A win and a loss against Sweden's Artemis

A win and a loss against Sweden's Artemis
Dubai, 17 11 2010

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team scores yet another important point against Sweden’s Artemis. Vincenzo Onorato’s crew beat on equal terms one of the most feared opponents, in the second one of the day’s race for Round Robin 1 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai.

It was a well deserved victory, even if for the Italian crew the Trophy in the Arab Gulf didn’t start in the best of ways.
In the first flight, unfortunately, the prestart was decisive: Gavin Brady (NZL) picked up a penalty after clipping the safety wands extending from the stern of the opponent’s boat and in the remaining minutes he was unable to get a better position.

It didn’t take long for the Swedish boat, helmed by Cameron Appleton (NZL), to build a good advantage over the Italians and there was very little Mascalzone Latino could do to reverse the situation. Artemis went on to win the race by 39 seconds.

The second flight was an entirely different story. It was a clean start for both teams but Mascalzone Latino Audi Team immediately built a slight lead over Artemis. A few meters after crossing the line, the Swedes tacked away, opting for the right part of the race course.

A spectacular tacking duel took place in the middle of the course in which the “Latin Rascals” kept on adding to their lead meter by meter, increasing their margin as the race progressed. It was a couple of boatlengths at the first weather mark, then 19 seconds at the leeward gate and after a fantastic second beat, Mascalzone beat Artemis by 38 seconds.

After today’s races and a total of eight, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team now has two points on the table. There are till a lot of races to fight for and many points to earn and as a result the Trophy is very open.

This is what commented on today’s races Mascalzone Latino Audi Team tactician, Morgan Larson (USA):

“It has probably been our best day yet. Winning one, losing one is not that great but we struggled a little bit this week and we are actually sailing better than what our results show. Still, you prove your ability by what’s on the result board. In the first race it was quite light and Artemis did a beautiful job plus about 30 seconds before the start our bow touched their stern. It was very small but enough to get a penalty. Even if we had passed them we still had the penalty, so it was their race all the way around. In the second race it was an even start, bow to bow all the way up the leg. At the top we got just a little bit stronger wind, Flavio Favini was calling for the left because he liked the pressure, so we just crossed ahead.”

Larson concluded by saying: “I think that until today we had some bad luck. The boats broke down on a couple of occasions; we have made some mistakes of our own but that’s just part of the races.”