2.45pm
The Swedish yacht Orm SWE-73 made her first appearance in the Louis Vuitton Cup this afternoon, and quickly showed that she was not about to be the first victim of the so far winless French entry Le Défi Areva.
With Jesper Bank returning to the helm, the black boat excelled as the wind increased in a day of superb sailing conditions.
Le Défi FRA-69 fought to start at the committee boat end of the line, while Bank opted for the pin end, resulting in the French boat leading over the line by one second.
Orm soon looked slightly faster, but tactician Sebastian Destremau on Le Défi did well to call the favoured right-hand side up the first beat, showing a small gain as the boats converged with the French on starboard, close to the first mark.
Le Défi tried a lee bow tack, but were unable to bounce Orm back off to the left and the French lead soon evaporated.
Aboard SWE-73 Magnus Holmberg and team were able to push the yellow Le Defi past the starboard lay-line to round the first windward mark 14 seconds ahead.
On the downwind leg, Orm slowly extended and, despite a tacking duel on the third leg, the Scandinavian team cleverly covered Le Defi's every move leaving the French still searching for a win after ten races.
After having a bye for the first set of races of the second round robin and so missing the difficult conditions of the past two days, the Swedes enjoyed far more stable conditions today with a wind of eight to 12 knots out of the north-northeast.
With three wins in the first round robin in their first boat, SWE-63, the Swedes decided to go into the second round with their second boat, SWE-73, as they campaign to get into the top four group at the end of the second round.
Winds: NNE 8-13k
Winning margin: 01.19
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Racing schedule, results and standings
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