Shosholoza slam dunk Alinghi

Alinghi nobbled again at Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

Results:

POOL A
	ETNZ	BMWO	K Challenge	Damiani	China
ETNZ v	-	W	W	W	W
BMWO v	L	-	W	W	W
K Challenge v	L	L	-	L	W
Damiani Italia v	L	L	W	-	W
China Team v	L	L	L	L	-
POOL B
	Alinghi	Luna Rossa	TEAMORIGIN	Shosholosa	Greek
Alinghi v	-	W	L	L	W
Luna Rossa v	L	-	L	W	W
TEAMORIGIN v	W	W	-	W	W
Shosholosa v	W	L	L	-	L
Greek Challenge v	L	L	L	W	-

The biggest upset in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series came today on Auckland Harbour as South Africa’s Team Shosholoza slam-dunked the America’s Cup defenders, Alinghi.

Without a win after three days of racing, the South Africans skippered by Italian match racer Paolo Cian came out with all guns blazing against the Swiss boat helmed by two-time cup winner Ed Baird.

Cian used the favoured starboard tack entry to the starting box to engage Baird in a prolonged dial-up above the starting line that stretched out over more than three drawn-out minutes. It was a virtuoso performance. The American had the option of tacking away, but opted to hold his boat motionless, head to wind in anticipation of an error by his opponent. But Cian never blinked and stayed in control, until he peeled off to return in a perfectly-timed big sweeping turn below the line to start at speed. Baird was forced to follow nearly three boat lengths astern in his wake.

“It was the classic start that you want to keep in your mind for a long while,” said Cian. “We had the starboard tack advantage. At two minutes they had just one escape for them to roll on top of us and try to extend to the right. They chose to keep it slow.” Cian added that the tide was pushing both boats towards the committee boat and his crew did a great job of executing the turn back to the line.

From there, things went from bad to worse. Alinghi lost time on every leg, especially the bottom of the first run where a light patch of breeze and a wind shift cost valuable meters and left Baird’s foredeck crew scrambling to muzzle their spinnaker after rounding the mark. Alinghi was over a kilometre astern and 3m49s away when the South Africans finished.

Hear Brad Butterworth's verson of events here:



Conditions were perfect for racing, with bright sunshine, a puffy, shifty and warm northeasterly wind at 14-16 knots, and flat water in the Rangitoto Channel.

TeamOrigin today took on the fledgling Greek Challenge, skippered by Gavin Brady, but today with Theodoros Tsoulfas at the helm - the first time a Greek national has taken the helm of a Cup boat in competition, with Brady swapping jobs with Tsoulfas to call tactics. They managed to win the start by the narrowest of margins and went up the beat in very close contention with the Greeks, bouncing off tacks against each other with the Brits going right and the Greeks on the left side of the beat. By the time they reached the first windward mark TeamOrigin had eeked out a lead margin of 14 seconds.

By the first leeward mark, the Greeks were still fully in contention rounding just 17 seconds behind and still pushing hard and threatening TeamOrigin’s lead. Up the second beat the Greeks managed to close up the gap momentarily but then TeamOrigin sailed an impressive second half of the beat to stretch out their lead to 48 seconds.

The final downwind to the finish saw TeamOrigin covering the Greeks to claim their 4th win in a row by a margin of 58 seconds.

Ben Ainslie, skipper and helmsman, commented on the team’s performance in round robin 1, “A fantastic start for the team, now we have to learn from this round and keep marching forward. From here on in, all race count!”

Theodoros Tsoulfas, helmsman on Greek Challenge commented: “Without any doubt, this has been an amazing experience. I have been helming boats up to 50ft and this is a quantum leap for me. I was very nervous but I managed to steer the boat thanks to Gavin’s help. We made a number of mistakes in the race but I think we corrected most of them and achieved a respectable result.

"There is no comparison between ourselves and the other participants in this event; we have only been 12 times on these yachts while the rest of the teams have been taking part in the America’s Cup for years. In fact, we are honored to be here and stand against them. It’s a fantastic and unique opportunity. We are humbled by the talent around us in this event and it would have been ludicrous to come here and pretend we are equals with Ben Ainslie, Ian Percy, Andrew Simpson or Mike Sanderson. Winning a race is obviously a great feeling but our main goal in this event is to learn.

"We are passionate about learning and the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is just a stepping stone in a long process of building a Greek America’s Cup team.”

Gavin Brady, tactician on Greek Challenge: “Tsoulfas did a good job today, considering the fact it was the first time he steered an America’s Cup yacht. Don’t forget who we were racing against. Still, we sailed well and Origin beat us by less than a minute. The majority of the crew was Greek today and obviously had less experience but we are building here a team for the future, for the long term. So far we have achieved reasonable results and once again, I think that today Greek Challenge was better than yesterday. That’s our goal.”

In the match between Emirates Team NZ and France's Pataugas K-Challenge, Dean Barker won the start and then he and the crew patiently went about the business of putting together a performance that would ensure an unbeaten record in the first round robin.

Barker and the afterguard (tactician Ray Davies. strategist Adam Beashel and navigator Kevin Hall) took no risks and closed down the options for K-Challenge and after a closely fought first beat, established a comfortable lead on the first run which they extended to the finish. The margins tell the story: first mark ETNZ by 21sec, second mark 34sec and extending to 1m38sec at the finish.

Tactician Ray Davies said: “Dean did a very good job on the pre-start and we had full control, but with both boats on the port tack on the first beat the French were doing very well to leeward and gaining. We managed to get another little leftie and got strong again with a good lee bow tack. At the top mark we managed to squeeze them out and control them. After making more gains and leading by 30 or 40 sec we were able to sail our own race.”

In the final other race, BMW Oracle Racing defeated Damiani Italia by 52 seconds in a race that was close for the first three legs.

At the end of the first round robin, the scores are: Pool A – Emirates Team New Zealand, 4; BMW Oracle Racing, 3; Damiani Italia Challenge, 2; Pataugas K Challenge, 1; China Team, 0. Pool B – TEAMORIGIN, 4; Alinghi, 2; Luna Rossa, 2; Team Shosholoza, 1; Greek Challenge, 0.

After a lay day tomorrow, racing starts again on Thursday in the second round robin.

In the Gold Fleet
- Alinghi in NZL 84 will race TeamOrigin in NZL 92
- Damiani Italia Challenge in NZL 84 will race Emirates Team New Zealand in NZL 92
- BMW Oracle Racing in NZL 92 will race Luna Rossa in NZL 84.

In the Silver Fleet:
- Pataugas K-Challenge in USA 87 will race Greek Challenge in USA 98
- Team Shosholoza in USA 87 will race China Team in USA 98.

More photos on the following pages...