Louis Vuitton I

Well, the first race in the Louis Vuitton finals went to the expected winner, just not in the manner most expected! Without a doubt, one of the most heart-stopping moments of the entire ‘Summer of Sailing” was ETNZ’s bearaway that nearly ended their summer early; both bows in the water, both rudders in the air, and a couple of crew ejected. No harm, no foul apparently as they continued on to beat a quite wounded Luna Rossa. It does look like there may be a good battle at hand, however.

Luna Rossa had a daggerboard problem before the race that ultimately scuttled the crew’s
race after the first mark rounding. The team had refined the daggerboard and its lifting post
last week.

“A composite part of the lifting system broke,” said Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena. “We did
a bit of work on the daggerboard to try to improve the aero package. We chopped part of the
board and lifting post and moved all of the attachments on the board. We sailed five days
with it and then today it broke. Luckily it broke during the reaching leg and not a jibe,
otherwise it could’ve been another nosedive.”

Emirates Team New Zealand led by 7 seconds at the first mark and continued racing after
Luna Rossa had all but withdrawn. Later in the race, however, the Kiwi crew nosedived at
the third (windward) mark rounding.

Before the Louis Vuitton Cup Final started, ORACLE TEAM USA conducted two practice
races with its two AC72s. Skipper Jimmy Spithill won the race that was broadcast to the
public, beating Ben Ainslie by 33 seconds.

“We’ve got a lot of depth in our sailing team. The ability to put two competitive boats on the
water is a big advantage for us,” said Spithill. “That’s been a big part of our campaign, twoboat
sailing. To do that you need a lot of support from the shore team, designers and
engineers. Ben and I’ve been pushing each other very hard and we think it’ll help us prepare
for the America’s Cup.”