America's Cup - Louis Vuitton Cup Results Play of the Day

Louis Vuitton Cup - Flight School

Also see: Main RR1 Page | Main RR2 Page

Desafío Rolls On

Flight 4 (Re-Sail), Saturday May 5th:
Blue: Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team ITA-99
Yellow: Desafío Español ESP-97

In a critical race for the Louis Vuitton Cup standings, a trailing Desafío Español found a chance on the first downwind leg to roll past Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, and then used their margin to get a better rounding at the gate mark and extended further. Mascalzone never got close enough after that to make anything happen. Here's a look at how the passing unfolded.

Animation still images courtesy of America's Cup Live Sailing, available at Americascupanywhere.com

Mascalzone rounded the first mark 12 seconds ahead of Desafío, and the boats headed downwind on port gybe with Mascalzone ahead by 35 m and, Desafío following closely. For five minutes Mascalzone maintained a 35m lead, and the Spanish did not cut into it. The boats then gybed onto starboard at 25:54 (above). Image: ©2007 LiveSailing

On the starboard gybe, the Spanish were able to get into the Italian's wind right away. Desafío Español started sailing lower angles, little by little, notching higher boat speed, and by 27:50 the lead was gone. Image: ©2007 LiveSailing

By 29:01 Desafío had finished edging in directly front of Mascalzone. Even if they weren't getting gassed, an Italian passing attempt risked contact and a penalty. There was nothing here for them anymore and the bottom mark was approaching. So a few seconds later MLCT gybed away from Desafío back to port, looking for better wind, hoping to come back to the mark on starboard against ESP-97 on port. Image: ©2007 LiveSailing

Desafío let them go briefly, then copied their gybe as a loose covering move. Unfortunately for Mascalzone when the boats did come back together, Desafío still had enough of a lead that they could gybe into a clear ahead position as the gate neared.

With a wind shift making the closer left gate the preferred choice, Desafío controlled the rounding and took the left gate, and ML sailed further to the right gate in hope of separation. It didn't pay off. Mascalzone lost another 15 seconds on the second upwind leg, and gained only slightly on the final downwind leg for a finish delta of 35 seconds.