Italian yacht Luna Rossa suffered a shock defeat to South African Team Shosholoza on Tuesday as the Louis Vuitton Cup saw racing for only the third time in nine days.
Wind speeds of eight knots, just enough to allow racing to go ahead, meant that for only the third day since the Cup began at the beginning of last week, the 11 challengers took to the waters around Valencia.
One of the early favourites, Emirates Team New Zealand, who themselves suffered a surprise defeat to Mascalzone Latino in their first race, were first to take to the waters and soundly beat French outfit Areva Challenge in the first round robin series.
The New Zealand team were quick off the mark and steadily increased their advantage before winning by almost two minutes.
Next up was Luna Rossa, unbeaten until now, but they were stunned by Shosholoza who held on for a victory by 36 seconds.
That win went some way to appeasing the South African’s leader Salvatore Sarno, who was incensed that racing was cancelled on Monday.
”We are very, very unhappy because it was possible to navigate today,” he said Monday night.
”We believe the big teams are putting pressure on the race committee not to give the green light to racing.”
BMW Oracle Racing remain the only unbeaten team after defeating Swedes Victory Challenge while Mascalzone Latino lost their unbeaten record with a defeat to Spaniards Desafio. — AFP
