BMW ORACLE Racing Ends Act on a High Note
Valencia, Spain. BMW ORACLE Racing ended the Louis Vuitton Act 13 regatta on a high note with a strategically calculated finish that secured its place in the overall challenger rankings.
Thinking of the big picture, skipper Chris Dickson and the USA 87 crew gave up a 1st place finish in the final race of the regatta to ensure BMW ORACLE Racing retained its second place in the Louis Vuitton Challenger rankings. Having led most of Race 7 with the Italian Luna Rossa team in 2nd place, the USA 87 team calculated that a finish in that order would propel Luna Rossa to 2nd place in the standings and drop BMW ORACLE Racing to 3rd.
“We slowed the action down and let Alinghi go through,“ said BMW ORACLE Racing navigator Peter Isler. “It is a lot easier to engineer these things when you are leading the race. It seems amazing that after three years of racing, the challenger points situation came down to the final beat of the last race of the last regatta.“
Race One summary – USA 87 finished 6th after finding itself on the wrong side of a windshift on the second windward leg of the race. The team then had to take last minute avoiding action at the mark rounding to allow two right-of-way starboard tack yachts to cross ahead.
Race Two summary – USA 87 was determined to capture the right hand side of the course at the start and succeeded. The team then committed itself to the right and secured the lead. But, for strategic considerations they were prepared to sacrifice the race win to secure a better place in the overall challenger rankings.
Quotes from Peter Isler – On the final race: “It was pretty crowded at the Committee Boat end of the startline, but we nailed the start we wanted. Heading far out to the right hand side of the course on our own was a little nerve racking, but it certainly paid off for us.“
On the big picture strategy: “If we had won the race with Luna Rossa 2nd and Alinghi 3rd, Luna Rossa would have ended up ahead of us in the overall challenger rankings. We had to engineer a situation to put Luna Rossa 3rd or worse in the final race. We slowed the action down and let Alinghi go through. As it happened, Mascalzone Latino also got ahead of Luna Rossa, so they ended up in 4th place.
“When we started the final beat of the final race, we were the third ranked challenger overall. When we rounded the mark at the end of that windward leg, we were the second ranked challenger.”
On the regatta overall: “Everybody learned a lot. It helps everybody – the teams, the umpires and the race officials – to get into race mode. Everybody will be more polished going into the Louuis Vuitton Cup. We were able to check the competition and it was a great warm-up for our team. We exposed some places where we can work hard to improve and we have learned a lot about our boat. In the process we have had fun. It is always fun to go racing again.“
Final Louis Vuitton Challenger Rankings after 13 Acts
1 Emirates Team New Zealand (158pt)
2 BMW ORACLE Racing (147pt)
3 Luna Rossa Challenge (145pt)
4 Desafio Espanol (106pt)
5 Mascalzone Latino Capitalia (103pt)
6 Victory Challenge (83pt)
7 Team Shosholoza (73pt)
8 Areva Challenge (72pt)
9 +39 Challenge (66pt)
10 United Internet Team Germany (42pt)
11 China Team (18pt)
Act 13 Team Standings after 7 races:
1 Alinghi (78pt)
2 Emirates Team New Zealand (64pt)
3 Mascalzone Latino Capitalia (63pt)
4 Luna Rossa Challenge (60pt)
5 BMW ORACLE racing (57pt)
6 Desafio Espanol (55pt)
7 Team Shosholoza (43pt)
8 Victory Challenge (35pt)
9 Areva Challenge (31pt)
10 United Internet Team Germany (29pt)
11+39 Challenge (17pt)
12 China Team (15pt)
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