South Africa’s Team Shosholoza was back in the hunt again on Thursday to put two more points on the scoreboard after a fiercely fought victory over the Italian +39 Challengers in an all-Italian set of races for the South Africans at the Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia, Spain.
”We are glad we can give everyone at home more reason to celebrate Freedom Day, We’ll make sure we give them another win tomorrow [Friday] as well when we race the French Areva challenge in the 11th and final flight of this first round robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup,” said captain Salvatore Sarno, the Italian-born founder and managing director of Team Shosholoza.
In the first flight of races on Thursday the South African’s lost a furious battle against Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia — the third of the three Italian challengers entered for the 2007 America’s Cup. Earlier this week Shosholoza shook the sailing world with a superb triumph over the top-ranked Italian team Luna Rossa.
In fact Italian pride was at stake all round with Team Shosholoza’s Italian helmsman Paolo Cian and tactician Tommaso Chieffi determined to take two wins off their countrymen.
The match against +39, a team that has been plagued by rig and appendage problems, started late in the day at 6.20pm and proved tougher than expected, even though the South Africans led from the start.
Shosholoza won the pin end of the start on a split tack but it was only after an exhausting 29 tack duel, ”a record for this event”, that the South Africans could eke out a slim lead to round the first windward mark 13 seconds ahead.
The downwind run was close with +39 hounding the South Africans down to close the gap to nine seconds at the leeward gate. A double fake tack by +39 going into the second beat failed to scare the boys on Shosholoza, who, despite another tacking duel, increased their lead to 19 seconds and three boat lengths at the final windward gate.
The Italians tried hard to fight back in the final run to the finish but the South Africans consolidated their lead to celebrate being first across the finish line 26 seconds ahead.
The match between Shosholoza and Mascalzone Latino Capitalia in Flight 8 earlier in the day was as tense and no less fiercely fought. It was a race that promised to alter the rankings favourably for the South Africans, but it wasn’t going to be their day. And the body language on yacht Shosholoza RSA 83 said it all at the end of the match.
A wind shift postponed the first start, even though the five-minute starting sequence was on its way. In the restart Shosholoza came in on starboard amid a sudden downpour of rain and immediately tacked away to fight for the advantageous right side.
Both boats dialled up and stalled and then bore away to fight for the advantage. Coming back up Mascalzone let Shosholoza go and both boats hit the start with Shosholoza a second ahead.
The boats split tacks with Shosholoza going right and Mascalzone left to create a big separation.
Mascalzone was ahead at the first cross by 63m and the two teams swapped sides but the South Africans, showing similar boat speed, worked the left side by attacking repeatedly in a relentless 15-tack duel to bring the margin back down to eight seconds as they chased Mascalzone around the first windward mark.
On the first downwind spinnaker run the Italians seemed to have the speed edge sailing lower and faster to control the race. There was a tense moment when Shosholoza ripped her spinnaker on the top jumper but the South Africans did well to peel to a new spinnaker without losing much time in the tricky 10 knot breezes.
Still, Mascalzone managed to stretch the lead to 146m to round the leeward gate 46 seconds ahead. But a good gybe set on the leeward gate brought the South Africans back into contention.
Shosholoza was once again on the attack and initiated another gruelling 22-tack duel up the second beat to try and make a gain on the left side and claw into the lead. Shosholoza gained 2m or 3m on every tack to gain a minute on the Italians and round just eight seconds behind at the second windward mark.
Going down the run Team Shosholoza got more breeze on the left to finally take a slim 7m lead. Racing was tight and close with the lead swapping between the two boats a couple of times, but despite throwing all they had into hauling the Italians in, Mascalzone started to edge out a lead of 76m as they approached the finish.
Skipper Mark Sadler could be seen up the mast helping bring the spinnaker safely round in the gybe to port but the spinnaker hooked on the jumper again to shred the top of the spinnaker and the dejected South Africans could do nothing but follow Mascalzone to cross the line one minute 56 seconds behind.
Thursday’s win puts the South Africans seventh overall with 10 points after nine flights of match races. America’s BMW Oracle Racing remains at the top of the ranking with 19 points as the only team undefeated so far.
On Friday Team Shosholoza has a bye in flight 10 and will race the French Areva challenge in flight 11. Round robin two starts on Saturday with South Africa up against Sweden’s Victory Challenge. — Sapa