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A Louis Vuitton Trophy boat make a tight turn at the leeward gate - Source: Franck Socha/Louis Vuitton Trophy, Nice Côte d'Azur -
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Louis Vuitton Day 10
Having already secured a semi-final as top qualifier, Team New Zealand enjoyed a day off today and ironically missed out on the best sailing conditions of the Louis Vuitton Trophy so far.
The port of Nice and its Bay of Angels were bathed in sunshine and after a solid breeze blew from the north early in the morning, the wind shifted east later until it was blowing around the 18 knot mark for the last race.
It was a treat to see these huge boats really powered up and the strong, steady breeze also made for much tighter racing. We enjoyed some great matches with the best pitting the Russian Synergy Team against Azzurra. Both these new teams have surprised the pundits by reaching the semi-finals at the expense of BMW Oracle Racing and the highly-fancied Artemis team which has Terry Hutchinson at the helm and Paul Cayard calling tactics.
BMW Oracle had some excuse for their poor showing with several key team members including Russell Coutts and Aussie helmsman James Spithill working on the giant multi-hull in preparation for the showdown with Alinghi.
Gavin Brady is driving for BMW Oracle here with Hamish Pepper calling tactics and they simply made too many errors, surrendering the lead in a number of races. They got their act together in the last race with a fine win over Artemis in the biggest breeze to date but it was too little too late.
In the Italy-Russia match there was nothing in right round the track with Synergy just in front. Francesco Bruni at the helm of Azzurra waited for his chance to attack and it came half way down the final run. Bruni got his boat in a position to try and roll over Synergy and was looking good until the kite simply ripped into pieces under the pressure. That gifted the win to Karol Jablonski.
Making up the semi-final four is Britain's Team Origin with Ben Ainslie at the helm. As top qualifier Dean Barker gets to choose who he'll race against and will make his decision after Team New Zealand sail against Synergy tomorrow in their last outing before the semi-finals.
There's no racing on Wednesday.
The best of 3 semis will be sailed on Thursday and Friday.
