Desafio Espanol climbing to the top 3

source by: www.karoljablonski.pl

Today in Valencia we faced few very good matches that cleared the ranking list before the final fight tommorow. The most expected match was between Mascalzone Latino and Shosholoza for the place in top 4. Shosholoza after its victory over Luna Rossa was seen as the "dark horse" that could mess a bit in the ranking. Unfortunately despite good piece of match racing Shosholoza was defeated by the equipment failure as its spinnaker got wrapped up.
Another interesting fight was between Victory Challenge and Desafio Espanol who beat United Team Germany in flight 8. After the clear advantage of Desafio during first 3 legs of the course, on the second run Victory Challenge who sailed to the left of the course managed to catch Desafio and even take a small lead. Karol Jablonski, skipper of Desafio Espanol, kept cold blood and defended his position serving another victory for Desafio Espanol.

"Every day of LVC was very intense, every match very important and the tight fight required staying focused all the time.
After today's two victories with United Team Germany and Victory Challenge we are on the 3rd place ex aequo with Italian team Luna Rossa Challenge. Tommorow we are going to face two, very hard matches - with BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa. We expect a lot of pressure from the rivals' side but we will try to do our best not to give them the victory to easy.
In the match with Germans we managed to catch our oponents on the penalty. After the start we defended the right side of the course and rounded the mark with an advantage of 2 boat lenghts. We were focused during whole race and made a lot of good manuevers. The distance between the boats was never bigger than 500 m what only proved that the German boat was not slower than ours. Before the second race we could see that the left side of the course was more favourable. During the pre-start we fought agressively to start in the right side. Our opponent without any other choice sailed to the right what gave us 3 meters of lead at the first crossing. Wind was tricky and shifty at the strenght of 9-10 knts. It was extremely hard to control the advantage as every gust of wind had a big influence on the boat's speed. The last run was dramatic as Swedish got bigger gust and teoretically overtook us. Luckly we had better tactical position and hold her until the right moment to attack our rival who gybed to the finish. We won the race by 35 seconds and it was a very precious victory! All of us are tired but need to carry on..." - summed up the day Karol Jablonski.

Tommorow the last matches of first Round Robin. The emotions are expected to reach high level so stay with us for more news.

Valencia: A tight leaderbord

A pecking order is beginning to be established after seven flights of racing at the Louis Vuitton Cup, with the best teams establishing themselves at the top of the leaderboard.

Certainly, BMW ORACLE Racing has had an impressive opening to the regatta, going undefeated to this point. Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are close behind.

But the chasing pack is deep and motivated. Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team has lost just one match so far, good enough for fourth place, whilst Desafío Español and Victory Challenge are lurking just behind. Shosholoza dropped two races yesterday, but could be back in the hunt with a good afternoon today.

The big matche in Flight 8, which is sure to impact the leaderboard, is between Shosholoza and Mascalzone Latino on the south course. In Flight 9, Victory Challenge battles Desafío Español on the north course.

The forecast is calling for Easterly winds near 10 knots, under cloudy skies.

Two victories by Desafio Espanol

source: www.karoljablonski.pl

Once again we managed to fulfill the plan of the day by winning with China Team and Shosholoza.
The first victory with China Team was a formality and we treated it as the warm-up before very important match with Shosholoza. Wind was blowing today with the strenght up to 20 knt and the wave got big as well. Both of us started equally, us to the leeward of our rival and after intensive tacking duel we reached the weather mark just after the stern of Shosholoza. We managed however to get to leeward of him by better maneuvring and gained control. During whole downwind leg we were sailing close to each other, changing course and gybing very often what at this wind strenght costed grinnders a lot of hard work. Just before reaching the gate we got 20 seconds advantage but while rounding the mark we got terrified as one of our crew members fell of the boat and was taken out of water at the very last moment.If we didn't make it, we would be penalized what would change the situation completely. We controlled the game until the finish and when crossing it we were happy of what we have accomplished today. Tommorow another important matches with United Team Germany and Victory Challenge.

Regards,
Karol Jablonski

Good day for Desafio Espanol

source: www.karoljablonski.pl

Today the weather in Valencia surprised all participants of Louis Vuitton Cup. The PRO Peter Reggio managed to complete two flights 4 and 5 which was full of unexpected results. Schoscholoza team beat Luna Rossa Challenge and BMW Oracle also managed to win with James Spithill team by only 6 seconds advantage at the finishing line.

Desafio Espanol lead by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski has on its account after today's racing one victory and one defeat. After a lot of intensive tacking duels Spanish syndicate managed to beat Mascalzone Latino. It was a very solid fight in which Karol Jablonski proved his high-leveled match racing skills.

Second match with Emirates TNZ was not that successful but still interesting.
"In the second race we faced Emirates TNZ. Our weather team was pointing the left side of the course as a favourable one in terms of wind strenght and wind shifts.
We had a very good start from the pin end and sailed to the left. Our rivals chose the rights side of the course.Unfortunately, the expected shift of wind did not show up and after few tacks we rounded the weather mark with a big lose to our opponents. At the later stage of the race this distance was not shrinking although we constantly tried to attack the NZ team. Our rivals were sailing smart today and deserved this victory. The plan for the day for our team was however completed and this is the most important thing. We will face much more important races and this regatta will definately be hard ones...." - summed up Karol Jablonski.

Desafio Espanol vs Areva Challenge

source: www.karoljablonski.pl

Karol Jablonski, the skipper of Desafio Espanol 2007 about unfortunate match with Areva Challenge:

Today's match with French syndicate Areva was indeed very unfortunate for our team. I was able to control the pre-start until the end and I could practicly make the start for our rival much more difficult. However, we wanted to start from the Race Committee end and defend the right side of the course which was far more windy. On the first leg downwind while being on the lead we broke our gennaker pole and were deprived of the possibility of defense. Without the gennaker pole the boat sails approx. 1-1,5 knt slower. On the beat the boat was fast and except the final result I am very happy with the speed of the boat and the teamwork. I am optimistic and looking forward to next matches with Mascalzone Latino and Emirates TNZ. Unfortunately the weather forecast does not look promising...
Regards, Karol Jablonski

translation from Polish: Sofia Truchanowicz

Valencia: Swinging Keel ???

Source: www.nzherald.co.nz

The possibility of an America's Cup syndicate having engineered a breakthrough that would make a swinging keel legal gained momentum yesterday.
Cup technical director Ken McAlpine yesterday held a surprise media briefing where he was questioned on the concept.......

Read more in Match Race Event section

Karol Jabłoński about victory over +39

source: www.karoljablonski.pl

After 4 days of waiting finally we managed to complete the first race of LVC - said Karol Jablonski, Polish skipper of Spanish syndicate Desafio Espanol 2007. The victory over team +39 fulfilled our expectations - he continues.

Wind conditions were very complicated, light, constantly shifting direction of wind required permanent trimming of sails and careful steering. Tactician and strategist had a difficult task in finding the spots with more gusts. During the pre-start we got a penalty while fighting for the right side of course which was more windy. Nevertheless, thanks to consequent sailing we took our penalty before reaching the first mark and kept the lead which we were increasing until the finish

Our boat is sailing quite fast and now we will face two very important matches with Areva Challenge and Malcalzone Latino - Capitalia Team who today has sensationaly beat Emirates TNZ.

Regards, Karol Jablonski

translation from Polish: Sofia Truchanowicz

LVC: There was wind and Mascalzone beat ETNZ

Flight 1 Results
BMW Oracle Racing beat United Internet Team Germany
Victory Challenge beat Shosholoza
Luna Rossa beat China Team
Areva Challenge beat +39 Challenge
Mascalzone Latino beat Emirates Team New Zealand

Flight 2 Results
Desafio Espanol beat +39 Challenge
Mascalzone Latino beat Areva Challenge
Shosholoza beat United Internet Team Germany
BMW Oracle Racing beat China Team
Luna Rossa beat Victory Challenge

So the Louis Vuitton table looks like this after the first day’s racing:

Team Points
Luna Rossa Challenge 7
BMW ORACLE Racing 7
Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team 6
Desafio Espanol 5
Emirates Team New Zealand 4
Victory Challenge 4
Shosholoza 4
Areva Challenge 3
+39 Challenge 2
United Internet Team Germany 1
China Team 1

Valencia: New Schedule for Round Robin 1 and 2

Source: Challenger Commission

At 0800 this morning at the Jury Meeting Room in the ACM offices there will be a meeting of Louis Vuitton Cup competitors. This has been called by the Regatta Director, Dyer Jones, to consider a significant rescheduling of racing for Rounds Robin 1 and 2.

This in response to the unprecedented (at least for the LVC) four days of postponed racing, and with the prospects for more postponements today and through the weekend due forecasts for continuing light winds.

This meeting will also, in effect, be a meeting of the Challenger Commission as the CC's advice and consent is required for what would be a significant amendment to the Notice of Race governing the Louis Vuitton Cup regatta.

The past two evening the CC's Notice of Race working party has met with Commodore Jones, ACM's CEO and COO, and Race Officers Peter Reggio and Harold Bennett to go over the "what-ifs", and a proposed new schedule of racing for Rounds Robin 1 and 2 has been drafted.
If embraced by the Challengers at this morning's meeting, it means, in effect, that we would "re-boot" the regatta.

Under the current schedule today is already a reserve day, and in accordance with the NOR Flights 1 and 2 postponed from Monday have automatically been rescheduled to today. The idea is to start anew, and reschedule racing from tomorrow (Saturday) as if the RR1 started today.

That means Flights 3 and 4 tomorrow, 5 and 6 Sunday, etc., with a re-shuffle of race and reserve days to fit in all 20 races of RR1 and RR2 between now and the 8th or 9th (or maybe 10th) of May.Of course we will post the results of this morning's meeting here on the CCB when we get a change later this morning.

Valencia: Will there be wind today

In the past days we wrote about the races who should be sailed today etc...guess the pairing list is out and the forecast doesn’t look promising.

For sure there is a plus for Valencia comparing to Auckland for those who follow the event from home: you don't have to stay up all night hoping that there will be a race.....

UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour Starts

This weekend start the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour in Geneva.
Here is the entry list

1 Markus Bohren SUI 116
2 Marcel Walser SUI 196
3 Roger Stocker SUI 271
4 Pierre Yves Pfirter SUI 364
5 Jéròme Clerc SUI 381
6 Nicolas Dérnvaud SUI 433
7 Jan van der Kruk SUI 718
8 Marc S. Ursenbacher SUI not ranked
9 Arthur Keller SUI not ranked
10 Christian Monachon SUI not ranked

Sailing Instructions for the Geneva event

The show must go on....

The show must go on as noting is happening on the water, the Spanish team will keep up the morale with a new cup called Triumph Fashion Cup.

Day 3 LVC Round Robin 1.....let's hope

It sounds almost like a joke there is no wind in Valencia for two consecutives days. If it's going to stay like this, for sure the event will not remain in Valencia in the future and a 2 year AC cycle will be impossible.

The matches of day 1 and day 2 are planed to be sailed on Sunday and Monday.
Richard Slater from BMW Oracle made a updated pairing list.

But if there will be wind today we start to have big team sailing against each other and the must see match is: Luna Rossa vs. BMW Oracle

Here's the schedule of today:

Flight 5
1. China Team vs. Team Shosholoza
2. Emirates Team New Zealand vs. Desafio Espanol 2007
3. Bye - Areva Challenge
4. Victory Challenge vs. United Internet Team Germany
5. Luna Rossa Challenge vs. BMW ORACLE Racing
6. +39 Challenge vs. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team

Flight 6
1. China Team vs. Desafio Espanol 2007
2. Team Shosholoza vs. Emirates Team New Zealand
3. Bye - BMW ORACLE Racing
4. Areva Challenge vs. Luna Rossa Challenge
5. United Internet Team Germany vs. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team
6. +39 Challenge vs. Victory Challenge

Day 2 in Valencia, races posponed

Second day in Valencia with unstable wind conditions. The races from yesterday will be sailed later on in the round robin, let's hope that at least the races of today can be sailed.

Valencia Ready for Action

Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup begins today afternoon, with the first warning signal scheduled to fire at 14:05. 11 challengers from nine countries are racing for the right to battle Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup Match.

Each of the teams with a choice of two boats to race in the Louis Vuitton Cup have announced they will select the newest of their boats, meaning NZL
92 and USA 98 will make their competitive debuts today.

Today, racing is scheduled to begin at 14:15 in Round Robin One. The challengers race two full Round Robin series with only the top four advancing to the Semi Finals. The winners of each Semi Final best of nine will advance to the Final, from which the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will emerge.

Sunday afternoon +39 went back to sailing after the damage to the mast caused by the unfortunate collision during Act 13 of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Today's schedule:

Flight 1:
1. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team vs. Emirates Team New Zealand
2. +39 Challenge vs. Areva Challenge
3. Bye Desafio Espanol 2007
4. United Internet Team Germany vs. BMW ORACLE Racing
5. Team Shosholoza vs. Victory Challenge
6. China Team vs. Luna Rossa Challenge

Flight 2:
1. Desafio Espanol 2007 vs. +39 Challenge
2. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team vs. Areva Challenge
3. Bye Emirates Team New Zealand
4. United Internet Team Germany vs. Team Shosholoza
5. China Team vs. BMW ORACLE Racing
6. Victory Challenge vs. Luna Rossa Challenge

Match Race Flag Sets

Finally we go online with the matchrace.ch flag set.
The set is designed for a club to get all the necessary flags for 1 couple of boats.
If your club is already running match races or is planning to do so you will need 1 set for every 2 boats which includes also the umpire flags.
The same types of sets are also used for the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour, World Match Racing Tour in St. Moritz, Lugano Match Cup and many other events.

2 boats flags:
1x Yankee with stick and elastic
1x Yellow
1x Blue
1x Red
1x Lima

1 Umpire set
2 x Yellow on stick
2 x Blue on stick
1 x Green and white
1 x Red
1 x Black

Spare:
1 x Yellow on stick
1 x Blue on stick

1 Bag to properly store the flags

Costs:
1 complete set: 400 CHF or 270 Euro excl. shipment

Polish Match Racing growing in strenght

Hello Everyone,

it has been a long time since I last wrote on MATCHRACE.CH. Now I come back to you with fresh news that stole the past few months of my life...

Match Racing is undoubtfully growing all around the world. More and more events are organized every year and more sailors around the globe found the adventure with match racing attractive enough to do it internationally. Nevertheless, this widespread growth starts at the grass roots level which is the basis both for implemeting this format of racing on national field and also creating new teams that join the Match Racing family.

And for this reason I am more than happy to announce that Polish Match Racing is running through the immediate growth and is presently being widespread among whole country.
To give you the short background - Polish Match Racing has been truely started by the Sopot Match Racing Center which is run by Polish Match Racer Przemyslaw Tarnacki. Since 2004 SMRC is organizing the ISAF Graded Events, starting with Grade 2 in 2004 and following by Sopot Match Race Grade 1 in 2005 and 2006. This year SMRC is organizing the EUROSAF Match Race Europeans which is another top project of this Center.

Organizing events on the highest level does not however helps you that much to develop match racing and encourage new local and national competitors. For this purspose we have created Polish Match Racing Committee within Polish Yachting Association structures which is responsible to step few levels down and attract the grass roots to do match racing. Thanks to the great effort and tremendous work of the whole committee Polish Match Racing Cup was brought into life consisting of 9 events. All the events got the ISAF Grade 4 status and Polish Nationals were granted ISAF Grade 3.

12-13.05 - Zegrze Match Race I
16-17.06 - Zegrze Match Race II
23-24.06 - Lajkonik Match Race Cup
7-8.07 - Delphia 24 Match Race
14-15.07 - Płock Match Race 2007
28-29.07 - MT Partners YKP Gdynia Grand Prix
15-16.09 - Zegrze Match Race III
22-23.09 - Zegrze Match Race IV
5-7.10 - I Polish National Championship in Match Racing

This is just the beginning of our national stategic plan but even at this stage we do encourage other MNAs to increase their activity in the match racing field as this is surely the future of sailing in terms of media and sponsors attractivness and also fastly growing temptation for sailors.

I welcome all your comments regarding how match racing can be developed on national field. Let's share the opinions and experience and work together on the growth of Match Racing into strenght.

Best regards,
Sofia