Alinghi clean sweeps Louis Vuitton act 6 America's Cup lead-up

Since 1851, the America’s Cup has transcended the sport of sailing to become a symbol of the pursuit of excellence. So it has been interesting to watch as the lead-up races to the next America’s Cup to be held in 2007 in Valencia, Spain play out. Racing for the 32nd America’s Cup (Valencia) began with a series of Louis Vuitton Acts in 2004. The competition continues in 2005 and 2006, with several more Louis Vuitton Acts in Malmo-Skane (Sweden), Trapani (Sicily), and Valencia, the Host City of the 32nd America’s Cup. Currently, ACT 6, a series of seven days of match racing in Malmo Sweden has just concluded with the Defender, Team Alinghi, clean sweeping (11-0) and maintaining an unbeaten record in the 2005 match racing season under helmsman Jochen Schuemann . Act 7, a series of fleet races over three days begins on Friday.

Alinghi may be well ahead of the challengers, but there’s plenty of competition in the challenger fleet. BMW ORACLE Racing had to beat Luna Rossa in the last match race to ensure second place and that’s just what they did. BMW Oracle Racing ultimately won all its races except for the match with Alinghi while Chris Dickson’s Emirates Team New Zealand grabbed third in a tie-break.

Tuesday’s loss to the Swiss capped a tough week for the Kiwis. The Emirates squad salvages third on the points table, winning the tie-break by virtue of a victory over Luna Rossa. But losses to Alinghi and BMW ORACLE Racing, as well as a surprise fall to +39, showed the Emirates squad still has work to do to get to the top of the ladder again. As for Luna Rossa, losses to the three teams ahead of it were tempered by a perfect record against the rest of the fleet. But the Italians have to start beating the top three teams to take the next step.

The +39 Challenge and Shosholoza are the other big winners on the week. For the Italians, an equal fifth on points (sixth after the tie break) is a great result. This team has come along way from its first efforts in Valencia in 2004, and is climbing the learning curve faster than anyone else at the moment. Similarly, Shosholoza was rewarded for its efforts with two wins – the first ever for South Africa. Still struggling at times, Shosholoza is nonetheless moving in the right direction.

Flight Eleven

This match between the home Swedes and Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia was for seventh place. Italian skipper Vasco Vascotto saw his counterpart Magnus Holmberg spin out under him from the dial-up and escape. Both boats started on starboard tack with speed with the Italians on the right hand side. That’s where Vascotto found a handy right-hand shift that lifted him a boat length clear. Some tidier crew work by the Italians kept them in front and secured seventh place on the points table.

Shosholoza and China Team fought hard in this battle to stay off the bottom of the table. The Chinese looked good early when Shosholoza helmsman Chris Law was again assessed a penalty in the pre-start for not keeping clear. But the South Africans used the penalty to turn the tables in the pre-start and blocked the China Team skipper Pierre Mas from starting on time. Although China Team closed the gap early, a poor spinnaker drop and leeward gate rounding allowed South Africa to extend away. The men on Shosholoza executed a perfect spinnaker drop and penalty turn to win the race, and finish off the bottom of the points table for the first time in the 32nd America’s Cup.

At the top of the table, each position between second and fourth was there for the taking for three teams. BMW ORACLE Racing could guarantee its best finish of the year with a win over Luna Rossa. That’s exactly what Chris Dickson and his men did. The Americans led off the start line, but Luna Rossa had the power of the right. It wasn’t long however before Dickson had extended enough that he could cross the bow of the Italian boat clearly, and the BMW ORACLE Racing squad never looked back.

+39 Challenge capped a great week of racing with a win over United Internet Team Germany. The start looked difficult for Italian skipper Iain Percy early on with German skipper Jesper Bank pushing to hold the Italians out. But Percy was able to put his bow down and was able to build speed ahead of the starting gun, crossing the line with pace. He converted this into a dominant position early, and Bank didn’t have the speed to threaten him.

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