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.

America’s Cup: Luna Rossa and Emirates TNZ Score in First Races of Louis Vuitton Semi-Finals

BARCELONA, Spain, May 14, 2007 (The Boating Channel) - The Louis Vuitton Cup has been whittled down from eleven teams to just four. Emirates Team New Zealand, BMW Oracle, Luna Rossa and Desafío Español 2007 emerged from the Round Robins at the top of the leaderboard, and they are now paired up for the Semi Finals match portion of the event. Today they engaged in their first battles after a short four-day rest.

Following a few weeks of ragged scheduling dictated by fickle weather, the Round Robins finally closed last week with Team New Zealand in first place. BMW Oracle had been leading the Round Robin series from the start, but some false steps at the end cost them the top spot – and the right to select their opponent in the semi-finals. The second place ranking may prove costly for the Americans, who must sail the semi-finals against a strong Luna Rossa.

Emirates Team Zealand logically chose Desafio Espanol 2007 as its Semi Final opponent. The Spanish team has never beaten the Kiwis in seven tries during the pre-match events over the past three years. Today was no exception.

BMW Oracle’s history with Luna Rossa gave the Americans some reason for optimism. They have won six matches against the Italians, five of them in the last six races during the 2006 and 2007 events. But today’s race put them down by one in the best of nine series.

The Finals series will be a head-to-head competition between the two winners of the Semi-Finals. The victor in the Finals wins the right to take on Team Allinghi for the America’s Cup.

Racing will continue on Tuesday.

Match 1: Luna Rossa Challenge beat BMW ORACLE Racing

In the pre-start it looked as though Luna Rossa might be able to close BMW ORACLE Racing out above the Race Committee boat, but Chris Dickson and his afterguard had factored in some current sweeping across the start line. The American boat slotted in nicely next to the boat with Luna Rossa just to the left.

After sailing locked together for many minutes, which seemed very sensible with the wildly shifting offshore breeze, the Italians and Americans broke away to opposite sides of the course. Luna Rossa tactician Torben Grael found the better breeze to the left and the Italians rounded 52 seconds ahead.

Around the top mark, USA 98 picked up a beautiful puff of breeze and surged down the right-hand side of the course. The Italians meanwhile had already gybed off to the centre of the course and were wallowing by comparison. Dickson recouped a 400 metre deficit to put Luna Rossa helmsman James Spithill under pressure at the leeward gate, Dickson initiating an aggressive luffing match.

Spithill did just enough to claim the left-hand gate mark while the Americans peeled away to the right, just 7 seconds back. Again both boats gambled with their respective sides of the course and again the Italians’ faith in the left paid off as they leapt to another 400-metre lead.

This time the Italians did a better job of shadowing the Americans down the final run, and even when the breeze shifted nearly 180-degrees just before the finish, Luna Rossa capitalized on the changeable conditions and stretched the winning margin to 2:19 minutes at the finish.

Match 2: Emirates Team New Zealand beat Desafío Español

If the Italians and Americans were playing their match fast and loose, Emirates Team New Zealand took no such chances. Dean Barker won the right-hand end of the start and it wasn’t long before the Kiwis had established a small lead over Desafío Español 2007. After winning the lead from the right, Barker dragged the match to the left-hand layline and led Karol Jablonski to the first mark by 1:03.

However, with the Kiwis sailing very defensively they yielded some of that lead to round the left-hand leeward mark by just 41 seconds. The Spanish brought the match even closer up the final windward leg, rounding 30 seconds behind at the final turning mark.

As new breeze filled in across the course, and the teams were forced to douse spinnakers in favor of jibs for some close reaching to the finish, the Kiwis extended away to win by 43 seconds at the finish.