Luna Rossa is biting on steel

Photo (c) Chris Cameron

This is hard to digest for Luna Rossa, yesterday they focused on a good start not paying to much attention to the side. Today they got the right side but agiang a to expensive price. Dean invited James in to a dial down right before the start which forced the Italian a bear away hardly and forcing James to be late at the line.
Right after the start Luna Rossa had to tack away to the right side and the wind shifted slowly to the left and again a hard bill to pay for the Italians.
The kiwis are sailing by the bock, they tacked 23 times, no mistakes, the team is working like a Swiss watch not giving any chance to the Italians.
Yesterday on the run the Kiwis struggled to increase there lead, but not today.
During the second beat Luna Rossa gave everything to get back in the game tacking duel agin. ETNZ pushes Luna Rossa more and more to the right. Up at the weather mark the Kiwis coming in on port had all the time prepare the foredeck for the run, Luna Rossa approaching the mark 30 seconds lather had to tack and bear away to the downwind course, allowing the kiwis to extend their lead again.
Torben was pushing hard even on the run forcing ETNZ to one gybe after the other, and again we could see a perfect teamwork. The staysail cam up very fast after every gybe on both boats, but no way to reduce the gap.
With a lead of 40 seconds ETNZ sores 2:0 in this final.
Difficult situation for Luna Rossa, tomorrow they need a win to reduce the pressure on the team. Before the cup there was a lot of talking about the fastest boat being the winner, now
it looks like there is no much speed difference between the boats witch give a stronger weight to the human factor.
Let’s hope that Luna Rossa makes the point which give them a chance to catch up and us spectators a longer show.

Juerg Kaufmann

Great show in Valencia

That’s exactly what we all expected, an intense race between the 2 LVC finalists.

Both team did a great job ETNZ managed to get the right at the start, maybe also as it looked like LR was going for the leeward of ETNZ and ending up on the left side.

Now the wind in Valencia is up and stable at 13 – 15 knots and therefore it turns with the sun to the right during the day. The race started at 110 and slowly it went to 140 together with the sun.

In the first upwind the right shift gave ETNZ a small chance and by the book they capitalized on it. LR managed to stay close the entire race. They did not waste any chance to take over the lead, however ETNZ managed to defend all of there attacks.

During the first run the kiwis managed to extend a bit there lead but on the following beat James went in to a hard taking duel and catching up meter by meter.

The second run was simply fantastic, we all believed hat LR would be slower but even here they gaind meter after meter unfortunately not enough to overtake the lead and therefore the standing for today 1:0 for the kiwis.

Well done for both teams, we look forward to see more tomorrow.

Juerg

Crazy Day

Photo (c) Chris Cameron

What a Crazy day, big wind shifts up to almost 70 degrees. The racing area in fron of Valencia is challenging for the remaining fours.

Results of the day:
Team New Zealand 1

Desafio Espanol o

Luna Rossa 1

BMW Oracle Racing 0

It seems to be in Hauraki gulf with this kind of wind. The big surprise of today is the way BMW Oracle lost against Luna Rossa. This is the second loss from Larry's guys; all the eyes are on them now to see how they go ahead.

The match between ETNZ and Desafio was close until the end this keeps the race interesting.
Do Karol will be able to beat Dean, he is a strong helmsman and is performing well under pressure. Let's see what's happening tomorrow.

Semifinals: ETNZ choose Desafio

Photo (c) Chris Cameron ETNZ

Emirates Team New Zealand finished Round Robin Two of the Louis Vuitton Cup at the top of the table, with a win over BMW ORACLE Racing capping an unbeaten run in the second round. By finishing as the top challenger, the Kiwi team now has the right to choose its opponent for the Semi Finals.
BMW ORACLE Racing, Luna Rossa Challenge, and Desafio Espanol 2007 are the other Semi Finalists. The Semi Final portion of the Louis Vuitton Cup begins on Monday, 14 May.
* Skipper Dean Barker, representing the Round Robin leading Emirates Team New Zealand, has elected to race against Desafio Espanol 2007 in the Semi Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. That means BMW ORACLE Racing will face Luna Rossa Challenge in the other pairing.
"It's great for us to race Emirates Team New Zealand," said Desafio Espanol skipper Karol Jablonski. "We are working on a few specific things to make the boat a bit faster and also on our strategy. But what you haven't done in two and half years, you're not going to do in the next two days."
The Semi Finals are a 'first to five' head-to-head series for each pairing.
A race win is worth one point, and the first team in each pairing to earn five points goes through to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. No scoring is carried forward from previous stages of the event.

Valencia: Agian surprises

It was a day of close racing and surprise finishes at the Louis Vuitton Cup where the bottom ranked China Team earned its first win of the competition over the leader, BMW ORACLE Racing, when the American team lost its headsail on the first upwind leg.
That wasn't the only upset of the form guide however. The French Areva Challenge, disappointed with its Round Robin One performance, went out and won its first two matches of Round Robin Two, while +39 Challenge suffered two devastating losses in matches that were desperately close right up until the finishing line.
Conditions on Monday were excellent for racing, with sea breezes of up to
15 knots on both race courses. The wind eased later in the day, but never dropped below 9 knots.

Ranking after LVC RR2 Flight 2
1. BMW ORACLE Racing, 23 points
1. Luna Rossa Challenge, 23
3. Emirates Team New Zealand, 20
4. Desafio Espanol, 19
5. Victory Challenge, 16
6. Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team, 14
6. Team Shosholoza, 14
8. Areva Challenge, 13
9. +39 Challenge 6
10. United Internet Team Germany 3
10. China Team 3

Tuesday's Schedule:
Desafio Espanol vs. AREVA Challenge
+39 Challenge (ITA 85) vs. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 92)
United Internet Team Germany (GER 89) vs. Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 94)
China Team (CHN 95) vs. Victory Challenge (SWE 96)
Team Shosholoza (RSA 83) vs. BMW Oracle Racing (USA 98)

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

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.

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