America's
Cup Elite Put On A Show At The Moet Cup
September
15, 2003 – San Francisco, CA - In front
of a spectator fleet of close to 100 boats, and
with a sizeable crowd lining the shore and filling
the VIP tents, America’s Cup holder ALINGHI
and Challenger of Record ORACLE BMW Racing staged
a match racing clinic on San Francisco Bay Monday
afternoon (local time).
With
Alcatraz Island looming in the background, the
two teams dueled in 20-knots of wind, battling
for the MOËT CUP.
The
event promised exciting, short course racing,
close to land, and in full view of the spectators.
Monday’s action delivered on that promise,
with close, intense racing, and highlight reel
match-race maneuvers.
In
the first race of the day, Larry Ellison gained
a measure of revenge for the Louis Vuitton Cup
Final. Ellison was at the helm of his ORACLE BMW
Racing boat (USA-76) to beat Ernesto Bertarelli
on ALINGHI (SUI-64), in the first race of the
MOËT CUP. With the win, Ellison jumps ahead
1 – 0 in the Owner – Driver series.
For
the second race, the Pro-Drivers took the helm
and Jochen Schuemann demonstrated immediately
why he has three Olympic medals to his credit.
After a relatively mild pre-start dance, ALINGHI
came off the line flying, hitting top speed, and
crossing the start line just as the gun fired.
ORACLE
BMW Racing helmsman Gavin Brady appeared happy
with his start to leeward of ALINGHI and the teams
began short tacking up the San Francisco shoreline,
with Brady pushed right in along Fisherman’s
Wharf and the Aquatic Centre.
The
teams switched sides approaching the top mark,
and with Brady in a powerful position on the right,
the USA-76 helmsman simply ran out of room, the
shoreline forcing him to tack before the port
tack layline. Otherwise he surely would have led
SUI-64 into the weather mark. In the event, the
teams dueled just to leeward of the mark, with
both boats held up in irons, before Schuemann
was able to quickly fall back onto starboard tack
before tacking around the mark with a 10-second
lead.
ALINGHI
was fast downwind all day, and this race was no
exception with the Swiss extending to a 14-second
lead. The second lap of the course changed nothing,
and Schuemann earned his first win as skipper
of SUI-64. The ALINGHI team takes a 1 –
0 lead in the Pro-Driver series, with the 26-second
victory.
Earlier
in the afternoon, in the first race of the day,
Ellison established control early, entering from
the starboard side of the line, dialing-up against
ALINGHI, and holding position as the boats drifted
upwind of the starting line. The long days of
practice that Ellison has put in over the past
month paid immediate dividends, as the American
looked sharp leading back to the line and winning
the start.
 |
Ellen
MacArthur at the Moet Cup. Photo by Chuck
Lantz - www.2007ac.com
|
Bertarelli
was hung up on the windward side of the start
line with what appeared to be an override on the
on the backstay, preventing the mainsail from
being eased to allow the boat to bear off for
the correct side of the start line. ALINGHI was
stalled in irons, just before the start, with
seconds ticking away towards the start gun.
The
ORACLE BMW Racing team converted that start line
lead into a controlling position up the entire
weather leg. Bertarelli tried to make a gain by
sailing up the shore line, out of the contrary
current, but Ellison held on to lead by 22-seconds
around the top mark.
ALINGHI
made a nice gain downwind, eventually securing
an inside position sailing deep on starboard tack
in towards the leeward mark, but again, Ellison
was ready. The ORACLE BMW Racing team luffed ALINGHI
several boat lengths past the leeward mark, before
gybing back for the mark. ALINGHI was flagging
the Umpires for a penalty on USA-76, but in vain,
as the Umpires ruled there was no foul. Bertarelli
was forced to tack around to make the mark and
trailed by 25-seconds as USA-76 accelerated off
ahead of him.
On
the second lap of the course, USA-76 maintained
its lead, with Bertarelli again looking fast downwind.
But the race would belong to Larry Ellison, who
draws first blood in the MOËT CUP with a
27-second win. Racing continues in the MOËT
CUP on Tuesday.
Quotes
of the Day:
Larry
Ellison (ORACLE BMW Racing) on winning his first
America’s Cup Class race as skipper:
Winning
is certainly better than losing, but the quality
of racing, I think, was just spectacular today.
The racing was incredibly close – there
was lots of action around the marks maybe more
action than we would have liked!
Larry
Ellison on ‘beating’ ALINGHI:
We
haven’t beaten ALINGHI. This is just the
first day of a 12-race regatta. (The scoreline)
is one – one. It’s great to be part
of sailing that’s this close and this competitive
where the tactics and maneuvers around the mark
are so exciting for the sailors and for the viewers.
We haven’t beaten ALINGHI yet. We hope to
be competitive and we’re going to work very
hard to try and beat ALINGHI but that remains
to be seen.
Jochen
Schuemann (ALINGHI) on having to give ‘sea-room’
when the boats tack up the shoreline:
For
America’s Cup boats it’s not usual
but in other match races it does happen often
and we agreed from the beginning, because we don’t
want to risk any of our boats, that whenever the
inner boat asks for water, we will give it and
we did. There was no problem at all and it all
worked very safely.
John
Kostecki (ORACLE BMW Racing) on his ‘home-court’
advantage:
Yeah,
we think we have an advantage. It’s great
having grown up here and having sailed many miles
here between Larry and myself I think we have
a good understanding of the Bay and we’re
contributing to the afterguard that way and hopefully
that’s a little edge we have.
Simon
Daubney (ALINGHI) on the gains that his team made
downwind:
I
think in that first race that we were just getting
the puffs a little before ORACLE BMW and we were
able to put the pole back and sail a little bit
deeper.
Chris
Dickson (ORACLE BMW Racing) on his team’s
performance in the second race:
We
had more bad tacks than we would have liked this
afternoon and we had a couple of small pieces
of equipment on the boat that weren’t working
as we would have liked…We all get used to
seeing these boats work perfectly and the reality
is that there’s a huge amount of crew co-ordination
needed to sail these boats at a top level. Usually
the guys make it look a lot easier than it really
is. Today we had a 95% day on some issues instead
of 99%.
Ellen
MacArthur, on her experience sailing as a guest
on ORACLE BMW Racing:
I
learned that you can’t sail an America’s
Cup Class boat by yourself…there’s
such a number of people working so hard. The race
actually takes a long time but it goes just like
that on the boat because everyone is so busy every
second. It just shows how important the training
is and how much time on the water you really need.
That was the most impressive thing.
Moët & Chandon is the official sponsor
of the MOËT CUP. Event partners include Oracle
Corporation, BMW, Hewlett-Packard, and TAG Heuer.
The Media Center is managed by the Louis Vuitton
Cup team. Hewlett-Packard is the technology partner
of the Moët Cup Media Center. The Golden
Gate Yacht Club in partnership with the Treasure
Island Sailing Center will run the MOËT CUP
on-the-water Race Committee.
Information
about the MOËT CUP and race results and updates
during the event can be found by visiting the
Golden Gate Yacht Club web site at www.ggyc.com.
