Alinghi wins one and loses one at end of Act 10

www.alinghi.com
Evening News Act 10 Day 6
2006-05-16

Alinghi wins one and loses one at the end of Act 10

Alinghi victory over Swedish team
With Act 10 to play for today, Alinghi won their first match against the Swedish team, Victory Challenge on the North course, off Malvarosa beach. Alinghi entered the pre-start from the left, took the right and had a clean start to windward of Victory, in control and with a speed advantage. The Swiss Defender, sailing the right, crossed ahead of Victory Challenge ½ way up the first beat and stretched the advantage out to 45 seconds at the 1st windward mark. The downwind leg held no surprises as Alinghi raced away to a 1 minute 18 second lead around the leeward gate and set off upwind for a 1 minute 45 delta at the top mark and a comfortable 2 minutes 33 second finish.

Alinghi lose to Emirates Team New Zealand
The second match of the day for Alinghi wasn’t quite the same success story, the Alinghi Vs Emirates Team New Zealand match, with ETNZ racing their new boat, was hard fought out in the pre-start, with Alinghi coming in from the left, hunting ETNZ down and taking control to leeward. Alinghi went left off the start line and ETNZ right in a split tack start. Alinghi took the first cross 38m ahead of ETNZ and the boats traded sides, the Swiss team heading out to the right. Coming into the 1st windward mark rounding, ETNZ gained from a left hand shift in the approach and pulled away on the downwind leg 15 seconds ahead. Both headed out to the right, Alinghi on the heels of ETNZ jibed away only to cross behind and round the leeward gate 22 seconds astern. Alinghi made gains on the 2nd beat on the right to round the mark 17 seconds behind, but it wasn’t enough, they chased Emirates Team New Zealand over the finish line 16 seconds behind.

Ed Baird, helmsman for Act 10 comments on what Alinghi has learnt from racing three new generation boats: “We have had a good week of learning, looking at these new boats and it’s exciting for us to see that nobody has taken a quantum leap. We’re right in the hunt with our boat from four years ago and we have a new one coming on line, so we are excited to see what the new one will do.

A comment on SUI75 boat speed and the comparison with the new boats: “This week was all about just racing hard, we got ourselves in a couple of difficult situations and we didn’t come out on top every time, but speed wise we are right in the game still.”

And a word on the challengers’ status at the end of Act 10, the top three and some others who are knocking on the door of the big four: “One of the things we did see this week is that all three of the top teams on the challengers’ side have very similar boat speeds. Now it is going to be a fight to see who can squeeze that last little bit out of the equipment and then of course who goes out there and races well. A couple of teams like Shosholoza and Spain are knocking on the door, so there is going to be a big battle on the challengers’ side. On one hand, we like to see this, because it means they’ll be beaten up pretty badly by the time they get to the Cup. But on the other hand they’ll have good racing experience, so we have to make sure we have that ourselves. “

ALINGHI LOOKS FORWARD TO WELCOMING THE MEDIA TO OUR PRESS BREAKFAST ON THURSDAY 18 MAY FROM 10-1230, WHICH WILL INCLUDE INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES WITH DESIGNERS AND SAILORS, PLUS A GO ON OUR SUI64 SIMULATOR… IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY RSVP’D, PLEASE DO!

ACT 11, THE FLEET RACING BEGINS ON FRIDAY 19 MAY UNTIL THE 21 MAY.

Alinghi flies the colours of the Société Nautique de Genève, Switzerland. Its partners for the 2007 campaign are UBS and BT Infonet (Main Partners), as well as Audemars Piguet, SGS, Nespresso, MSC Cruises and North Sails (Co sponsors).
Visit our web site at: www.alinghi.com

ENDS

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