The Swedish march towards the quarterfinal repechage of the Louis Vuitton Cup continued today, despite a change of helmsman aboard Orm SWE-73.
With Magnus Holmberg replacing Jesper Bank at the wheel, Victory Challenge turned in another polished performance to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven quarterfinal series against Le Défi Areva.
Conversations aboard the boats as they entered the pre-start indicated that French afterguard wanted the right hand side of the start and the Swedes the left.
After some early aggressive moves by Le Défi, the boats approached the line early, resulting in a split tack start with the French boat taking the right and Orm the pin end.
Orm tacked onto port at the pin end, crossing the line with good speed and the first shift proved to be a left-hander that helped the Swedes into an early lead.
Fractionally better boat speed enabled Victory Challenge to consolidate a lead.
Two minutes into the race, Le Défi gave up the right hand side of the course and tacked to cross astern of Orm and allowed the Swedes to gain further from the next right hand shift.
Orm rounded the first windward mark 45-seconds ahead and then inexorably extended to win by another comfortable margin.
If the French lose again tomorrow, they will be eliminated from the regatta, while the Swedish challengers would move into a repechage series giving them a second chance to make the semifinals.
Winds: SW 13-18k
Winning margin: 01.12
Orm leads the best-of-seven series 3-0.
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Racing schedule, results and standings
Change at the helm no problem for Swedish challenge
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