Dubai: The Synergy Russian Sailing Team and Emirates Team New Zealand both featured in come-from-behind victories during close competition at the Louis Vuitton Dubai Monday.
Their efforts put the Kiwis and Russians second and third respectively in the standings after day two, but it was James Spithill's American team, BMW Oracle Racing, that enjoyed first place with a perfect 4-0 score. The weather played a role in curtailing racing, forcing the race committee to postpone one match until yesterday.
The start of the racing was delayed as the race committee waited for the sea breeze to blow up. One hour before the scheduled start at noon there was barely a breath of wind as the temperature hit 30 degrees Celsius on its way to a forecast high of 32 degrees Celcius.
Racing got under way an hour and a half later in a building northerly breeze. Later in the afternoon a gusty, dusty breeze from the desert, heralded an easterly wind shift and briefly postponed the competition before the racing restarted in a 15-knot northeaster.
The Synergy team, which narrowly missed winning the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena earlier this year, pulled out all the stops in their race against Mascalzone Latino Audi, the challenger-of-record for the 34th America's Cup in 2013.
Synergy's helmsman Francesco Bruni went for the jugular in the pre-start, only to be penalised for hitting the safety wands on the stern of his opponent's boat. Undaunted, he eked out a 120-metre lead by the top of the second windward leg and completed his penalty turn to round in company with Mascalzone. Then the Italians were in the lead, but only until their spinnaker parted company with its halyard and fell in the sea. Game set and match to the Russians.
Lead changes
"We had quite a mixed pre-start," said Synergy tactician Rod Dawson, with masterful understatement. "Then we came off the start line with a small edge and capitalised on that. We extended up the beat and throughout the race. We were sailing really well."
There were lead changes too in the contest between Emirates Team New Zealand and the French/German boat All4One. Dean Barker won the start only to surrender the lead half way up the first beat as his opponent Sebastien Col pulled off a risky port tack cross. Closing the leeward mark, the Kiwis rolled their opponents and grabbed an inside overlap plus the lead at the mark, despite an untidy spinnaker drop that threatened to put the brakes on their advance.
