Conditions on the Hauraki Gulf for Flights 7 and 8 of Round Robin 2, sailed Thursday, couldn’t have been better, and as a result, 7 out of the 8 scheduled races were held. Prada continued its RR #2 comeback, but it wasn’t easy. A speedy Orm fought like a badger in the first race, at one point taking the lead until Prada passed during a hard-fought jibing duel on the final leg. Team GBR gave no quarter in Prada’s second race of the day, actually leading at the first weather mark, but losing the lead amidst a flurry of protest flags and aggressive downwind tactics on the first downwind leg.
It was a clash of the titans as Oracle and OneWorld went at it Thursday morning. Chris Dickson called tactics for helmsman Peter Holmberg while Larry Ellison watched the race from behind the tinted glass on his motoryacht Katana. In one of the more exciting starts of the series so far, Oracle locked OneWorld out at the boat end of the line as the gun went off but ended up being over by a hair. As a result, both boats circled and crossed the line thirty seconds after the gun. Playing the shifts well gave Oracle the advantage and the win.
Stars & Stripes managed to hold off a faster-looking Le Defi Areva to snap their losing streak, but was handled by a polished Alinghi team in their second match. OneWorld won their second race of the day, a close match against the Swedes.
EXTRA GBR/Alinghi race to be re-sailed
GBR’s Ian Walker made it clear how he felt about the race committee’s handling of the massive wind shifts during Race 5 earlier this week. “There’s a number of errors ranging from where the course area was,” he said. ” The length of the course, as well as procedural errors.” GBR lost the race with Alinghi and filed for redress.
The international jury has agreed with Walker and has scheduled a re-sail of the GBR/Alinghi match for the end of Round Robin 2.
Flight 6
GBR Challenge beat Mascalzone Latino by 1m:40s
Oracle beat OneWorld by 40s
Prada beat Victory by 10s.
Stars & Stripes beat Le Defi by 49s
Alinghi off
Flight 7
Alinghi beat Stars & Stripes by 49s
Prada beat GBR Challenge by 16s
OneWorld beat Victory by 21s
Oracle vs. Le Defi postponed by Le Defi for hydraulics damage
Mascalzone off
Scores as of 10/31
Alinghi Challenge–12
OneWorld Challenge–10
Prada Challenge–10
Oracle BMW Racing–7
Victory Challenge–6
GBR Challenge–6
Team Dennis Conner–5
Mascalzone Latino–1
Le Défi Aréva–0
Schedule Change
Instead of running Flight 9 Friday afternoon, the Louis Vuitton Cup RC will run three races postponed from Flight 4, Round Robin 2.
Flight 8
Match 1 GBR vs. Victory
Match 2 Le Defi vs. OneWorld
Match 3 Alinghi vs. Oracle
Match 4 Mascalzone Latino vs. Stars & Stripes
Prada off
Postponed matches from Flight 4
Match 1 Oracle vs. Stars & Stripes
Match 2 GBR vs. Le Defi
Match 3 Alinghi vs. Prada
