OneWorld Goes Its Own Way for Last Time

In almost every sporting enterprise, there are those who almost always get it right and those who don't. This was demonstrated again in the last race of the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals repechage when Seattle's OneWorld stumbled from 48 seconds ahead at the halfway point to 28 seconds behind at the next mark only three miles later.

The reversal led to a 1-minute 4 second defeat and elimination---and a final round of tough questions for OneWorld skipper Peter Gilmour at the post-race press conference.

"Oracle did a fabulous job of keeping their opportunities alive and really just placing themselves in a position to be able to do that and biding their time," Gilmour said. "It may well be a totally different set of circumstances had we gone the opposite direction on the occasions that you mention."

So . . . why did OneWorld jibe and go right at the second weather mark, then allow Oracle to go left, making no attempt to stay between its opponent and the next mark?

"You certainly don’t know what's going to happen," Gilmour said, "and that's what we enjoy and are so passionate about. We kick ourselves so hard when we get it wrong and rejoice so much when we get it right."

But . . . OneWorld hardly ever got it right.

Gilmour: "My hat goes off to them for sailing so damn well while we sailed so damn badly. we had nobody else to blame but ourselves. We simply weren't good enough to beat these guys."

At one point the boats were separated laterally by four-fifths of a mile. By then, it was too late.

"There is a band of no air between the two yachts, so one of the yachts has to cross back and cross that," Gilmour said. "It all fell apart for us. Unbeknown to us, Fresh [Oracle navigator Ian Burns] might be able to tell you but they had 240 wind direction while we had 200 wind direction, [and] their [wind] might have been 13-14 knots and ours might have been 9-10 knots."

Data from the Virtual Spectator simulator disagreed with Gilmour's view. Take your pick. VS showed the wind fairly equal on both sides, although Oracle's boat speed was 1-2 knots better.

More important, the wind was steadily swinging from 217 at the top to 231 when Oracle took charge, lifting Oracle's VMG (velocity made good, i.e., progress toward the next mark) to 3-4 knots faster than OneWorld. Oracle was sailing more directly toward the mark by 15 degrees most of the time, while OneWorld covered more water.

What did Oracle know that OneWorld didn't? Read on.

Oracle's Secret Weapon

Well, radar maybe, but that wasn't the difference. Ian Burns gave full credit to the weather team.

"The weather team that we operate is similar those that are run by other teams," he said. "They’ve been working as a tight unit for two years now and they spent hours and hours, thankless hours, out on the water in little boats getting knocked about by the weather practicing and practicing for the race day. We have a radio on the yacht and we listen to their chat and from this information we have an incredible insight into what sort of wind is going to come."

Stop right here. Burns doesn't mean they listen during the race---at least it's hoped they don't. Competitors are required to chuck their radios off to chase boats 10 minutes before the start.

"There are seven guys on seven parts of the course who report back into us [before the 10-minute mark]," Burns said. "From this information you get an incredible insight into what’s happening right there and then and what will happen in the future. They will provide incredibly accurate predictions as to what the whole day's going to be like.

"I can remember one occasion when Rick Sellars, who is coordinating that team, said about [two hours earlier], 'You'll be getting a pretty heavy left shift . . . it might be coming in at whatever it is,' and we were within a degree and a couple of minutes. It's that sort of level of accuracy sometimes. They're almost uncanny in their predictions."

It Wasn't Just Captain Chris?

Trailing badly, Oracle skipper Chris Dickson didn't yield the helm to Peter Holmberg after the first upwind leg, as he had in other races, but kept it until Oracle had taken the lead.

Holmberg said, "We were on the ropes early in the race and it was a really good test for us to come from behind. We just had to be patient and wait for the opportunities."

Burns was asked, "Do you think Chris's lifetime experience on the Hauraki Gulf helped you?"

"Yes, he has a great deal of experience on the gulf, but we have other guys that have been bought up sailing on the gulf and really they give a lot of the input on where we go and what we do," Burns said. "Chris's main role to decide on the final call on left or right."

No Driving Instructor Next time

After Saturday's awful start, One World helmsman James Spithill bounced back strong Sunday, to no avail.

"I would really like to congratulate Oracle," he said. "We sailed two very tough series against them. They were just too good on the water for us."

Gilmour was asked, "Will you continue to sail with James or will you steer next time?"

Gilmour: "He will be over 25 in the next America’s Cup and probably won’t need so much adult supervision."

Gilmour Sees a One-Sided Final Match

So who do you like for the Cup, Gilly?

"That is a tough one," Gilmour said. "Certainly, from the very little we know and understand of Team New Zealand, they are a slightly beamier boat, like us, and the other two finalists are slightly more narrow. It will be determined by the wind conditions.

"I think the America’s Cup Match itself will be a very one-sided affair like what we saw in the 2000 Match. Either the defender will be away and gone like they were in 2000, or the challenger will be. I just can’t see a similar sort of mergence that you have seen in the challenger series happening in the Match."

AC Future Doomed to Status Quo?

Luca Birindelli, chairman of the Challenger of Record Committee, also appeared at the press conference, offering this view of the future of the event:

"We will definitely be putting our assessment and recommendations in writing at the end of the exercise. Whether it will be listened to is a totally different story. I believe this event is at a point in its life whereby it will be very, very difficult to keep the magical mix of preserving the roots and strength of tradition and marrying it with a more adequate type of format, structure, management, more apt to the times.

"We will certainly express our views. Whether these will be listened to, I hope so, but to tell you the truth I am not so optimistic. It seems that when the day comes for affecting the changes, then the guys who are driving the boat seem to take a more conservative approach for obvious reasons. We all understand that. Whether this is in the best interests of the event, I am not sure."

Birindelli didn't go into detail about changes CORM may suggest, but he is probably correct on his conclusion: the inmates will continue to run the asylum.