Good start for team Origin

The latest from the Louis Vuitton Trophy

A point on the board for TEAMORIGIN with a race win against All4One(from Leslie Greenhalgh, TEAMORIGIN)

TEAMORIGIN showed strong form this morning with a stylish victory over the French/German All4One team. The British team won the start and went on to use the shifts and extend their lead to win by an impressive 1 minute and 33 seconds.

In the other races so far today, ETNZ took a win over Mascalzone Latino after the Italians suffered gear failure; In race 3 Azzurra beat Synergy and Artemis beat Aleph in race 4.

A short delay to today’s racing allowed the wind to settle in from the South West and be blowing at 7 knots at the time of the first start. The first warning signal was fired at 1245 lining up TEAMORIGIN with All4One. A still building breeze and an incoming tide made for challenging conditions, where neither the wind nor the tidal choice was clear. From a spectator’s point of view however it was perfect as the course was laid within the confines of the Waitemata Harbour and Auckland City’s waterfront, race fans on the Okahu Bay waterfront to the South and the Devonport waterfront to the North listening to the FM radio commentary had front row seats.

TEAMORIGIN skipper Ben Ainslie controlled the start beautifully leading All4One into the start box, judging perfectly the return and final approach to the start line to win the right hand side of the course in spite of the Franco/German team’s posturing in the final countdown. The right side of the course proved to be strongly favoured with a stronger tide in the deeper water, something that then put the British boat in a position to benefit first from the wind oscillations before its opponent could get to them. The pair were split for most of the first beat converging only twice before TEAMORIGIN rounded the first mark with a healthy 26 second lead.

At the first mark, All4one did a gybe set to get to shallower water and less adverse tide and TEAMORIGIN quickly gybed to cover. The pair worked hard on the downwind leg with the trailing boat attempting to cast some wind shadow on TEAMORIGIN, initially making some inroads but with both teams very polished with their manoeuvres downwind, it was all about not making any small mistakes. At the approach to the gate ALL4ONE may have gybed a little late allowing the leading boat to gain some more ground to start the second lap with a lead of 24 seconds – all still very close.

Up the second beat however, TEAMORIGIN kept to the right side and played the shifts with precision. At the first cross TEAMORIGIN was ahead by 80m and seemed to be totally in phase, extending in the building breeze and shifty conditions. At the approach to the second windward mark, TEAMORIGIN tactician Iain Percy, talked of right hand windshifts for the last downwind leg. The British team made impressive gains down the final leg building the lead to almost 320m (13 boat lengths) and took the race by more than 90 seconds, the biggest winning margin of the regatta so far.

Iain Percy, TEAMORIGIN tactician, was talking about a big right hand windshift for the last downwind leg, the two teams headed down to the finish. TEAMORIGIN made impressive gains down the final leg building the lead to almost 320m (13 boat lengths) and they took the win by 1 minute and 33 seconds – an impressive final leg to say the least.

Iain Percy, TEAMORIGIN Tactician, commented after the race, “We had a great start, Ben and the boys gave us a nice advantage off the line and picked the right side of the first beat. Despite being in the lead throughout the race, it was a scary one as we were seeing 30-40 degree wind shifts. We kept our cool and sailed a good race, in those conditions it is easier from the front!”

Jochen Schumann, Skipper of the French/German All4One team added, “We sailed a good race but were behind from the start which was critical. We tried to stay close playing the shifts but really the race ended at the start. TEAMORIGIN sailed really well and they deserved the win.”

Mike Sanderson, Team Director and doing runners on the race boat, gave his input to the day’s performance, “A very satisfying race after a bit of a frustrating race yesterday. Beautiful timing on the committee boat at the start between Ben, Ian Moore and Matty Mitchell on the bow and we got the side we wanted and won the first cross. The guys then did some tight tactics and solid crew work to seal the win.”

In Race 2, the Italian Mascalzone Latino team took an initial lead over the Emirates Team New Zealand local favourites, the Kiwis managed to get back into them and shortly after a lead change, the Italians suffered headsail halyard clip failure and trailed to the finish giving a 2nd win to ETNZ.

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