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Aiuto It
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Penalities Seize the Day Exciting match racing to say the least amongst contestants of Group A & the GBR Challenge match-up... So much so that penalties were assigned in each race. One can tell that the stakes are increasing rapidly. Only Le Défi was quickly out of contention. Luna Rossa had, all-in-all, a strange day. Windward they lagged behind Alinghi who seems to manage tighter angles and thus, for even boat speed, gain ground towards the marker. Leeward, Luna Rossa seemed faster, probably due to better gennaker sail picks. Their match was conditioned by a stupid mistake by de Angelis who, riding Alinghi's wake, changed directions slightly and nipped the Swiss boat's spoiler, earning the team a deserved penalty. From then on, clearly Russel Coutts had no tactical reason to try and distance Luna Rossa. Nevertheless Luna Rossa showed strong competitiveness and could have won the race had it not been for the penalty. The last leeward leg was also curious as Luna Rossa commited many mistakes including one that may have seriously damaged a gennaker that has served ITA-74 well (that's correct the other boat, ITA-80, is still not introduced). A final observation on another tactical issue. Obviously, the Luna Rossa crew wanted to generate a penalty against Alinghi that would have cancelled theirs; but that is a low-probability event, especially against Coutts. Strong consideration should have been given to completing the turn at the start of the last windward leg as they had just grabbed the lead; they would have lost their 13 second lead and trained by some 20 seconds, but from then on they could have tagged behind Alinghi and hoped to pass on the las leeward leg where they seemed strongest (it was possible as they had already come from a 10 second deficit). This series has every sign of being a very hard fought and tight one.
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