This report from Maurizio Giuggioli:
John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree won their third ICCT
Yesterday in Rimini John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree won their third ICCT
in a row by defeating again by 4-3 the Italian Daniele Saragoni and Teo
Di Battista.
Probably it was the most exciting Match Race Final ever sailed.
In fact the US team had to gain the Trophy twice.
At 4 p.m. they had already got the two wins they needed to reverse the results
of day one, but at 6 p.m. when they were already dressed for the Award Ceremony
scheduled at 6.30 a notice of the Race Committee damped their enthusiasm:
race six had to be rerun.
They had no other choice than put on again their wetsuits, rig again their
Javelin 2 go out and try to win again a Trophy that they thought to have
already secured.
Even for tough guys as the Athens Tornado Silver Medalists it was an harsh
shock to bear without losing concentration.
On the contrary the Italians left more relaxed: they had already ?lost?
the Trophy two hours before and had nothing to worry about.
Luckily the wind was still blowing at 11-12 knots when at 6.45 the race
course was set.
It was the best wind ever seen since the start of the International Challenge
Catamaran Trophy on May 26.
The Defenders opted for a very aggressive approach in the pre-start manouvering:
they were able to give the Challengers not one but two penalty, the second
worth even the black flag.
While sailing on starboard tack towards the pin end of the starting line
they forced Saragoni and Di Battista to tack on port - in order to avoid
to be pushed outside - and to have them hitting their boat. After the collision
the US team showed immediately the red flag:
if the Italians team had won they would have got only 0.5 point and it would
have been necessary to sail the 8th race.
Then Lovell and Ogletree were able to start with 3 boatlenghts to spare:
at the first upwind mark the led by about 30 seconds. Apparently the Italians
had a better boat speed and managed to recover a few second after each leg,
notwithstanding the fairly strict covering of the Americans. After the third
and last upwind leg they had only a 12 seconds margin with only a penalty
to absolve for Saragoni and Di Battista (they had done their first 270°
in the third upwind leg).
After rounding the weather mark Lovell and Ogletree tried to hoist their
spinnaker, but for the first time in all the regattas they sailed so far,
it remained entangled in front of the snuffer.
They jibied in order to sort out the problem, but time was running and the
Italian were closing fast the gap. Finally the spinnaker filled and the
US team went safely for the finish line. When the Italian completed their
second 270° their margin had raised to more than 20 seconds.
At the end again the best team had prevailed even if Saragoni and Di Battista
proved again to be an hard to beat crew.
The defeated Italian team was the first to congratulate Lovell and Ogletree
and offered them still on the water two biers to celebrate.
During the Awards Ceremony a lot of Champagne was spread and as tradition
requires the ICCT winner had a bath fully dressed in the waters of the Marina
di Rimini.
Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree with 3 wins equals the Australian Simon
McKeon as the most successful crew in the history of the ICCT: before them
only Duncan McLane with 5 wins and Reg White with 4.
And now let's start to tell the story of the second day of the 25th ICCT
from the beginning also in order to explain what persuaded the Race Committee
to resail the 6th race.
The Organizing Authority decided, in order to satisfy the large crowd
of journalists, photographers and cameramen attending, to start the second
day of the Final with a Fleet Regatta for the defeated teams in the Elimination
Series. It was won quite easily by Mark Murray and Alex Efre-Perez, who
confirm the expectations of the experts to be the third best team in Rimini,
after the finalists.
Then finally at 2.30 p.m. the starting procedure for the sixth and ipotetically
decisive race of the ICCT began: the wind was blowing at 10-11 knots from
115°, the sea was fairly flat. The conditions seemed finally suitable
also for the US team, who in the previous day had suffered the better boatspeed
of Saragoni and Di Battista in light air.
As happened in all the precedent races, Lovell and Ogletree managed to
win the start. The Italians opted this time to trail the US boats trying
to make profit of their better knowledge of the boat. Tactically the US
crew seemed unbeatable. At the weather mark Lovell led by 11 second. The
same margin separated the two boats after the first lap.
By the time the two catamarans rounded the downwind mark there were an awfull
number of boats on the race course: many spectators and press boats, a few
BluSail 24? Sport practising for their ISAF Grade 2 Match Race to start
in Rimini after the ICCT, the helicopter with the cameramen of Sky Sport
TV, which some time was flying as low as 3 meter from the water. All this
?noise? disturbed the competitors who both rounded a wrong yellow weather
buoy instead of the usual big orange mark. Both supposed not to have heard/seen
the signals for the modified course, which the Race Committee had not
actually exposed at all.
The race went on without the Umpire deemed necessary to intervene with Lovell
and Ogletree leading with a small but safe margin until the finish.
It was again USA 3- Italy 3 as in Newport in 2003.
Anyway none of the competitors supposed not to have sailed the proper course
until they came back ashore one hours later. At this time the Italians filed
a protest to have the 6th race rerun. The new evidence provided by the Race
Committee and the Assistance staff persuaded the Chief Umpire to take the
really painfully decision to send out again the competitors. We have already
told the rest of the story.
Come back now to the second race of the day, which started at 3.15 p.m.
in about the same weather conditions.
Lovell and Ogletree were as usual very aggressively on the tail of the Italian
boat and first gave Saragoni/Di Battista a penalty and after, while approaching
on starboard tack to start were able to push the Italians against the Race
Committee?s boat: Saragoni and Di Battista tacked abruptly and stopped
to the wind and remained parked for a long time.
They finally managed to cross the starting line only after 47 seconds. The
game was over.
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