Emirates Team NZ and Synergy penalized 1 point each; Score now 0-0
[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] The jury finds there was hard contact and that Synergy did not keep clear as the right-of-way yacht.
The International Jury for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur has penalised Synergy Russia Sailing Team a half point for a collision with Emirates Team New Zealand at the finish of their second Semi Final race earlier today.
In the second race Emirates Team New Zealand had been penalised in the pre-start for gybing too close. The crew carried that penalty around the course. Approaching the finish, Team New Zealand was trying to either complete the 270-degree penalty turn or offset it with a penalty on Synergy when the pair wound up outside the committee boat end of the finish line.
Both crews had their genoas hoisted trying to get upwind and over the top of the committee boat, but Team New Zealand got close to the committee boat. The New Zealand crew tacked to port and hailed for water, calling the committee boat an obstruction.
Both boats were downspeed in the sloppy seaway and they collided, Synergy’s port side hitting Team New Zealand’s starboard side.
After the match the on-water umpires penalised Emirates Team New Zealand 1 point and Synergy a half point for the beam-on-beam collision that caused some damage to the 24-tonne yachts.
In a later protest hearing the International jury found that there was a hard collision between Team New Zealand and Synergy. The jury deemed that when Synergy, the starboard-tack yacht, became the right-of-way boat it altered course down towards Team New Zealand and didn’t do enough to keep clear.
“That change of course was an infringement of Rule 14 (Avoiding Contact), so we deducted a half point for that,” said Chief Umpire Bill Edgerton. “In the end we penalised Team new Zealand 1 point and Synergy a half point for the rule to make sure the crews don’t do massive damage. Then we deducted a second half point from Synergy for not doing everything to keep clear.”
Although the teams have each won a race in their match the score is now 0-0, setting up a one race, winner-take-all match tomorrow morning.
Labels: Emirates Team New Zealand, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Synergy
4 Comments:
It is interesting to see how amateur the organisers of the LV Trophy are.
In their press release, they claim that today's race will be a winner takes all race, while the SI clearly state that the winner will be the first team to score TWO points.
I strongly suggest the loser of day to fight for a full application of the SI, unless obviously SIs have been one more time amended to fit the schedule. In any case, this shows well the lack of sporting value of that -non- event.
You are right. The organization is pathetic.
Bye bye Bruno, Russell and Grant, let's see what dog and pony show you have in Auckland with just 6 teams.
It makes me laugh when people criticize Alinghi for their choice of venue.
Look what wonderful "windy" shithole they picked for their non-event....
4-5 knots of wind every day, endless postponements and in the semis the boats reached the "spectacular" speed of 7 knots!!!
Well, if you guys don't like it, stay away. Nobody was forced to watch the races. Obviously, most of the the worlds top sailing teams found it worthwhile to compete.
IME, this is an excellent way to stay in shape and prepare for a subsequent AC campaign. I bet, Azzurra (and perhaps some of the other teams as well) now will have little difficulties campaingning for sufficient AC money.
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