe and found themselves caught out by Artemis quickly gybing back onto starboard. TEAMORIGIN were now on port tack and not clearing ahead of the starboard gybe Artemis and just a few hundred metres from the finish line was penalised straight away. The Umpires, realising that TEAMORIGIN had gained a significant advantage from the move, and that it was committed so close to the finish line, penalised them a second time. Artemis' penalty was now offset and TEAMORIGIN had a penalty still to do. Seconds later the finish line crossed underneath their keels and the race was over. TEAMORIGIN had lost the race from a strong position.
|
|
|
Nearly all of the races today affected the final ranking of round robin one which in turn affected who was to race against whom in tomorrow's Elimination Round 1. The final race of the day was started at 1835 with ALL4ONE racing Synergy - the outcome of which would put ALL4ONE in third place or sixth place!
Race results today:
Race 1: ETNZ (NZL) beat Synergy (RUS) : 59s
Race 2 : Azzurra (ITA) beat Aleph (FRA) : 1m39s
Race 3: Artemis (SWE) beat ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) : 22s
Race 4: Mascalzone (ITA) beat TEAMORIGIN (GBR) : 5s
Plus races sailed from previous day:
Race 2 : Artemis (SWE) beat TEAMORIGIN (GBR)
Race 3: Mascalzone (ITA) beat Azzurra (ITA) : 13s
Race 4: Synergy vs All4One (FRA)
Ranking at the end of the Round Robin:
1st : ETNZ 6 wins/1 loss 6
2nd : Mascalzone 5 wins/2 losses 5
3rd : ALL4ONE 4 wins/3 losses 4**
4th : Azzurra 4 wins/3 losses 4
5th : Artemis 4 wins/3 losses 4
6th : TEAMORIGIN 3 wins/4 losses 3
7th: Aleph* 2 wins*/5 losses 1
8th: Synergy 0 wins/7 losses 0
(*docked 1 point today for collision)
(** ALL4ONE end up in third place as they beat Mascalzone (Azzurra and Artemis both lost to Mascalzone)
Elimination Round One : racing for tomorrow:
1st v eighth : ETNZ v Synergy
2nd v seventh : Mascalzone v Aleph
3rd v sixth : ALL4ONE v TEAMORIGIN
4th v fifth : Azzurra v Artemis
Explanation of how the elimination rounds will work:
. Elimination Round 1: competitors will sail a knock out series, using the rankings for the RR1 so first v eighth, second v seventh etc. The two highest ranked (using the RR ranking) teams that win their matches in this round advance directly to the semi-finals. The two lowest ranked teams (using the RR ranking) to lose their matches are eliminated
. Elimination Round 2 : the four remaining teams are paired up and race for the two remaining semi final berths, with the winner from each pair advancing and the loser eliminated
. In the Semi-Final, the four remaining teams are paired up and race a 'first to two points' (best of 3 races) series. The winner from each pair advances to the Final
. In the Final, the winners from each semi-final pair race a 'first to 4 points' (best of 5 races) series to determine the winner of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland
For more information go to
www.teamorigin.com
by Leslie Greenhalgh
Click on thumbnails to enlarge and find more photos:
|
