Team New Zealand now have belief, they know they can compete and they know they are fast enough.
Alinghi went into the America’s Cup believing they were going to blow away the challenger. It is not the case.
Alinghi will now know they are in for a scrap, which will be different for the Kiwis on Alinghi who have always been on a faster boat.
We have now seen some chinks in Alinghi’s armour, namely their decision-making and the design of their spinnakers which has shown a few flaws.
For Team New Zealand, their defeats in the challenger series have made them stronger and were probably good for them.
Alinghi are not used to losing and I have no doubt they will come back. But if the wind continues to be a bit fluky, the Kiwis are match-hardened and ready.
Alinghi are now looking over their shoulders. When New Zealand got that wind shift up the first beat yesterday Alinghi helmsman Ed Baird looked over his shoulder and went “Oh f***”. You know that is a negative thought, you know that it is affecting them.
The work of Team New Zealand strategist Ray Davies and windspotter Adam Beashel in terms of their role in the afterguard and getting that pass in the final run yesterday was huge.
Beashel and Davies complement each other. In the final cup pre-regatta last year Davies was the most valuable player in the afterguard and that has only been enhanced.
Team New Zealand’s weather call yesterday was spot on.
It was always going to be a difficult day for both teams but Team New Zealand’s weatherman Roger Badham nailed the first shift.
Off the line the Kiwis wanted the right and it was a must right.
They lost the start to get the right.
In the first three races the weather teams have won the first crosses. Alinghi won the first two and Team New Zealand won yesterday’s by miles.
At the top mark Alinghi were 1min 23sec behind. As you would expect from Alinghi they didn’t chuck the towel in on the downwind.
The New Zealanders were forced into a position by the weather to make an error at the bottom mark. They made a late call to change what mark they rounded which resulted in an error.
Mid bowman Richard Meacham fell in. He was going out to release the tack to let the sail go from the end of the spinnaker and he went into the drink.
It would have been an absolute calamity had he fallen in but he did hang on, which was pretty huge.
From there the take-down was an absolute mess. The spinnaker got caught over the top of the genoa sheet. They did well to not destroy the gennaker, obviously they like that one.
Pitman Barry McKay was treating it like a baby: it would have been very easy to get a knife out and cut it free.
Then they did two tacks and it still didn’t clear so they had to cut the jib sheet.
They had a lot going on to save that sail and to free it. All of that meant they were compromised and handicapped.
The calmness of the boat, the routines they operate all got upset. Alinghi’s pass spanned from the botch-up at the bottom mark.
The Swiss team made the New Zealanders play their game even though the Kiwis were still ahead, which compounded into yet another lead change.
Then on the final downwind I was quite dumbfounded how much separation Alinghi gave the Kiwis. At one stage there was over a kilometre and a half between them.
It took 8 degrees of windshift and New Zealand got back in front.
If Alinghi lose another one then the momentum will be clearly swinging in New Zealand’s favour.
Ohhh! The “swiss” boat with no swiss crew.
We knew they are mercenaries.
Now we know they are cheaters
nacionality rule must be reviewed!
Cheaters? The protest was dismissed.
i think it was clever from ETNZ tp distract alunghy for one day. protest dismissed. let’s get on with the sailing now.
GO ETNZ!!!
I’m with Andy, it was a diversionary tactic by ETNZ.
In the news, they stated that Adinghy came out of the jury room all pissy whilst Grant Dalton and co came out “as fresh as a daisy”.
As long as it hasn’t distracted us (which doesnt appear to be the case), then its been a positive lay day for the cause.
Aparantly Dalton Said “I feel like Paris Hilton comming out of jail” ha ha h a hhehee that is funny. That must really anoy alinghi they are making a bit of a joke out of it now.
Yep, but whether it truly irks them enuff is another story.
Oh well, at least I can sleep in for a little while 2moro. This lack of sleep is driving me nucking futs!
Jays, I just had a phantom post experiance, it just disappeared!!!!!
Hey Jays. Yeah. Re: TSFKARC – That was a funny old post that one. We had all sorts didn’t we? But at least we know we now have God on our side. Hehehe. Geepers, that sound like something George Bush may have said – which is a bit of a worry. But I guess that’s what makes this world an interesting place – well diversity and the AC of course.
I think ETNZ are right on their game and they’ll be really focussed on doing a good job tonight. If we can go up 3:2 it will be a srtong position
Hang on a second something weird is going on here.
Probably a fair call on the juries part. Altho looking at the sequence it looked like Pieter unwrapped a lashing before the main could be tripped.
Hey its another race tonight and I’m interested in how quietly TNZ have said oh Alinghi MAY be faster in those conditions. Lets face it TNZ know exactly the wind speeds involved in the regatta and will not have moded the boat to favour one end of the windrange
Game on guys!
David I saw that and thought your reply post was great. I laughed for ages
Having some trouble there, Daniel?
Hey Daniel, the other day I had a number of posts disappear!!!
Whats worse is when you try to re-post the same thing, it says that you are trying to post a “duplicate post”. The only way around that was to stick some random number in ur post! hahaha, oh well its all fun!
Yeah dave, we had “prince” walking on water and some other genius coming on the board cursing himself and demanding to be banned!
Man New Zealand is such a fantastic place. We are accepting of people with all sorts of mental afflictions
And btw, there are no GW Bush supporters at this end of the InterWeb!!!
Btw, heres my favourite saying: “Mmm, they’ve got internet on computer now” – Homer Jay Simpson
Ha ha. That Homer one’s a classic, Jays. Hehehe. Pity we can’t all meet at a pub on the corner somewhere. I think we’d all be in fits. There are some wickedly funny guys (don’t forget Vale) posting on this Blog.
Sometimes I have a real hard job taking America seriously, let alone old Gee Dubbleyu.
However, seeing that plucky news anchor woman put her Paris Hilton story through the office shredder (and refusing to go with the story) has given me cause not to give up on the old USofA completely – at least for the time being. Hehehe.
Back to the important matter at hand. What’s the latest on the weather in ValeNZia for match 5?
Well David it looks like the posts are from all over the place so we may have to meet in for brewskis in a bar in ‘second life’.
What I’m havin trouble with is why does the outcome matter so much to me? I mean its only a yacht race right?
Regardless of outcome this regatta has once again focused the yachting world on New Zealand and its been great to see how many people have actually turned up in Valencia to support TNZ as well.
I read somewhere about the media centre in Valencia erupting into cheers at the TNZ wins and just being quiet when A wins. It shows the level of support and interest for NZ.
I guess we just have to get out there and win a yacht race now eh?
Now I can’t see any of the new posts!!!!!!
Longrange forecasts are 10-12 seabreeze tonight and 12-14 same tommorrow.
Not getting a live feed from the weather station there at the moment.
Daniel you may have to empty your browsers cache: see help menu
Thanks, Lee. To tell you the truth, all that ‘Second Life’ stuff ! find very strange. Very LA even.
I’d actually like to see a bit more breeze. We’ve not seen the two boats together in much over 12 knots have we? And with a bit more pressure we tend to get more stability in terms of ossolation (spelling?).
I’m sure the ETNZ weather crew are up to picking the right (correct) side and we know Dean is up to the challenge, so that’s what I’m hoping for. Maybe 17 – 18 knots?
I think ETNZ, with her greater weted hull surface, needs a bit more oomph – although the ‘experts’ are all saying she likes it with less breeze. Tell that to the Spanish, I say.
David, I think it will be interesting and I’m fairly sure we havn’t seen all that TNZ has to offer yet. Yeah high teens would be a lot more interesting, there is more on offer when that is happening, from pre-start to all over the course.
Ps I have been known to be wrong
I’m back now, hey guess what, my wife just come in and asked if we won the protest, when I said no she hit the roof!!!. She’s really getting into the sailing even staying up and getting wound up and making fun of Butterworth.
Its all going to plan….mawaaaaa……mawaaaa……mawwaaaaaahhaahaaa (Jays/ dr evil brand evil laugh) I have a half built trailer yacht that requires a “funds injection” and approval could be closer than I thought!
Thanks TNZ.
and thank you Mr Butterworth!!!!
G’day Guys. I’m so excited. I’ve just got my DeskTopTV back up and running. It’s been down with a comms. bug since bloody race one!!!!!! And I have to say their Help desk has been worse than useless in helping me de-bug.
Anyway, I’ve fixed it (still not sure quite how I managed to launch the Windows De-bugger programme, which worked a treat) and now I can look forward to seeing all that action again.
I wonder how Daniel is getting on with his computer gremlins?
Ah….there you are.
You crafty bugger, Daniel. I had a trailer yacht once and my wife was 8 moths pregnant with our second child and couldn’t understand why I needed to ask her to jump of the bow to stop the thing running up the Takapuna boat ramp when we came in from a day’s sailing on the Waitemata.
The worst of it was she had to hold it there while i shot off miles up the road to retrieve the car and tailer!! needless to say we didn’t have a tailer yacht for much longer. PS: The kid survived too fortunately! ha, ha.
Good onya Daniel!!!!
For me, its a minor victory that my wife no longer complains about the fact that I get up to watch the damned thing. There is NO WAY shes gonna care about the result
Its a cultural thing, to Vietnamese a boat is something that you catch squid on, and thats pretty much it
Hey Dave, would be f**king cool to meet up wouldn’t it? Oh well…:-(
With regards to Americans, its America as a country that I have a problem with. I have worked with a LOT of Americans and find them to be really quite nice.
The only frustration I find is that they talk soooo damned slow that you wanna “wring” the words out of them.
It probably doesnt help so much that I talk at about the same rate as a “Muppet on Speed”.
With regards to that yankee news reader, to me it just seemed like that was a staged event to get EVEN MORE milage out of Ms. Hilton. But who knows?
Hey guys
has anyone noticed those “little geniuses” in mainstream media keep referring to China as the FIRST asian nation to compete in the AC???
Now let me see, I haven’t been to Japan but the last time I looked on a map……THE BLOODY THINGS IN ASIA!
Phew! Sorry about the outburst, but ignorance of that magnitude gets my goat.
I know “squat” about yachitng, but at least I know Japan has competed in the AC.
Japan has not only competed, they have made the semi finals every time!!!
I hope we see them back cause they’ve always brought something special to the event, a bit like luna Rossa. I bet they would have some fierce competiton with the Chinese!
Hey Jays. We get a much clearer view of the globe standing on our heads! The Poms reckon India is in Asia too – go figure. But I think the bit we know as Asia is actually South East Asia or is it Asia Minor.
Wasn’t to crash hot at geography at school, so I can’t be sure without getting out my old Atlas. But half the countries in there don’t exist anymore somaybe it wouldn’t be too much help, eh? Just as well I’m not competing in the Volvo Ocean Race , eh! ha, ha.
Hahaha, don’t sweat it Dave.
Before I got married, I couldn’t pick out Vietnam on the map!
Actually, for me having Japan in the AC is as important as having them in the Rugby World Cup.
I just wish they would stop having sooo many kiwis in their team. What I love about watching the Japanese play is that they have an amazing turn of short term speed and are just soooo damned plucky!
If you were their size would YOU try to tackle Jonah???
The Japanese seemed take quite a blow when Makoto Namba was killed he was like their Peter Blake, he was a damned good sailor.
Was just sitting here at my desk, mellowing to Raycharles LaMontagne, checking the AC bloggs and getting interrupted with work I HAVE to do – and I realised I’d run out of the Sponsor’s fine product, Estrella Damm. Bugger! Had to go out in the cold and rain and remedy that pronto.
It’s going to be a big match tonight and I won’t want to be caught short for something to celebrate with. (Go boys, go!).
Could always raid the wine cellar I guess, but it wouldn’t quite be the same would it! Hehehe. Cheers, David G.
Have fun 2nite Dave.
And by that, I mean I hope our boys give Adingy a damned good bloody nose!
Good on ya, Jays. Remember, not too much noise in front of the TV when ETNZ get’s her nose in front of Alinghi. I hope I can take my own advice! I’ll catch up sometime for a post race discussion. Hopefully we’ll be talking 3:2 to ETNZ. Cheers
Yeah Dave, sounds good.
Peace out!
Yep Im hoping for a good result, we have to win 3/5 easy enough eh?
Have a good one guys, it is blowin up a storm up here at the moment.
You have a good one too, Lee. Cheers.
Gidday Guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Just a night for me, I and I see you wrote a book here!!!!!! Ok…just some hours to sail….I am confident and full of energy like ETNZ!!!
Probably the phantom posts have been eaten by the Fat Cat!!!
Hey all – just on the posts disappearing. WordPress picks up on things it thinks might be spam (lots of exclimation marks, more than 2 links etc). Where I can, I’ll try to recover them – but if a post disappears, try writing it again slightly differently. Looks good for racing on time today.
P