It was a good opening day of racing at the Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts, with moderate Southerly breezes and flat water providing an ideal playground for the 12 teams of the 32nd America’s Cup.

The weather wasn’t perfect; the cool breeze with overcast skies and rain showers were a clear indication that the America’s Cup was a long way from its host city of Valencia, Spain. But the weather didn’t dampen the competition and two full flights of races were completed. The action was fast and furious all day, with the second Flight of racing full of thrills and spills.

Flight One
In the opening matches of Flight One, the Defender of the America’s Cup, Alinghi faced the local favourites, in Sweden’s Victory Challenge. The Swiss team had Jochen Schuemann on the helm for the first time in competition, as the Defender looks to build two strong racing teams. Schuemann didn’t look out of place at all, starting well against Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg, and building a good lead on the first leg. The Swiss demonstrated good speed and boat handling in racing away to the win.

In other matches in the opening flight, helmsman Thierry Peponnet on K-Challenge executed an aggressive pre-start, pushing +39 over the starting line early. That advantage at the start was converted into a race win by a French team who sailed a slick race.

New helmsman Chris Law on Shosholoza was very comfortable on the pre-start, the South African team looking much stronger than in Valencia. Although the South Africans lost to BMW ORACLE Racing, it was a much better effort from Shosholoza, who held an advantage on the early part of the leg.

Emirates Team New Zealand dispatched United Internet Team Germany, while Luna Rossa dispatched China Team. The Desafío Español squad won its race when Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team was forced to retire with equipment problems.

Flight Two
Despite a schedule that offered what appeared to be straight-forward matches, there was plenty of action in the afternoon matches, with people falling overboard, blown sails, and dramatic start line manoeuvres. The incidents were precipitated perhaps by an increase in wind strength with gusts approaching 20 knots.

The most important incident concerned the +39 Challenge when two crew members, Giuseppe Leonardi and Anthony Nossiter were swept into the water as they tried to hold a spinnaker down on the deck when the wind began to blow it out of the sail bag.

The sailors were plucked out of the water by the nearest Umpire boat, transferred to a support boat, and then back aboard the race boat. +39 was penalised for the incident as the Rules dictate it should be, and completed a 270-degree penalty turn before finishing.

Victory Challenge posted its first point of the series with a win over K-Challenge, earning the victory in the pre-start. Skipper Magnus Holmberg timed his sprint to the line perfectly, leaving K-Challenge behind and to leeward as the start gun fired. French skipper Thierry Peponnet couldn’t recover from the poor start and the home team sailed safely to its first win.

Emirates Team New Zealand had a fright rounding the leeward gate in its match against China Team. A broken spinnaker pole led to the sail falling into the water and the boat nearly stopping. China Team threatened to overtake the Kiwis but the Emirates squad recovered just in time.

The Spanish team had a similar scare when its jib came down on the second upwind leg against United Internet Team Germany. A quick recovery by Spaniards meant the Germans couldn’t overtake, but it certainly closed up the gap.

Like the Kiwis, BMW ORACLE Racing also broke a pole setting up for the final run, but had a secure enough lead over +39 to win the race easily. Finally, the Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team was unable to complete the second flight either, continuing to suffer from problems with its mainsail.

Racing continues on Friday with similar conditions forecast and two more full flights scheduled.

Share or bookmark this story: