| Sweden. Louis Vuitton: HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark onboard K-Challenge |
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; "His Royal Highness Prince Henrik of Denmark onboard K-Challenge © Franck Socha")
| Saturday, 03 September 2005 | |
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Stephanie Nadin: For the first day of fleet racing in Malmö, the 12 teams that came together on the starting line had conditions completely different from what they had sailed in during match racing. Indeed, after the first race was finished right under the time limit, the second was abandoned on the run to the finish. FRA 60 had onboard today His Royal Highness, Prince Henrik of Denmark. Prince Henrik was the 18th man for the second race. He declared when returning to the base with the team this evening: “I am really charmed to have been able to be at the side of the team of Thierry Peponnet today, in spite of the lack of wind. It was a beautiful experience, because one needed much concentration in the light wind, and it was very interesting to undergo that at the sides of the team members of K-Challenge.” Today’s team saw a change of positions, with Tanguy Cariou as tactician, and Cameron Appleton as strategist. Jean Galfione was also back on the grinders, and explained his return: “I returned super motivated to be on the boat, I “had even reviewed” all the operations yesterday with other team members so I could be sure of myself. I am really glad to have sailed today, unfortunately there was not much wind. “ Thierry Peponnet, Skipper and Helmsman of K-Challenge, also considers the difficult conditions of the day: “we spent the day with a wind that, on the race course, was weakening more and more. That gave a soft wind which died each time on the run to the finish. In the first race we made an average start, and then tacked where we thought it would pay off (the wind was supposed to turn right according to the forecasts), but it moved left on the first upwind leg. There were 5 different leaders on this leg ! In an unstable wind, it is difficult to preserve one’s position. After having rounded the mark in 9th, we made a comeback to 7th on the next upwind leg, before falling into a zone with no breeze. We maybe could have done better if we had taken the more extreme choices, as BMW Oracle Racing did when they were behind us. It’s always a risk though, but this time paid off for them.” “We did not adopt a good downwind strategy in the first run of the first race, continues Tanguy Cariou, Tactician. “We found ourselves behind and it was very difficult to remain focused and to go upwind without any wind. The results can be seen very quickly under these conditions, it is necessary to make good choices from the beginning.” Two more fleet races are planned for tomorrow. Results of race 1 : Teams (places) Points 1 BMW ORACLE Racing (1) 12 2 Alinghi (2) 11 3 Desafío Español 2007 (3) 10 4 Emirates Team New Zealand (4) 9 5 United Internet Team Germany (5) 8 6 Luna Rossa Challenge (6) 7 7 Team Shosholoza (7) 6 8 Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team (8) 5 9 +39 Challenge (9) 4 10 K-Challenge (10) 3 11 China Team (11) 2 12 Victory Challenge (12) 1 www.k-challenge.org |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 04 September 2005 ) |
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