Fun starts
Sailing

Fun starts

A lot of action on the first day of Louis Vuitton Trophy.

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The first day of LVT in Dubai did not disappoint under any point: the weather is perfect, the races are neither moment nor drama, and the results for our team are quite good.

Emirates Team New Zealand vs Mascalzone Latino were the first to go on the water and successfully merged. Perhaps, an unusual flag of that fault - at this regatta the New Zealanders perform under the banner of the UAE in honor of their title sponsor and host. From the very beginning, the Italian team was a little ahead and on the right side of the course, and later effectively defended its advantage from the kiwi.

«Synergy» and Artemis started almost in parallel. The new Russian helm team, Frachesko Bruni, took the bull by the horns and rushed aggressively into battle. In the final pre-start seconds, after a difficult maneuver dance, he tried to squeeze between the opponent and the starting vessel, defending the right side of the course. Artemis, being a bit in the wind, thought there was a reason for protest - and the Umpires satisfied him by awarding «him a» penalty. Not a simple one, but with a red flag, which means to execute immediately, rather than at a tactically convenient moment for the team. «We should have seen the bewilderment on Bruni's face - the penalty was very controversial: we had nowhere to go, otherwise we could have sailed right into the center of the starting catamaran» - said after the race the owner and captain «of the Synergy» Valentin Zavadnikov. But, a match-race is a match-race, and no one is immune to a referee's mistake here. Artemis successfully defended the resulting advantage in a few tens of meters and the first race, in the end, the guys lost.

The competition format provides that in the first round, all 6 teams must meet each other twice. Therefore, the second flute started immediately, in the same line-up. Only the pre-start positions have changed.

Angry with the first loss, New Zealanders tried to push the Italian team. But the wrong ones were attacked! Especially since New Zealander Gavin Brady is also on the wheel in Mascalzone Latino. The opponents' pirouettes before the windward density sign were similar to the dogfight of two World War II aces, but instead of «sitting on the tail», you had to be between your opponent and the buoy to win. As a result, the tail was caught by someone: turning around the sign, a bit behind ETNZ - BAM - rammed the stern of the Italian boat with its spinnaker ray, prepared for sailing and protruding in front of the hull for some one and a half meters.



In the end - in the hull of one of the boats there was a hole of 12 centimeters in diameter (however, then it turned out that nothing was wrong, the supporting elements of the construction were not affected and it was repaired overnight). The New Zealanders were fined half a point for the collision, and the Italian team was fined one point.

For the Russian team, the second flight was more successful. Starting on the left side, but with a small advantage in the half-corps, the team defended its position to the first sign, and after the bend led with a margin of a couple of tens of meters. It was not without difficulties, and here, too, the spinnaker ray was involved. When setting this sail, the guys, as it should be, vigorously pulled the tack angle, and the rhea, stuck at the other end in the mast attachment, did not want to go up. As a result, because of the created huge tension, this shagreen fell off and flew into the cockpit of the Russian boat, like an arrow fired from a bow. «Reya flew spectacularly» - Zavadnikov was worried, - it «seemed that someone would kill»someone. But everything turned out to be fine, Bruni successfully brought the boat to the victorious finish, and we had an occasion to open a bottle of «Moet» for the first point of the Russian team.

After a short break, the Americans BMW Oracle Racing took off against the French-German ALL4ONE. As we predicted, the European team is not a favorite in this competition. In the first BOR helmsman race, James Spithill, acting in his brand-name kid«'s first»- style, for which he earned the nickname «Jimmy Pitbull», forced the opponent to make a mistake and «gave» him a penalty. With this advantage, a further victory was almost guaranteed for him. In the second race of the ALL4ONE helm, Sebastien Kohl was almost equal to Spithill in the first part of the course, but BOR managed to overtake the sign ahead by 8 seconds and further the gap increased until the winning end of the American team.

After the first day of the competition, the tournament table looks like this:
1. BMW Oracle Racing - 2 points
2. Synergy Russian Sailing Team - 1 point
3. Artemis - 1 point.
4. Emirates Team New Zealand - 0.5 points.
5. Mascalzone Latino AUDI Team - 0 points
6. ALL4ONE - 0 points






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