AC Act 13 Wrap-up

The
fleet racing of Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13 was the opening act of
the decisive year of the 32nd America’s Cup. Beginning with the fleet
‘unveiling’ and continuing with seven races, Act 13 marked the opening
of the season, the debut of the final configuration of Port America’s
Cup and a chance to set the scene for the climax to come.

Ashore,
Port America’s Cup was bustling with activity. Nearly 230 000 visitors
came to the Port to enjoy the racing, sample the new restaurants and
cafés, and explore the entertainment on offer. At nearly one-million
square metres, Port America’s Cup offers a full range of activities,
from exhibitions, games and activities, to spectator boats and even a
chance to sail on a real America’s Cup Class boat.

In
addition, there is often a ‘special’ activity to see or participate in.
On Sunday, this was a tennis ‘match’ on the water featuring Juan Carlos
Ferrero and other tennis stars, who are in town for the Comunidad
Valenciana Open Tennis Tournament.

In
the racing on the water last week, the 11 challengers had an
opportunity to take a final look at the Defender, Alinghi, who won’t
race again before the first race of the 32nd America’s Cup Match on
June 23^rd. They may not have liked what they saw; Alinghi
dominated the regatta, winning four of the seven races, and claiming
Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13 by a 14 point margin.

Alinghi:
Skipper Brad Butterworth must have been pleased with his team’s
impressive performance, but he knows that from now onwards, Alinghi is
on its own, preparing in-house for the America’s Cup Match. “It is not
an easy game to win,” Butterworth said after the prize giving ceremony.
“The challengers will develop through the Louis Vuitton Cup. We are
going to have to develop outside of it and that is going to be the
battle.”

Emirates Team New Zealand:
The Kiwis came into Act 13 leading the Louis Vuitton Ranking which
assigns bonus points to challengers, and they extended their lead by
sailing a strong regatta. Skipper Dean Barker didn’t sail in the races,
handing the wheel to understudy Ben Ainslie, who helmed NZL 84, their
first new boat, to second place. “We’ve certainly had to scrap and
fight hard to get second place,” Ainslie said. “It’s been a good warm
up and now we’re looking forward to the serious racing.”

BMW ORACLE Racing:
If the American team had beaten Emirates Team New Zealand, it would
have passed them on the Louis Vuitton Ranking and grabbed an extra
bonus point. BMW ORACLE started Act 13 strongly, but had some poor
results in the middle of the regatta, from which it couldn’t recover.
In fact, it took some strategic sailing in the final race to preserve
second position on the Ranking. “When we went around the bottom mark
the Louis Vuitton Ranking points came down to the last lap of the last
race. With us winning, Luna Rossa second, Alinghi third and Mascalzone
Latino in fourth, Luna Rossa was beating us on the Ranking. We needed
to slow them down, slow down the action in order to move Alinghi
forward and get back into second overall,” explained navigator Peter
Isler.

Luna Rossa Challenge:
Luna Rossa Challenge wasn’t able to pass BMW ORACLE Racing or Emirates
on the challenger ranking with its performance in Valencia Louis
Vuitton Act 13. And on the final day, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia
overhauled them to become top Italian team in the fleet races. But Luna
Rossa is still near the top of the challenger ranking and looking
forward to the Louis Vuitton Cup. “I am not worried about the result in
Act 13,” said helmsman James Spithill. “I’m sure when the game gets
harder we will be ready for the match racing next week.”

Desafío Español 2007:
The home side rose to the occasion by winning a race on the final
Saturday, pleasing the large crowds in Port America’s Cup. More
importantly, Desafío Español stayed finished close enough behind
Mascalzone Latino to preserve an extra bonus point. “We are very happy
with our performance. Our boat speed and crew work are fine,” said
helmsman Karol Jablonski. “It is about learning about the boat and the
crew for the Louis Vuitton Cup which is most important for us.”

Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team:
Vincenzo Onorato’s squad made a strong impression in Valencia Louis
Vuitton Act 13, finishing in third spot, just one point behind the
Kiwis. Importantly, they were the best of the three Italian teams in
the opening regatta of 2007. “We sailed really well. Now we have to be
careful to keep the level up,” said skipper Vasco Vascotto. “I think
its going to be a hard America’s Cup but our guys are well prepared.
The stress will disappear and we will start to enjoy it.”

Victory Challenge:
The Swedes didn’t make the mark they wanted to in Act 13, but recovered
from a horrible first day to improve towards the end of the regatta,
although they couldn’t climb higher than eighth place on the
leaderboard. But the team has two bonus points, and is focussed on the
match racing of the Louis Vuitton Cup. “We are happy with the boat’s
performance, and I think we are all very even,” said Santiago Lange,
who works the traveller on the boat. “In this Act we have struggled
with the fleet racing and made mistakes, especially on the first few
days. Our team is much more focused on match racing. Fleet racing is
very different.”

Team Shosholoza:
The South Africans achieved all of their goals in Valencia Louis
Vuitton Act 13, finishing in seventh place, which was good enough to
move up the Louis Vuitton Ranking and steal an extra bonus point. The
team was often among the leaders early in the races and finished as
high as second place. “We achieved our goal to move into the two point
group for the Louis Vuitton Cup,” said skipper Mark Sadler. “We’ve had
some disappointing races but we’ve also learned a lot.”

Areva Challenge:
It was a difficult Louis Vuitton Act for the French team, who were
unable to hold off the charge by Shosholoza. Areva Challenge slipped
down the Louis Vuitton Ranking with its ninth place finish in Act 13,
and surrendered a bonus point in the process. “We have to find an
efficient way of working to perform well and score points right from
the beginning of the Round Robins,” said Tanguy Cariou, strategist on
the boat. “FRA 93 has real potential. We just have to work to develop
it and get the most out of it. We don’t have much time, but we know we
can do better than the ninth place here.”

+39 Challenge:
The third Italian challenger burst out of the gates to lead the fleet
around much of the first race, before an unexpected wind shift shuffled
the fleet and left them in 10^th place. They were up among
the leaders again in Race Three when disaster struck. A collision with
the German boat resulted in a dismasting, the brand new spar tumbling
to the deck. +39 Challenge won its protest and received redress from
the Jury, resulting in it earning two bonus points. But the team hasn’t
been able to sail since the collision and is now focussed on repairing
the mast in time for the Louis Vuitton Cup.

United Internet Team Germany:
The Germans had some good results early, but were unnerved by their
collision with +39 Challenge. The team is well down on the Louis
Vuitton Ranking table, but determined to improve for the Louis Vuitton
Cup. “Since our accident with +39 we changed our rig to an older one
and we seem to have problems with it upwind,” admitted trimmer Matti
Paschen. “We were better off the first days racing here.”

China Team:
A back marker in most of the Louis Vuitton Acts, China Team was more
competitive with the new CHN 95, although still under prepared in
comparison to the rest of the fleet. “Act 13 was training for us,” said
bowman Gilles Andre. “But we can identify the things we need to
improve. The races are starting to be a lot more compact and manoeuvres
more fluent so we have started to be a bit of a nuisance to the others.
That is giving us confidence to continue making progress and give our
all for the start of Louis Vuitton Cup.”

The Louis Vuitton Cup

The
challengers will begin racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup on April 16th.
The teams will begin the Round Robin section of the event armed with
the bonus points they’ve earned through the Louis Vuitton Ranking. In
the Round Robins, a victory is worth two points, so each bonus point is
equivalent to half a win. At the conclusion of the second Round Robin,
only four teams will advance to the Semi Final, with the top two
meeting in the Final. The winner claims the Louis Vuitton Cup and earns
the right to race Alinghi in the 32nd America’s Cup Match.

Louis Vuitton Ranking

*Awarded redress by the Jury

Event media: www.americascup.com