Mascalzone Latino Wins Fleet Racing at Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai

[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] The six international crews at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai hosted local dhow skippers today in three fleet races when competition resumed off the Dubai International Marine Club.

Italy’s Mascalzone Latino Audi won the day handsomely with skipper Gavin Brady scoring two first places. The French/German team All4One and Sweden’s Artemis Racing were second equal, while Emirates Team New Zealand was third.

Saeed Hareb, CEO of the Dubai International Marine Club, presented the fleet race trophy to Gavin Brady and presented commemorative medals to Brady and all his crew.

The Emirates Team New Zealand crew raced today wearing black arm bands and with their ensign at half mast in a somber reminder of the Pike River coal mine explosion in New Zealand that claimed 29 lives. The team is planning a brief on-water ceremony tomorrow morning to pay their respects to the lost miners.

Skippers of the four semi-finalists chose their starting positions and their boats tonight. BMW Oracle Racing chose to race fourth-seeded All4One while Emirates Team New Zealand will start against Synergy Russian Sailing Team.

Gavin Brady does his magic and helms Mascalzone Latino AUDI Team to two victories. Dubai, 25 November 2010. Photo copyright Bob Grieser/ousideimages.com/Louis Vuitton Trophy

“We chose All4One simply for the fact that they finished in fourth place,” said James Spithill, skipper of BMW Oracle Racing. “It’s never an easy decision but at the end of the day you have to go out there and beat them. It’s going to be a tough race. They’re not an easy team to race against.”

In the semi-finals the winners will be the first boats to win two races. The winners will race the finals on Saturday in a best of five series.

In today’s fleet racing, each of the four teams raced twice over the course of three races.

Brady’s finishes have been uneven over the past two weeks of racing in Dubai but today he and his afterguard of tactician Morgan Larson, navigator Steve Hayles, and masthead wind spotter Cameron Dunn, made no mistakes on flat water in a very shifty five to seven knot north westerly breeze.

In his first race Brady claimed the pin end of the line and pulled out to an early lead that increased as the race wore on. In his second race, Brady went for a port tack start behind the fleet before going up the middle of the course. He emerged at the weather mark with a commanding lead that he held until the finish.

“We wanted the left in the first race,” Brady said. “In these light air races you can’t be conservative. You have to really go for it so we went for a pretty aggressive start down at the pin end. For the second race we wanted to start to the right. We didn’t want to sacrifice a tack to get the right so we decided to do something that no-one else has done here and start on port tack and take the stern of all the boats at full speed.”

Video: Emirates Team NZ spinnaker pole pierces into Mascalzone Latino boat

Emirates Team NZ spinnaker pole pierces into Mascalzone Latino boat. Dubai, 14 November 2010. Video copyright Louis Vuitton Trophy

Carnage on day one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai

Carnage on day one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Dubai, 14 November 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Carnage on day one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Dubai, 14 November 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Carnage on day one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Dubai, 14 November 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Carnage on day one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Dubai, 14 November 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Carnage on day one of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Dubai, 14 November 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Video: Highlights from Day 5 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy la Maddalena

Highlights from Day 5 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy. La Maddalena, 26 May 2010. Video copyright Louis Vuitton Trophy

Mascalzone Latino triumph in La Maddalena

[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] Mascalzone Latino Audi Team beat Luna Rossa today by just five seconds in a heart-stopping charge for the finish line and chalked up a piece of Italian sailing history. For the first time in seven years of racing in America’s Cup boats, the Latin Rascals defeated their rival Luna Rossa.

The race in light north-easterly winds on the Golfo di Arzachena off La Maddalena was the closest of the four sailed today. Light and fluky winds forced a three-hour delay to the start of competition and curtailed it at day’s end despite an attempt to start further racing.

Can it get any closer? Mascalzone beats Luna Rossa by just 5 seconds. La Maddalena, 23 May 2010. Photo copyright Bob Grieser / outsideimages.co.nz / Louis Vuitton Trophy

Luna Rossa was making their debut in Louis Vuitton Trophy racing with 2007 America’s Cup winner Ed Baird as their new helmsman. Baird won the start against Gavin Brady steering Mascalzone Latino and controlled the first three legs.

Closing the weather mark for the second time Brady got out of phase in a series of short tacks and pulled up right astern of Luna Rossa to round just seven seconds behind. The leaders made a conventional bear-away gennaker set while Mascalzone went for a delayed gybe set that led to over 500 metres of separation and an opportunity to grab the lead.

When Baird eventually gybed to cover, Brady was sailing slightly deeper in better pressure. The tables turned and Brady worked out to a 70-metre lead only to see most of it evaporate when he gybed for the finish and the spinnaker sheet came unclipped.

“The end of the spinnaker was flying out loose and Alan Smith, our bowman, clipped onto a spare halyard and swung out over the water to capture it and clip it on again,” Brady said. “We knew it was going to be close but by then we had overstood and came flying into the mark with plenty of speed.”

In other races:

Flight Four, Race One: All4One def Azzurra, 00:20 – At the first cross it was All4One on starboard with a healthy two-boat lead. Sebastien Col steered the French/German alliance to a 28-second delta at the top mark and controlled the rest of the way.

Flight Four, Race Two: ALEPH Sailing Team def BMW Oracle Racing 00:28 – Bertrand Pacé steering ALEPH sailed a cool-headed tactical race to counter an aggressive attack by America’s Cup winner James Spithill. The French led by seven seconds at the top mark only to have Spithill execute a breathtakingly close inside overtaking move around the bottom mark. Pacé’s protest was green-flagged but Spithill had to tack away to clear his air. The windward mark delta was just six seconds before the French extended to win by six boat lengths.

Vive la France. Bertrand Pacé helms ALEPH Sailing to a second victory in row against a "heavyweight". La Maddalena, 23 May 2010. Photo copyright Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy

Flight Five, Race Two: Artemis def TEAMORIGIN, 00:46 – All the drama in this race occurred 1:40 before the gun when the British boat hooked a crab pot or fish trap as they manoeuvered close to spectator boats. “It had two lines on it, one a pretty heavy anchorline,” said Peter Isler, navigator on TEAMORIGIN. “We went head to wind and Craig Satterthwaite jumped in and slashed both ropes with his knife and we were off again. We were early for the line but not that early!”

Team Origin goes from one disaster to another. La Maddalena, 23 May 2010. Photo copyright Ian Roman / Team Origin

Inside the basin of the Porto Arsenale, 14-year-old Silvia Acheri won the first of three days raced in O’Pen Bic singlehanded dinghies to qualify finalists for the Louis Vuitton Junior Trophy. Silvia races for the Lega Navale Italiana in Cagliari, Southern Sardina. She won every one of her races.

Provisional win-loss leaderboard after Flight Five:

1. ALEPH Sailing Team, 2-0, 2 pts
=1. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, 2-0, 2 pts
=3. All4One, 1-0, 1 pt
=3. Artemis, 1-0, 1 pt
=5. Emirates Team New Zealand, 0-0, 0 pts
=5. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 0-0, 0 pts
=7. BMW Oracle Racing Team, 0-1, 0 pts
=7. Luna Rossa, 0-1, 0 pts
=9. Azzurra, 0-2, 0 pts
=9. TEAMORIGIN, 0-2, 0 pts

Video: Peter Reggio explains the details of the LV Trophy Maddalena

Peter Reggio explains the details of the LV Trophy. La Maddalena, 21 May 2010. Video copyright Mascalzone Latino

34th America's Cup Press Conference - Rome

BMW Oracle and Mascalzone Latino to hold press conference on May 6th

So, the joint press conference Russell Coutts promised us last week, will finally be taking place next week in Rome, more precisely on the 6th of May.

Emirates Team NZ is one up in LV Trophy final; Azzurra finishes 3rd

[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] Emirates Team New Zealand pulled off two key victories today, first winning match point in a Semi-Final race and then prevailing in the first Finals race of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta.

The host team will continue its best-of-five match in the Finals tomorrow, racing against the Mascalzone Latino Audi team representing Club Nautico di Roma, which is the Challenger of Record for the America’s Cup.

Racing started in the approaches to the Rangitoto Channel off Auckland’s East Coast beaches in the early afternoon, after a long wait for an uncertain sou-west breeze to fill-in and settle. The shifty breeze was moderate all day, ranging between 10 and 14 knots.

Emirates and Azzurra were 1-1, after the Kiwi’s nail-biter one second win on Friday. There was plenty at stake. The Italian team won the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice last November, beating Emirates. The host Kiwi team had won the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series event in Auckland last year and they were aiming for a repeat victory.

Emirates Team NZ is 2 wins away from grabbing the LV Trophy. Auckland, 20 March 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Emirate’s skipper Dean Barker wanted the right side of the course and, with the starboard entry, he wielded the advantage with clinical detachment.

“It wasn’t easy that’s for sure,” Barker said. “Conditions aren’t exactly even or stable, it keeps you on the edge of your toes all the time. But it felt very controlled from our guys. The nice thing is the composure of our guys, which we’ve really been working hard on. Even though things got tight at times, the guys kept doing their job well.”

With their Finals berth safe, the Emirates team enjoyed a break until they returned to race Mascalzone Latino Audi. It proved to be a nail-biter for their Kiwi fans.

Barker pulled off a come-from-behind victory after conceding the lead at the second mark. In the pre-start, the New Zealanders came within centimetres of a penalty as they tacked away from ML Audi’s Gavin Brady but the incident was green-flagged by the umpires. Brady took the lead at the second leeward mark only to concede it when Barker split away on the windward leg and got back ahead.

Emirates Team New Zealand Managing Director Grant Dalton, who also sails on the boat, summed up the day. “I think the bottom line is that we can still sail a lot better. We have to just keep working at it. It tends to click eventually,” Dalton said. “Brady is a bit more aggressive, he came close to copping a couple of penalties today on the start, one I thought was pretty close on the edge. But that’s up to Dean, he deals with it all the time. The whole thing is a bit disjointed because you’re not flowing, week on week on week. So you can’t expect to be going at the normal rate of incremental improvement every day. But we’ve got to be reasonably happy at the moment, going one-up in the final."

Race One – Semi-Final: Emirates Team New Zealand def. Azzurra, 00:26 –Emirates had the starboard end advantage and used it throughout the prestart to hold Azzurra’s Francesco Bruni out from the right side of the course. They came to the line at speed on starboard, in a shifty 10-knot breeze, well separated and with the Italians just bow out. Emirates held for a few seconds and then tacked away into a right shift. When they closed for the first cross 30 seconds later the Kiwis on starboard had a lead of nearly two boat lengths. Approaching the top mark and above the port lay line, Italy pulled back into close contact on a big left shift, but NZ’s Dean Barker luffed them momentarily before the mark before bearing away and opening a lead of several boat lengths that he never relinquished. Tommaso Chieffi, Azzurra tactician, said “we entered on port so it was already a difficult situation. On the second beat, we had the jib halyard come undone. We had to ease the jib out, and that lost us about 20 seconds. God knows, if it was closer in the last part of the race, it may have been a different story but it wasn’t our day.”

Race Two - 1st Final: Team New Zealand def. Mascalzone Latino Audi, 00:12 – After his close miss, Barker coolly controlled the prestart, pushing Brady above the committee boat before returning and speeding off on starboard with the Italians trailing on his hip. Emirates first mark lead was 14 seconds but the Italians got on their wind on the run to round ahead at the leeward mark. Barker said, “you’re happy sometimes to give up some distance if it means that you put yourself in a stronger position. And we did a nice job of that on the second beat – in the end we were able to extend quite a bit.” Brady got out to the right but it didn’t pay. He let the boats get widely separated on a long port tack and the lead changed again as Barker found more favorable breeze on the left. Barker led by 12 seconds at the third mark and also at the finish. Brady’s tactician Morgan Larson took the long view. “We’re really happy, the guys are sailing the boat better than we have all week,” he said. “We’ve just got to get a little tighter in the afterguard and keep our communication good and look at it more like a match race.”

Emirates Team NZ leads Mascalzone 1-0 in the LV Trophy finals. Auckland, 20 March 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Race Three – Petit Final: Azzurra def Artemis – Italy’s Azzurra won their Petit Final match against Artemis as the Swedish boat copped two penalties in an early evening race. In the pre-start dialup Terry Hutchinson in the port entry boat was late completing his initial tack and the blue penalty flag went up. Francesco Bruni took Azzurra over the start line just to weather of Artemis and bow out. It was a one tack leg as the boats straightlined at equal speeds all the way out to the port tack layline where Artemis was forced to follow their opponent into the mark. The Italians dominated the next two legs until Artemis pulled level on the last run, only to be penalized again for failing to respond to a luff. Azzurra pulled away to win as the Swedish boat began its penalty turn.

Yet another great performance by Azzurra that leave Auckland 3rd overall. Auckland, 20 March 2010. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis

Yet another great performance by Azzurra that leave Auckland 3rd overall. Auckland, 20 March 2010. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis

Yet another great performance by Azzurra that leave Auckland 3rd overall. Auckland, 20 March 2010. Photo copyright Sander van der Borch / Artemis

Mascalzone Latino move to LV Trophy finals

[Source: Louis Vuitton Trophy] Emirates Team New Zealand came within one second of elimination from the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta today but kept Kiwi hopes alive with a brilliant finish. Tied 1-1, the host team will sail the third race of their Semi-Final with Italy's Azzura tomorrow.

The other Semi-Final went to three races, with the Italian team Mascalzone Latino Audi, representing the Challenger of Record for the America’s Cup, defeating Sweden’s Artemis in close competition.

The southwesterly breeze was lighter than preceding days, but shifts and lulls and delays in starting several races did not prevent the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Race Committee and PRO Peter Reggio from starting five of the six scheduled races. They tried for a sixth race but abandoned it at 7:15pm in a fading breeze and the fading light of dusk.

Although it was Friday in Auckland and a business day, a respectable-sized spectator grew in size as the afternoon wore on.

For its last two races, Artemis carried a distinguished 18th man. John Bertrand, the Aussie skipper who in 1983 lifted the America’s Cup from the clutches of the New York Yacht Club, rode on the stern of the Swedish boat, forbidden from offering advice but clearly enjoying the experience.

Paul Cayard, skipper of Artemis, was philosophical about his team’s dismissal. “We’re assembling a new team here, and we’ve got a lot of America’s Cup experience on board, and we need to get that all glued together,” he said. “We made a huge step forward here in Auckland, and we’re really happy with how we sailed.”

Asked about the quality of umpire calls, he added, “I think the umpires actually made good calls there, I think we slightly tacked in the last start and it was a fair call. All in all, the umpires are doing a good job and that’s part of the race.

Ray Davies, tactician for Emirates Team New Zealand described the penalty before the start that almost cost them their second race against Azzurra as “a bit of an unforced one.” He said, “we were in a real strong position, and we looked to gybe with them, but as they gybed, our jib just hit their sticks (wands) as we bore away. We were able to keep control of the start. It was a bit of a trade off.

After carrying their penalty all around the course, Emirates unloaded it on the finish line in a tight, foaming turn around the pin end as Azzurra bore down on them. The Kiwi boat had a 135-metre lead and Davies grinned as he estimated they needed a margin of 134 metres to pull off the win.

“That would be our absolute limit,” he said. “We couldn’t have done it with any less. It’s always pretty hard to slow down and try to do that. We talked about it at the top mark and we thought we were rounding in quite good pressure with a chance to extend, which we did. We sailed really good from there on.”

Morgan Larson, tactician on the winning Mascalzone Latino Audi, noted an extra layer in the competition between his boat and Artemis. “Terry Hutchinson and Gavin Brady are neighbours in Annapolis, so there was quite a bit on the line, more than we all know.”

Race One: Mascalzone Latino Audi def. Artemis, 00:11 – Trailing all the first leg after losing the start, Gavin Brady and Mascalzone Latino Audi, rode a big right wind shift into the lead as they closed the top mark. Paul Cayard’s Swedish Artemis took the fight back to the Italians on the first run, pressing bow to stern into the gate, but ML Audi overcame a messy chute takedown to lead the rest of the way. “It was a split breeze up there,” said Cayard who had benefitted from left shifts throughout the beat. “He had a lot more rightie than we did. It’s hard to do two tacks in 25 seconds in these boats so you’ve got to live it out. We’ve been living and dying by the shifts all week. All the teams have and so far it’s worked good for us but, you know, we lost one.”

Race Two: Azzurra def. Emirates Team New Zealand, 00:18 – The host team sailed a brilliant first leg, winning the start and controlling Italy’s Azzurra through a punishing 18-tack duel on the 1.3-mile leg that took both boats above the mark. Emirates Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies had the scenario planned as they got closer. “We’re gonna park it up here,” he said. Park it they did, and in the subsequent head to wind luffing match the Italians were penalized for failing to keep clear. Emirates led around the top mark by 21 seconds but Azzurra came at them again. Francesco Bruni tacked hard around the leeward mark and got out to the left of Kiwi skipper Dean Barker and into an advantageous left shift that put him ahead. Closing the weather mark, Bruni had a 200 metre lead and the margin for a 360 degree turn that cancelled his penalty. The Italians still led by 26 seconds at the top mark and were never seriously threatened.

Race Three: Artemis def. Mascalzone Latino, 00:21 - Pushed over the line early by Hutchinson on Artemis, Brady was forced to restart and trailed by nearly five boat lengths just minutes after the start. Hutchinson had pounced with just 30 seconds remaining in the pre-start. Both boats were leading in on parallel starboard tack courses with plenty of separation when Artemis bore off and hooked under ML Audi pushing them up and over the line. Hutchinson hit the line at the gun, with speed, while Brady went back. Artemis was out to a five boat-length lead and never surrendered it.

Race Four: Mascalzone Latino def Artemis, 00:24 - It was pay-back time for Brady in this pre-start. Thirty seconds before the gun, he risked a close quarter tack on port, before tacking back onto starboard and squeezing Hutchinson above the starboard layline. Artemis tacked away and the umpires flew a blue penalty flag for failing to keep clear. From out to the right of the committee boat, Mascalzone Latino Audi led back in, a boat length and a half clear ahead and with the penalty advantage. On the run, a gybe set by Artemis put her on the right side of the course downwind and Hutchinson drew level, only for Brady to again hold him out above the leeward mark. Artemis got to the mark with a 270 deg. turn that negated the penalty but the third mark delta was 34 seconds and ML Audi had her berth in the finals.

Race Five: Emirates Team New Zealand def. Azzurra, 00:01 – Saddled with a penalty before the start and facing elimination from the series, the host team sailed out to a 135 metre lead over four legs and nailed a heart-stopping victory by one second as they completed a turn to offset it. After a relatively sedate dialup, Azzurra ran off deep into the start box on port and as she rounded up, Emirates Team New Zealand turned inside her with protest flag flying. It was green flagged. Azzurra bore off, Emirates turned to follow and her bow touched the safety wand on Azzurra’s stern. The umpire’s flag went up. Beginning the beat, the Kiwi boat crossed ahead of the Italians on port with about eight metres clearance and then slowly extended over the following legs.

First words from Vincenzo Onorato, head of the 34th America's Cup Challenger of Record

"Thank God, this is the end of a long night for Oracle". These were the first words of Vincenzo Onorato in Valencia, moments after the American trimaran crossed the finish line and won the 33rd America's Cup.

Lara Ciribì Onorato, newly nominated President of Mascalzone Latino Team Audi, echoed Onorato's words from Italy: "This American victory comes after a long dispute that lasted almost 3 years. We at Mascalzone Latino are proud to have supported the positions of Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts right from the start. Thanks to this victory, the America's Cup will become a high profile sporting event, run by fairer rules than the ones the previous Defender wanted to impose".

Vincenzo Onorato (left) together with Gavin Brady, skipper and helmsman of Mascalzone Latino AUDI Team

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team unveils its plans

[Source: Mascalzone Latino Audi Team] Two of the best known names in the yachting world have chosen to join forces, creating the Mascalzone Latino Audi Team.

"I am very proud of the fact that Audi, a prestigious car company with such great tradition in sponsoring the sailing world, has chosen to link its name to Mascalzone Latino", commented Vincenzo Onorato. "I would like to thank the President of the Volkswagen Group, Dr. Tartaglione, the Director of Audi Italy, Dr. Frisch and the Director of Audi Marketing, Dr Migliorini for the trust they have put in us. We share the values of excellence and of fair competition as an incentive to constant improvement, as individuals, as a team and from a technology development point of view."

Vincenzo Onorato's team will be racing in several classes and on different race courses, focusing mainly on the Louis Vuitton Trophy, on the one-design Farr 40 and on the Melges 32 class.

The World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) and Louis Vuitton have announced the next venues of the Louis Vuitton Trophy for 2010 and early 2011. The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series took place in Auckland in February of last year and the Louis Vuitton Trophy was held in Nice in November 2009. The format calls for two weeks of match racing (one on one duel) with America's Cup Class yachts provided by the organization.

Participating teams, top professionals in the sailing world who for the most part have matured experience in previous America's Cup campaigns, rotate on board during individual "flights". A "flight" is jargon for a single race, in which teams display their seamanship skills and tactical intelligence. Emirates Team New Zealand will host the next leg of the Trophy, taking place from the 9th to the 21st of March in Auckland.

Italy will then host the European leg at La Maddalena in Sardinia. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team will be doing the honors from the 22nd of May to the 6th of June. Third on the calendar, the Middle Eastern stop-over in Dubai from the 13th to the 28th of November followed by China in 2011. Racing will take place in Hong Kong from the 9th to the 24th of January.

"La Maddalena will be at the center of media interest right at the beginning of the summer season and attention will be directed to the new infrastructure created for the G8 summit, later transferred to L'Aquila for the well-known reasons", underlined Vincenzo Onorato. He then continued: "This success was possible thanks to the decisions taken by the Government and by Dr Guido Bertolaso, who has asked me to coordinate the event. As the "hosting team", Audi Mascalzone Latino Team wants to offer all competitors the best hospitality. My heart full thanks also goes to those who welcomed us, the Region of Sardinia, that is sponsoring our team in all stages of the Louis Vuitton Trophy, and that here is represented at the highest institutional level by the President of the Region Ugo Cappellacci. Sardinia is a region with an enormous untapped potential, both in terms of nautical tourism and of all it offers as a whole. The interior landscape is extraordinary, but still unknown to most. The Louis Vuitton Trophy is a global event and Sardinia will have the opportunity of being added by travelers to their "Italian Grand Tour".