Another difficult day for Mascalzone Latino Audi Team

The race course off Dubai’s coast is proving to be a very tricky one for Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. On the fifth day of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai none of the two races against BMW ORACLE Racing went their way.

Both races were sailed under a light and unstable breeze and rarely was Mascalzone Latino’s bow ahead of the winners of the 33rd America’s Cup. The prestart of the first race lacked any passion but James Spithill (AUS) got the upper hand. The half-boatlength advantage right off the start line soon became a small but unequivocal lead, maintained by the American crew until the finish line, without great difficulty.

The prestart of the second match against Larry Ellison’s team (USA) was in fact won by Gavin Brady (NZL), but a different tactical decision and a favorable wind shift benefited BMW ORACLE Racing and wiped out the few meters of advantage the “Latin Rascals” were able to stack up in the first stretch of the beat. The Italian team fought very hard in the rest of the race, stayed very close to the Americans, especially in the first two mark roundings but their big effort was not enough.

As a result, also due to the penalty inflicted on the opening day that was very difficult to accept, the provisional leaderboard of this Middle-East event sees Mascalzone Latino Audi Team trailing all their opponents after Round Robin one.

The team is confident in the second part of the qualifying series (Round Robin 2), where all teams will face other only once but with 2 points going to the winner of each race. The team skippered by Gavin Brady (NZL) still has available another 5 matches to demonstrate its value and aim at another final just as in Auckland, last March, when Vincenzo Onorato’s crew finished second, just behind the home team.

Gavin Brady (NZL), Mascalzone Latino Audi Team's skipper and helmsman commented on the difficult day:
“It wasn’t a very good day to close the Round Robin; it wasn’t the way we wanted to end it. We had two tough matches against BMW Oracle. We got a little bit behind on the shifts in the first leg in both races and we managed to keep it close but in a 30-minute race you only get two passing lanes, if you’re lucky. We had a good shot at it, we got really close, we put a lot of pressure on them but their crew work and tactics held up.”

Gavin went on saying: “We have pretty mixed emotions about hits round robin. We sailed pretty well and I wouldn’t want to use the excuse of bad luck but things didn’t surely go our way in the first round, certainly in its early stages, and it was mixed with a couple of small mistakes. It would have been nice to come out of this round with four or five wins. There are no excuses in the next round, we are ready to go now, we have been sailing the boats for 5-6 days now and although we have our backs against the wall we will come out of it fine.”

Regarding the Round Robin 2 Brady had to say: “In round robin two you get two points for each win, so that opens it up a little bit. Our destiny is going to come down to a couple of small mistakes whichever team makes in the early part of the race. That will mean that we will either be on an airplane in a couple of days time or we are through to the finals. We just can’t make any mistakes in this next round at all.”

Gavin concluded by saying: “It would be good to see Mascalzone Latino the way we were seen in Auckland. In Auckland it felt like all things went our way, the 50-50 races went our way, we were sailing well and if all those factors come together we are a formidable team. We now have to just turn it around.”

Andrea Pavan (ITA), Mascalzone Latino Audi Team's grinder, commented after coming back on the dock: “We haven’t started well; we are a little bit rusty, a little bit unlucky. There are situations that can’t be discussed. Regarding today’s races, BMW Oracle sailed very well, they figured out exceptionally well all the wind shifts while we tried to push them as much as possible in both the first and second race and managed to get very close to them. However, we weren’t able to take advantage of the shifts as well as they did. Still it was a nice race. It is still very open, for all teams and in particular for us that didn’t do so well. There’s another round robin that will give us the opportunity to be back in the game. We will give our best, just as we have always done.”