Well, today was a good day in Valencia.
The wind blew, there was a lot of action on the racecourse, Emirates Team New Zealand won and best of all the 'scaffolding' bar restocked their beer.
Peace has been restored.
In their race against Mascalzone Latino, Team New Zealand
controlled it. Their 25 second win wasn't that big but on a shifty day like today, you probably didn't want it to be that big because there was always the risk of a major windshift because of the pattern.
There was an onshore breeze but the effect of the offshore was there.
On the boat, Team New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson's advice was to go toe-to-toe with them and keep it close just in case the wind changed dramatically. They played a very conservative game.
For Team New Zealand the win got them back on track. Their pre-start was perhaps their best one yet. They beat a team that tipped them up in the first round. Hopefully they can do enough in round robin two to go into the semis with an air of confidence.
The big upset today was China Team's win over BMW Oracle Racing. China had to win a race at some stage. Why not take out the top team?
Oracle suffered gear failure. They had a problem with their headfoil, which also troubled them in the last pre-regatta. It is a repeating problem which is surprising for a team of that calibre. Losing the genoa out of the headfoil could bring the rig down so it would have shaken the guys on the boat.
It was a bit of a pity for the crew on the boat as Oracle were using their B team. The gear failure wasn't really a reflection on them.
The race committee did a good job today. We thought it was nice of Harold Bennett to let principal race officer Peter Reggio just officiate one lot of racing. Seeing Peter is a bit more weather beaten, it was nice of Harold let him go home for an afternoon nap.
That's all for today we are off to celebrate the return of beer at the Scaffolding bar.
