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Team NZ sailing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice - Source: Photosport
On a day where the leaders at the Louis Vuitton Trophy kept pace with one another, it was the Synergy team of Russia that made the day's headline.
Synergy, led by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski, scored an historic triumph by beating the French/German team ALL4ONE after the Russian team got the early jump off the start line when ALL4ONE became entangled with the race committee boat (going OCS and earning a penalty for hitting the committee boat) and then sailed to a victory of 1 minute, 30 seconds.
"This is a great victory and great day for Russia," Maxim Logutenko, Synergy's team manager said. "It's the first time Russia has won a race on this kind of boat.
"The start was a present for us, but in the rest of the race we did a good job. Karol did a great job helming and we're happy with the crew work. We're getting better and better."
Only once before has Russia attempted to field a team for the Louis Vuitton Cup: That was in 1992, but the team never made the series. Synergy is there with an eye towards the future and the win was welcome because of the team's hard luck the past few days.
During Sunday's race Synergy ,led Emirates Team New Zealand before "hitting the wall" just three lengths from the finish line and could only watch as the Kiwis sailed past to take the win.
On Wednesday, Synergy led Artemis up the first beat until the mainsheet broke. Such are the growing pains for a fledgling team.
But it wasn't all bad new for Team New Zealand as the team kept their perfect record intact with a 23-second win to sit at the top of the table with 5 points on a 5-0 record.
Britain's TeamOrigin, the only other undefeated team at 4-0, holds second place with 4 points. Italy's Azzurra is third with 4 points on a 4-1 record, and BMW Oracle is fourth with 2 points on a 2-2 record.
