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Easy win for Örn in debut
04-10-2002
Örn, with Jesper Bank at the helm, won the start against France's Le Défi Areva by one second. This slight lead at the beginning of the race soon increased into a safe lead. Not once during the whole race was the Swedish America's Cup challenge threatened. They finally won by one minute and six seconds. This is how the second racing day of the Louis Vuitton Cup unfolded: The premiere has begun. Örn (SWE 63) is sailing her first America's Cup match. Exactly at the scheduled time, two thirty this morning European time, Örn passed the starting line slightly ahead of Le Défi Areva. Örn started on the left side of the course and helmsman Jesper Bank made a perfect start without having to confront FRA 69. Obviously neither of the challengers is prepared to take any risks. Victory Challenge takes the lead. Örn is showing her renowned speed against FRA 69 during the first tack. Örn takes a firm hand of the match early on and later increases her advantage. About two boat lengths are between them 20 minutes into the race. Örn rounds the top mark with an even bigger lead, 26 seconds. Directly after rounding the mark, Le Défi suffers something that can easily happen in the America's Cup - the spinnaker tears. A spinnaker can be changed quite quickly but it does mean you lose speed. Örn has the opportunity to increase her lead even more. It's blowing 15 knots on Hauraki Gulf. It was 17 knots at the start - and the wind will continue to drop just as the meteorologists had predicted, down to around 12 knots. Örn defends her lead on the on the run and even increases it to 38 seconds. Le Défi had done a good job though, considering the spinnaker mishap. On the second upwind, Örn can defend her lead but FRA 69 cuts it by six seconds. The lead at the top mark second time round is 32 seconds. Even if Örn is normally fast upwind and can lose slightly downwind, in this match it's exactly the opposite. On the second run, Örn increases her lead to 48 seconds again. There are only two of the six legs remaining. On the final upwind, the lead increases to exactly one minute. It will take a major breakdown if Örn is to lose her premiere match in the Louis Vuitton Cup. The other matches had already started when Örn and FRA 69 crossed the starting line, as this is the fourth and last match of the day. Stars & Stripes, USA, is meeting the Italian Prada; OneWorld, USA is meeting Alinghi of Switzerland and Oracle BMW Racing is sailing against Italy's Mascalzone Latino. During the first leg, Stars & Stripes, OneWorld and Oracle are leading their matches. It's also Stars & Stripes that rounds the first top mark in a clear lead ahead of Prada, who sacked their head designer Doug Peterson the night before. OneWorld also rounds the first top mark in the lead ahead of the Swiss favourites Alinghi. Less of a surprise is that Oracle rounds the top mark ahead of Mascalzone. The lead in these matches doesn't change on the first run. But Alinghi, who was far behind, has gained considerably ahead of the last leg. There's only ten seconds up to OneWorld as the last run begins. The Alinghi skipper is Russell Coutts, who held the same position with Team New Zealand when they won the America's Cup in 1995 as well as 2000. Being behind in an America's Cup match is something he's not used to. Three years ago in the final, Team New Zealand won 5-0 over Prada. You must go back to individual matches during New Zealand's successful challenge in San Diego 1995 to find a situation that is the equivalent of what's happening on Hauraki Gulf today. Stars & Stripes has a continued safe lead over Prada. Oracle has an even safer lead against Mascalzone Latino. But Alinghi is threatening OneWorld. But OneWorld, with Peter Gilmour, manages to win over Russell Coutts by 10 seconds. Stars & Stripes has then already beaten Prada by 35 seconds and Oracle won easily over Mascalzone by 2.03. Bert Willborg/Victory Challenge Times for each leg Victory Challenge, Sweden-Le Défi Areva, France Start Örn wins by 1 second Leg 1 Örn leads by 26 seconds Leg 2 Örn leads by 38 Leg 3 Örn leads by 32 Leg 4 Örn leads by 48 Leg 5 Örn leads by 1.00 Finish Örn wins by 1.06 Stars & Stripes, USA-Prada, Italy Start Prada wins by 5 seconds Leg 1 Stars & Stripes leads by 32 seconds Leg 2 Stars & Stripes leads by 43 Leg 3 Stars & Stripes leads by 51 Leg 4 Stars & Stripes leads by 45 Leg 5 Stars & Stripes leads by 54 Finish Stars & Stripes wins by 35 seconds OneWorld, USA-Alinghi, Switzerland Start OneWorld wins by 8 seconds Leg 1 OneWorld leads by 22 seconds Leg 2 OneWorld leads by 22 Leg 3 OneWorld leads by 19 Leg 4 OneWorld leads by 10 Leg 5 OneWorld leads by 22 Finish OneWorld wins by 10 seconds Oracle BMW Racing-Mascalzone Latino, Italy Start Oracle wins by 1 second Leg 1 Oracle leads by 54 seconds Leg 2 Oracle leads by 47 Leg 3 Oracle leads by 1.15 Leg 4 Oracle leads by 1.01 Leg 5 Oracle leads by 2.00 Finish Oracle wins by 2.03 The first day of racing ended as follows Alinghi, Switzerland-Le Défi Areva, France 1-0 GBR Challenge, Great Britain-Stars & Stripes, USA 0-1 Oracle BMW Racing, USA-Prada, Italy 1-0 Mascalzone Latino, Italy-OneWorld, USA 0-1 Standings just now 1. Oracle BMW Racing, USA, 2 points Stars & Stripes, USA, 2 points OneWorld, USA, 2 points 4. Alinghi, Switzerland, 1 point Victory Challenge, Sweden, 1 point. 6. Le Défi Areva, France, 0 points Mascalzone Latino, Italy, 0 points Prada, Italy, 0 points GBR Challenge, Great Britain, 0 points Victory Challenge had a bye for the first day of racing GBR Challenge had the bye last night OneWorld will receive a one-point penalty on completion of the two round robins, in which all meet all. They are being penalised for possessing confidential information from Team New Zealand relating to their NZL 60, the winning boat in the 2000 America's Cup. Early on Saturday morning, Örn will be racing against unbeaten Stars & Stripes. Unbeaten OneWorld will be meeting GBR Challenge, Great Britain. Mascalzone Latino, no wins, will meet Alinghi, one win. |
