The 3rd Race goes into History. 2:1 for the Kiwis.

Been in Valencia on June 26th to watch the third race in the 2007 America´s Cup with my fellow colleagues. We had booked the full program including the MY "Newflash" going out on the race course. The picture to the left shows the ETNZ leaving the marina through the canal at about 12.00h as being the first team. The "B" team with helmsman Ben Ainsle left just before. We headed out at around 14.30h. It was a lumpy sea out there, big swell right in front of the canal. These conditions would have been called "boat breaking conditions" in San Diego in the early days of the IACC class. The girls from my team went complete seasick, my "toughest man" a little green despite the seasickness pills which we had been taken. They were warned and the rest of the team decided to stay outside until it is finished. Readers of the official site and the various blogs (I highly recommend my AM Cup link list) will know that we had to wait until a minute to 17.00h when Peter Reggio started the race. That it would become the "race of the century" was not clear at that moment and not 10 minutes into the race when the Kiwis had hit a right hand shift, a big lift for them which also had more pressure. Their lead was about 300m on the virtuell eye, which was installed on a plasma screen on the yacht. We had a very experienced captain who was able to place the 26m luxury MY at the center of the action. Often bringing the boat into the "not allowed" area which was marked with red buoys and only allowed for boats with red/yellow flags. There was plenty to see and plenty to discuss and the crew of "NEWFLASH" brought champagne out when the race was finished on a nail biter.

The evening was spend in the Estrella Damm bar (as the evening before) where we met some friends and also people from the German Team. They kept their lips tight about next days announcement that Karol Jablonsky (DN P-36) would become skipper of the UITG-Team who had just been allocated sail nr. GER-101 for their second IAC Yacht, which is under construction around the corner in Kiel. Anyway it had been an unforgettable time spend in Valencia for the 32nd America´s Cup. I close this report with a picture, also taken with my mobile. Showing ETNZ with skipper Dean Barker, coming in after that hard earned victory against Alinghi. I must admit, that I fear at this stage, that Alinghi will shift up another gear and are coming back into their winning zone. We will wait and see. Three interesting days are lying ahead.
Eine gut geschriebene Zusammenfassung des 3. Rennens fand ich auf meiner Clubseite. Hier der Link: http://www.ssc-online.de/html/rennen_3.html

Gone Sailing and watching the AM Cup

Two ..uuhps three tasks at hand on the weekend:
1. "Samantha" had to be delivered to Flensburg for the upcoming Musto-Double-Hand-Challenge.
2. On Friday we had been invited to race on a Archambauld 35 during Kieler Woche and:
3. The first two races in the Americas Cup this season!
Gone sailing in Kiel Friday evening. The pleasure factor from this regatta being just OK. Nice boat but with a 35 footer you would not like to start in IMS 1 where you have mostly 45 footers upward. Takes a bit of fun away already close after the start. One after the other is passing just on the basis of a longer waterline.
Saturday afternoon we watched the first race (on compie) and were not too much impressed after that first wind shift which some commentators have seen at abt. 10-12° in favour of "Alinghi". Nevertheless she did not look slow.
Jumped into the car after the race to drive up north (Maasholm) to the boat and detaching ropes within half an hour. Sailing upwind until midnight in a nice breeze and a late sundown with some moon putting a silver shine on the sea. Berthed for the night at Marina Minde late at one o´clock and leaving next day in a rainstorm reefed. Ended up motoring in no wind at close to 13.ooh into the Marina Sonwik and got collected after putting all the wet stuff away. Just making it home for the second race and man, has it been exciting. 1:1 and everything is OK. Tomorrow I will be with my team in Valencia watching the third race. I still cannot believe this as we had booked it already last year. And now we see a very important race.

A friend had send me some interesting comment on the race strategy yesterday. Read for yourself if you have not scrolled through all my links on the right side. As I understand the analyses is from Gary Jobson. One of my favourite tacticans of the old days. He and Dr. Stuart Walker whom´s books taughed me a lot.

quote
ETNZ caught a favorable wind shift on the left side of the course during
a tacking duel. ETNZ closed within one boat length after trailing by
three lengths. Hutchinson called for his helmsman, Dean Barker, to sail
low of course by about 7 degrees. But ETNZ did not ease the sails out.
Butterworth on Alinghi called for helmsman, Ed Baird to tack right on
the Kiwi’s wind. Fooled by NZ’s head fake, the call to tack was made too
early. Instead of hurting NZ’s wind Alinghi allowed the Kiwis to have
clear air in their sails. Barker brought his boat back up on the wind
and now had the Swiss blocked. It was a rare mistake by Butterworth. And
it was costly.

Quelle: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/gj/#Race2