As promised - Alinghi and Luna Rossa raced on Friday afternoon
The format was running starts and then racing until a clear leader emerged (which wouldn’t be such a bad idea for the main event, and certainly a hell of a lot less painful than watching one boat trail helplessly behind another for 90 minutes).
Luna Rossa turned up fully cocked, and according Valencia Sailing at least, Alinghi came with SUI 100, steered by Ed Baird – which would appear to confirm rumours that Ed has got the nod as helmsman over Peter Holmberg.
According to the various reports, (also see ACM and the BOB blog), Alinghi won the first one, which ended at the first cross. In the second, Luna Rossa got the hook on Alinghi and peeled them off, forcing a downspeed start at the committee boat on port. But it didn’t work out so well for Luna Rossa after Alinghi found a big right shift and won the first cross by a couple of hundred metres. And the third was started in what were officially un-race-able conditions, under seven knots. Luna Rossa went around the first mark eight lengths clear and extended on the run, where Alinghi tore their spinnaker at the gate. So Alinghi need to tighten up their crew-work a bit, but when was the last time anyone won the Cup on the basis of their crew work?
And Tim Jeffery has got a blog on the Louis Vuitton Cup presentation, which was done to the Oasis track (Parental Advisory) ‘Fucking in the Bushes’. Tim points out that the lyrics may not have been appropriate for either the children present, or watching on tv…
‘We put this festival on you bastards, with a lot of love.
We worked for 1 year for you pigs.
And you wanna break our walls down.
And you wanna destroy us.
Well you go-da HELL!
Kids are running around naked fuckin in the bushes…’
But may throw some light on ACM’s attitude to sponsors Louis Vuitton (with whom they have an on-going legal dispute), or maybe it's the rest of us they're trying to tell something…
America's Cup Live Race Commentary at:
www.tackbytack.com
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©
The format was running starts and then racing until a clear leader emerged (which wouldn’t be such a bad idea for the main event, and certainly a hell of a lot less painful than watching one boat trail helplessly behind another for 90 minutes).
Luna Rossa turned up fully cocked, and according Valencia Sailing at least, Alinghi came with SUI 100, steered by Ed Baird – which would appear to confirm rumours that Ed has got the nod as helmsman over Peter Holmberg.
According to the various reports, (also see ACM and the BOB blog), Alinghi won the first one, which ended at the first cross. In the second, Luna Rossa got the hook on Alinghi and peeled them off, forcing a downspeed start at the committee boat on port. But it didn’t work out so well for Luna Rossa after Alinghi found a big right shift and won the first cross by a couple of hundred metres. And the third was started in what were officially un-race-able conditions, under seven knots. Luna Rossa went around the first mark eight lengths clear and extended on the run, where Alinghi tore their spinnaker at the gate. So Alinghi need to tighten up their crew-work a bit, but when was the last time anyone won the Cup on the basis of their crew work?
And Tim Jeffery has got a blog on the Louis Vuitton Cup presentation, which was done to the Oasis track (Parental Advisory) ‘Fucking in the Bushes’. Tim points out that the lyrics may not have been appropriate for either the children present, or watching on tv…
‘We put this festival on you bastards, with a lot of love.
We worked for 1 year for you pigs.
And you wanna break our walls down.
And you wanna destroy us.
Well you go-da HELL!
Kids are running around naked fuckin in the bushes…’
But may throw some light on ACM’s attitude to sponsors Louis Vuitton (with whom they have an on-going legal dispute), or maybe it's the rest of us they're trying to tell something…
America's Cup Live Race Commentary at:
www.tackbytack.com
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©