America’s Cup: Big Loses for American and Spanish Teams in LV Semi Finals

Americans Down 3-1 against Italians; Kiwis in Control Over Spanish

VALENCIA, Spain, May 18, 2007 (The Boating Channel) – Prospects for an American team in this year’s America’s Cup are looking bleak, as BMW Oracle loses it’s third match to Luna Rossa, the Italian team that wasn’t supposed to defeat them. Today’s Semi Finals loss was the second in a row for Larry Ellison’s team, representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco – and the third in a best of nine series.

Emirates Team New Zealand, meanwhile, maintained their control over the Spanish Desafío Español, winning their third match today and giving them a 3-1 lead over the hometown team. The two teams that win the Semi Finals will meet in a head-to-head best-of-nine series in the final round, and the winner of the Finals goes on to challenge Team Alinghi in the America’s Cup.

After losing the first race on Monday to the Italians, BMW Oracle Racing clawed back nearly one minute over the course of the race on Tuesday to overhaul Luna Rossa Challenge and avoid dropping behind in the series 2 - 0. By making a pass on the final run, the Americans tied it up going into Wednesday’s race. But Luna Rossa turned it around on Wednesday, and today they scored a solid advantage, needing only two more wins to take the Semi Finals.

Emirates Team New Zealand looked good from the first race, and after Tuesday they had a 2-0 lead over Desafío Español. On Wednesday the Spanish team came back fighting and scored their first victory over the Kiwis. But the glory was short-lived, and today Emirates Team New Zealand came in 42 seconds ahead, securing a 3-1 lead going into tomorrow’s races.

Race 4, Match 1- Luna Rossa Challenge beat BMW ORACLE R

Chris Dickson succeeded in avoiding James Spithill’s attempt at aggression in the pre-start, and BMW ORACLE Racing rolled off the start line at pace, to the right of the equally quick Luna Rossa. When USA 98 tacked away, the Italians followed them out to the right, with a slight edge on the Americans.

After a long sail out to the right side of the course, Dickson eventually tacked, a move which initiated a long and tiring tacking duel all the way to the starboard layline. From there the Italians led around the windward mark with a 13 second advantage. Unlike previous races where USA 98 had shown a clear downwind advantage, the Italians kept their rivals at bay and led by 12 seconds at the leeward gate.

However, after a tightly fought match up to this point, Luna Rossa allowed BMW ORACLE to break away unchallenged to the left, Torben Grael keeping faith in the right. By the time Dickson tacked back, the separation between the boats was 2700 meters across the race course. Everything would now come down to who found the better wind. For a time it looked like USA 98 had the advantage to the left but when the boats finally reconvened in the middle of the course, Italy had jumped ahead to a five-boat-length lead.

It was a 29-second delta round the final mark and despite a protracted gibing duel down the last leg BMW ORACLE could only close the gap to 23 seconds by the finish. It was an emphatic victory for Luna Rossa.

Race 4, Match 2 – Emirates Team New Zealand beat Desafí

Karol Jablonski has looked very dangerous in the pre-start, but today Dean Barker gibed inside Desafío Español to seize the right-hand side of the start box. However, rather than starting on the right, Barker got a hook on the green boat, by slipping his bow under the Spanish transom, forcing Jablonski to tack away towards the Race Committee boat. The Spanish started downspeed while the Kiwis accelerated off the left-hand end of the line.

The New Zealanders sailed a typically tight match against Spain, taking small chunks out of their opposition in a tacking duel up the first beat and leading by 25 seconds at the first mark. They were never seriously challenged after that, and Emirates Team New Zealand crossed the finish 42 seconds ahead.