IACC yachts semi-finals at the Americas Cup Jubilee
by Mark Bullingham 23 Aug 2001 22:27 BST
HARRISON'S GBR CHALLENGE RETAINS HOPE FOR PLACE IN FINAL OF AMERICA'S CUP JUBILEE
Despite two early losses in the first round robin of the semi-finals of the America's Cup Jubilee, Peter Harrison's GBR Challenge retains a chance of a place in the final of the America's Cup Class. In the first race of the race of the series, Team New Zealand defeated GBR 52,
helmed by Andy Green, after the British yacht's keel became entangled with
the windward mark whilst leading on the second beat. GBR 41 also suffered
defeat, at the hands of Prada, after winning the pre-start. The Italian
yacht used her superior speed to defeat the yacht helmed by Andy Beadsworth.
After two frustrating race days in light and variable conditions, the
forecast for tomorrow and Saturday is more promising, leading the committee
to confirm that they will attempt to run Races Two and Three of the match
racing tomorrow with a final scheduled for Saturday. Both British yachts
will start from 1-0 down.
Ian Walker summarized the team's feelings: "We're disappointed to lose
after having a one and a half minute lead at the leeward mark. We really
struggled for speed the whole way up the second beat and it was always going
to be difficult to defend on the run against NZL 32 as they're so fast
downwind. As they were putting pressure on us at the top mark, we hooked
the anchor warp on the keel and had to cut ourselves free, NZL overtook us
and we and the race was lost."
"From a positive point of view, it was really good crew work that allowed us
to get past them. They had a bad gybe, got tangled and had to gybe back.
We did some really good gybes and got past them. Our kite ripped and we had
to do a gybe peel, which went really well."
Despite dominating the start against Prada, GBR 41 faces a stiff task to
stay with the 2000 generation ACC yacht tomorrow. Although the British
yacht has started strongly in each race this week, the speed difference
between Luna Rossa and the 1995 generation yacht is huge.
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