| Desafío Español grinds out two victories in new ESP 88 |
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 The final competition of the 2006 America's Cup season began with two full flights of racing in Valencia. Louis Vuitton Act 12 is a match racing regatta, complete with round robin, semi finals and final. In this sense, it mimics the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series, which will identify the ultimate challenger to face Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup Match.It was a tense day on the water for the Spanish team who are alone among the 12 competitors in racing a new boat, ESP 88. Desafío Español earned two wins from two starts, but was behind in the second race until the Umpires assessed three penalties to Areva Challenge for a flagrant foul. The jury is still out on the speed potential of the new boat. Making his 2006 racing debut for Luna Rossa Challenge was Torben Grael, aboard as tactician. The 'Brazilian magician' lived up to his moniker early as Luna Rossa was able to throw two penalties onto Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia during the first pre-start; Grael showing no signs of fatigue after completing a round-the-world race just this past weekend. Conditions were perfect for racing on Thursday with sunny skies generating a good sea breeze. By race time there was a 10 knot Easterly on the two race areas and this held for the two flights of racing. FLIGHT ONE This marked the competitive debut for Desafío Español's new boat, ESP 88. In the pre-start the Spanish did a nice job of controlling the South Africans and the new green boat led comfortably off the line as the gun fired. However, while the Spanish remained in command of this match they never stretched away from Shosholoza, who held ESP 88 to just 19 seconds by the finish. There were problems for +39 Challenge during their pre-start against Victory Challenge when halyard problems caused the jib to fall suddenly to the deck. The foredeck crew did a manful job of rectifying the fault and Iain Percy got ITA 59 back into a controlling position by start time. Magnus Holmberg on the other hand was struggling to get SWE 63 up to speed for the start, but the Swedes were let off the hook when the Italians broke the start line a fraction too early and had to go back to restart. The Swedish seized the advantage and when jib halyard problems came back to haunt Iain Percy on the final upwind leg, it was game, set and match to Sweden. There was more pre-start drama in the Italian derby between Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team and Luna Rossa. Mascalzone twice failed to keep clear of their rivals while on port tack and yielded two penalties before the race had even started. This required the red boat to take one penalty immediately after crossing the line, handing an unchallenged lead to Luna Rossa. The other big teams all won their matches with ease. Alinghi beat Areva by just over two minutes, BMW ORACLE Racing beat United Internet Team Germany by a similar margin, and Emirates Team New Zealand bettered China Team by almost three minutes. FLIGHT TWO The second flight of racing on the day produced one of the most dramatic matches yet witnessed in any Louis Vuitton Act. Could Areva Challenge, racing one of the oldest boats in the fleet, match the brand new boat of Desafío Español? Thierry Peponnet put the French team in a great position after winning the start and sailing off towards the left hand side, with the Spanish on his windward hip. A tacking duel ensued all the way to the top of the windward leg, with both teams working to their physical limits in a bid for supremacy. Eventually the French made their narrow advantage pay and rounded the first mark 13 seconds in the lead. Areva added to their lead a little more down the run, and dropped their spinnaker early in readiness for a gybe around the leeward mark. However some of the sail ended up in the water, allowing the Spanish to gain an overlap and earn room to round the mark. But Peponnet luffed up to close the door on Jablonski's attack, shutting the door to the point where Jablonski was forced to luff ESP 88 to the wrong side of the mark in order to avoid a collision. The French aggression appeared to have paid off, until a few seconds later when the Umpires imposed a double penalty on Areva. The French duly took their first penalty but were still ahead of the wronged Spanish boat and the Umpires imposed a further penalty which Peponnet was also forced to take immediately. By this time Desafío Español was back in the race with a slim lead. Jablonski went on to race across the finish line untroubled by the French who, by the time they had unwound their third penalty, finished 1 minute 30 seconds behind. Shosholoza gave BMW ORACLE Racing a good run for their money in a close match. Chris Dickson took the lead up the first beat, but when he gybed off downwind and allowed Tommaso Chieffi to get to the right of him, the South Africans took the lead for a while. However, the shifting breeze came back into BMW ORACLE's favour and they led for the rest of the match, beating South Africa by 53 seconds. In the match that most would have expected to be the closest, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia made relatively easy work of their race against Victory Challenge, who closed the gap towards the finish but still crossed 50 seconds behind. China Team won the start against Luna Rossa but that was the only time they threatened the Italians, who cruised away to a very comfortable win of almost three minutes. Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand also enjoyed untroubled victories in their respective matches against United Internet Team Germany and +39 Challenge. Related Items:
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