Thursday, May 17, 2007

Louis Vuitton Semi-Final - Match 3

In semi final A Desafio Espanol had a magnificent start against ETNZ. ETNZ entered from the committee boat end and both boats immediately went into a short dial up. They then peeled away on opposite tacks before coming back again into a dial up, ETNZ displaying the “Y” flag against the Spanish claiming they did not do enough to keep clear. A green flag by the umpires and ETNZ was forced to tack away onto port and were slow after such a sharp turn. The Spanish took advantage of this and went into a gybe immediately to be right on the New Zealanders stern, both boats heading toward the right hand side of the starting box. ETNZ then had a brain failure in the back of the boat and made a desperate attempt to gybe across the bow of the Spanish who immediately displayed the “Y” flag and a penalty to ETNZ was awarded by the on water umpires. ETNZ looked shaken up and Spain managed to gain the right hand end of the line at the gun and head out to the right hand side of the course with ETNZ following a few boat lengths astern and to windward. Once on the right hand side of the course, the Spanish received a nice little righty and made a gain over ETNZ rounding the top mark 14 seconds ahead. From then on the Spanish did a wonderful job to stay between their opposition and the next mark, achieving a well earned win. The final delta was of course large due to ETNZ having to complete their penalty before finishing. The series is now 2-1 in favour of ETNZ. In semi final B, the prestart was relatively subdued and each boat looked to have a different strategy for the first beat, USA starting at the pin and heading left, Luna Rossa starting at the boat and heading right. Of course the outcome was the same as in the first match of the day and Luna Rossa lead at the top mark by 29 seconds. Torben Grael had obviously learned from the previous days mistake and stayed between BMW Oracle and the next mark never really straying far away from the opposition and guess what… it worked. BMW Oracle could never find a passing lane and finished 31 seconds behind Luna Rossa. The series is now 2-1 in favour of Luna Rossa.

All four teams have a rest day on Thursday before racing again on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

ITA-94 Luna Rossa cross the finish line to win match 3

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