South Africa’s Team Shosholoza has made history by being the first ever African challenger to win a race in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger selection series for the 2007 America’s Cup.
In a tremendous victory for the entire African continent, the South African first-timers at the America’s Cup led United Internet Team Germany from start to finish to pull off a resounding win by one minute, 10 seconds.
The South Africans took control in the early part of the pre-start dial-up to win the start bang on the gun with the German’s crossing 11 seconds later and splitting to the right. Shosholoza kept a slim lead on the Germans up the first beat but not without a ding-dong battle trading tacks all the way.
But slick sailing saw the South African’s taking the Germans way off to the right of the starboard lay line to round the first windward mark two boat lengths and 16 seconds ahead.
Shosholoza continued to gain on the downwind spinnaker run, rounding the leeward gate 19 seconds ahead and then pulled out again with four boat lengths on their opponent to round the top mark with a 25-second lead.
In the final dash to the finish the South Africans more than doubled their lead to over 10 boat lengths when the Germans discovered a hole in their spinnaker and had to peel to a new one.
Cheering, hooting and hollering greeted the South Africans as they swept across the finish line.
In the first flight of racing on Friday the South Africans were disappointed to lose a critical fiercely fought duel against the Swedish Victory Challenge by a mere 46 seconds. Dubbed as the headline challenge of the day, it was a crucial middle-order battle as Victory Challenge is one of Shosholoza’s closest competition for a place in the semifinals.
The Louis Vuitton Cup started five days ago on Monday but windless conditions through the week meant that Friday was the first day that racing could finally get under way. — Sapa