News01.06.2008 (18:21 CET) - Lugano (CH) - Alinghi Lessons learnt in Lugano |
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 (Photo credit: George Johns/Alinghi) The wind continued to play hide and seek with the fleet on the final day of the Lugano iShares Cup, but the committee managed to squeeze two races in between lulls.
Alinghi took a 6th in the first race of the day and came back in the afternoon to win race 9, the last of the series, counting for double points. Ashore fans clapped and cheered the Swiss team around the course and they were rewarded when the team gybed along the beach to take the lead and win the race!
This result put Alinghi at 5th overall.
Quotes from the race course in Lugano: Ed Baird, helmsman, looks back over the three day event with its thrills and spills, talks about what the crew has learnt from this event and what is expected in Hyères, France (13-15 June), the next event on the iShares Cup circuit:
“We had a rough start to the week with a capsize on Friday and then we missed a couple of races, so we were deep in a hole points wise. The guys had a long night putting everything back together, but we got back on the water and raced again the next day. We had a reasonable day on Saturday although we were still deep in the score overall having missed three races. We did a little better today with a 6th and then a 1st and have climbed up the fleet a bit.”
“We have learned an awful lot, we have learned about capsizing which was unfortunate timing, but it was good for the learning process. We have learnt a lot about sailing in very light air which is something that we have to be prepared to perform in.”
“We have had a great experience here in Switzerland; people have been coming down to see the team and the event. We have had a lot of people asking for autographs, pictures and that sort of thing; we had a lot of boat traffic, we even had a helicopter buzz us! It’s nice to be in a place where people are so excited not just about the team, but also the sport.”
“The next event is in Hyères, France on the Mediterranean. We are expecting varied conditions there, but certainly more wind than we have had here this week.”
________________________________ Race day 3 - final day of Lugano iShares Cup Alinghi lies 5th overall at Lugano iShares Cup, 1st of the summer series. Preliminary overall results: 1st - JP Morgan; 2nd - Team Origin; 3rd - BT; 4th - Oman; 5th - Alinghi; 6th - iShares; 7th - Holmatro; 8th - Team Aqua; 9th - Volvo Ocean Race Results to come... ________________________________ Race 10, day 3 16:50: Racing abandonned - > end of the series. This means that race 9 counted for double points. 16:40: Race committee call for the final race and hoist the 5 minute flag Race committee plan to run one last race - this one will count for double points ________________________________ Race 9, day 3 16:17: Alinghi wins Race 9!! 16:15: Alinghi extends the big gain back up to Mark 3 and again sweeps close to the shoreline making for some happy fans! 16:10: Alinghi gybes very close to the shore and the local Swiss supporters cheer the team into the lead at Mark 2 16:05: Alinghi 4th at Mark 1 16:00: Start - Alinghi chose a committee boat start this time 15:56: 4 minutes to the next start 15:50: Racing abandoned ... Mark 1 was laid too close to the pontoons for a safe rounding 15:40: Race 9 is underway - Alinghi had a good pin end start and is holding third place at the moment... 15:35: The AP has dropped and the X40 Class flag is up - the fleet is in a starting sequence for race 9 ________________________________ 14:30: Race committee has announced that it will hold the fleet out on the water until about 16:00 to try to get a last race in - there is not a zephyr at the moment... If there is no last race, then this morning's race 8 will count for double points 13:45: Cancel that - race committee has raised the AP flag again - racing postponed due to no wind 13:40: And they're off! Wind speed - perhaps 3knots... 13:35: The race committee are going to try for a start... 12:50: The fleet has left the dock again and race committee is optimistic that the heat might create a thermal wind The boats are on their way back in for now - should anything change, we will update you! It is hot and airless here in Lugano for the final day of racing, there are lots of spectators on the waterfront and in the public area and the Alinghi match racing game and shop are proving popular! Prize giving is anticipated for 17:30 - let's hope we get some wind for the afternoon session! 11:40: Next start scheduled for 13:00 (hopefully!) 11:30: AP up again and rumours of a postponement until about 13:00...more news to come 11:10: AP down 11:00: Race 9 under AP (postponed) ________________________________ Race 8, day 3 10:50: Alinghi 6th place in very light airs, BT wins race 8 10:35: Reaching start - Alinghi in second row 10:30: Race committee are setting up for race 8 - first of the day 09:30: Sunshine and not a zephyr ... yet
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 iShares Extreme 40 fleet racing at Lake Lugano (Photo credit: Vincent Curutchet/DPPI/OC Events) |
GUESTBOOK
Country: SwitzerlandGreat job Alinghi, though lost.
Clearly lost on the technology front. The spirit of the America's cup, where team effort was in focus (Albeit technology is important as well, of course) has clearly been lost here. This can clearly be seen when comparing to prior cups. Too bad.
GO ALINGHI!
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