AC

Today Was A Good Day
I still can't believe it. They postponed, we waited, and suddenly ZOOOOM, there was wind and it was all on again. OK, it isn't 20 Knots, but it was enough, and, from a stable direction. Oh how satisfying it must have been to be a race officer today, after 10 days of everybody from the sweeper upper to the King of Spain blaming everything on him. It didn't make a hell of a lot of difference to the tables, but at least we had a look at the different boats doing something other than having a towed mystery tour around the waters of the Costa de Azahar (Orange Blossom Coast).

It really was a spectacle to see the gladiators finally in the ring. Tall ships indeed, and very skinny to boot, but they did look spectacular as they jousted around the box like a couple of Fireball dinghies setting up for a gate start. One thing seems certain; they are all close both in speed and in ability. It's the ability which shows the difference. You'd think that 17 guys crewing an IACC machine would be pretty even, but alas it isn't true. They do the same job on board each of the boats, but some just have that tiny bit of lubrication which makes things go that little bit smoother. It may be in the tacking, it may be in the gybes, or it may be solely in the togetherness of the whole crew. Whatever it is it is easy to see when they switch to race mode.
By now you will all have read the days results and made your own decisions but here are mine:

*Desafio Español and Mascalzone are very evenly matched.
*Shosholoza and Luna Rossa are very evenly matched.
*BMW/Oracle and Luna Rossa are very evenly matched.
*Victory Challenge and United Internet are very evenly matched.
*ETNZ are a lot more together than Desafio Español, but the Spaniards have some crazy boat speed when they are not fooling around.
*ETNZ has a faster boat and a lot more team coordination than Areva Challenge.
*BMW has more boat speed than Victory Challenge, but the Swedes are looking better each time out on the water.
*Everybody is faster than Team China, but they are doing OK and sticking in there.

BMW/Oracle and ETNZ will both have cannons mounted on the foredeck and torpedo launchers mounted on the stern, when it comes to their turn. Looking at the overall picture so far, it has to be a final between ETNZ and BMW/Oracle if the draws allow that, but count on Desafio Español, Luna Rossa, Mascalzone, and Shosholoza making the Louis Vuitton Cup something worth watching.

ETNZ and BMW/Oracle will be there at the semis but the latter four teams are going to be beating the shit out of each other for those last two coveted places. I don't like to dump on +39, because I think that they probably have the most together team, both on the water and socially, but the thread was lost when the stick came down and I fear that it's too late to regain enough of that past momentum to be a major player in these latter stages of the AC. Good luck to them in whichever way the cookie crumbles. They have been an inspiration against adversity to all of us, but it's now beginning to show that they have a huge mountain to climb and not much time to climb it.
Mascalzone still surprise all with their slick pre start maneouvres and their upwind work and I'd say that that ETNZ trouncing is still working in their favour.

Tomorrow. Another rubbish synopsis with fickle winds, but who knows? Look at what happened today.

William Wallace/BYM News

Photo Giles Martin-Raget/BMW Oracle

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04/25/07