Photo credit: Chris Schmid/Eyemage Media
The refinements made to the Alinghi multihull over the summer holidays and the team's renewed focus on light air training paid off and Alinghi had strong starts in the first and second races, crossing ahead of the fleet and leading around the course to take two wins. Two out three wins on Sunday was enough to secure the regatta victory and to put the Alinghi team back on the podium for the overall season championship.
“We are delighted to be back on form,” said Ernesto Bertarelli, helmsman and team owner, after the race. “We haven't had many successes during the early stages of the Championship, in fact we sailed quite badly on two or three occasions. We made some mistakes, but this time we're pleased, we almost had a clear round.”
Alinghi.com checked in with mainsail trimmer and project manager, Pierre-Yves Jorand, for the 'off the boat' report:
Congratulations – the hard work and light air focus paid off – what was the winning formula?
Pierre-Yves Jorand: I think that everything was linked, first of all we had some great starts – we did a lot of practice during the week. We had two wonderful port tack starts – very powerful. Secondly we worked hard on our boat speed in the light – especially on the mainsail set up and by building a new drifter. This paid off quite a bit. And finally Tanguy Cariou did a wonderful job on calling the tactics, keeping an eye on the puffs and keeping the boat in the right spot. So great team work all round.
Photo credit: Chris Schmid/Eyemage Media
All the preparation and no wind – how do you stay focussed?
PYJ: Well as you say on Saturday unfortunately there was not enough breeze to have a proper race, so the Race Committee did a good job and kept the crew ashore – we had beach volley tournaments, Swiss card games, etc., so plenty of action. From the team's point of view, regardless of delays, we always start the day with boat preparations, but after that there was not much else to do other than stay ashore, relax and have fun. The Club Nautique de Crans kept everyone occupied. It was a great weekend from every aspect.
What was the game plan once the racing did start?
PYJ: Our main game plan came as a result of lessons learnt from the first half of the season: To simplify our starting strategy. We tried to execute this as best we could and it paid off. From then on we concentrated on playing our strengths: boat speed and strategy. It was a good overall weekend, very good team spirit aboard and a great atmosphere ashore.
Two wins and a fourth – what happened in the last race?
PYJ: Port tack start was favoured and 80% of the fleet was on port. We were wrong with our timing, but we sailed to our target numbers and in the best pressure on the course and managed to catch up nicely, rounding the first mark in 8th place and the next one in 6th and on the final downwind we passed another couple to finish 4th which secured the regatta win.
With two events to go, can the team still win the Season Championship for a fourth time?
PYJ: Well everything is still possible, but this is not our main focus. We are taking things one race at a time. We will hopefully sail as we did last weekend, hopefully in good conditions and we will see. The game is tricky, we know it will be very hard to win, we will try to sail our best and have fun doing it!
Plans before the next event?
PYJ: This week is quiet as Nils [Frei] and Tanguy [Cariou] are sailing the X40s. We will be back on the water during the middle of next week with the full crew to do some speed tests and race practice for the next event.
From Alinghi.com
