Yachting: Mascalzone gives Team NZ first-class workout

Gavin Brady. Photo / NZ Herald

As a teenager, Gavin Brady made his first match-race circling manoeuvre around another up-and-coming sailor named Dean Barker.

"Here I am at 35, and we're still going around in circles with each other," a frustrated Brady said yesterday, after a gear failure with his Mascalzone Latino Audi team abruptly killed a fierce on-the-water duel with Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland.

Over the years, Team NZ skipper Barker and Brady, who's joined the Italians here after stints helming Greek and American syndicates, have engaged in some classic match racing battles, and yesterday was another.

Brady got the best of an animated pre-start, seizing the right side of the racecourse set directly off downtown Auckland.

Mascalzone played it smart up the first beat, and led the Kiwis by 22s at the top mark, but Barker gained downwind and nosed Team NZ into contention halfway up the second beat.

Moments later, a jib halyard clip on the mast of NZL92 snapped - bringing down Mascalzone's headsail and any hope of an upset win.

Team NZ cake-walked to the finish in the perfect 12-knot breeze, to share the lead on the Louis Vuitton Trophy table with Italians Azzurra.

But Team NZ grinder Rob Waddell admitted the flurry of tacking manoeuvres with the Latin Rascals gave them a first-class physical workout.

"It was great to have a race where we fought back from behind, especially when in 80 per cent of America's Cup races, the first boat around the top mark wins. A crew race like that is much better than a drag race," he said.

One of six New Zealanders in the Mascalzone crew, Brady also took a positive from the encounter.

"We stayed cool and calm, and extended our lead after the start, which shows a lot of character in this team. We let ourselves down letting them back into it on the run," he said.

Shipping magnate Vincenzo Onorato, owner of Mascalzone, hired some grinding heavyweights for this new-look team, Challengers of Record for the next America's Cup.

"We should have just kept hammering them [ETNZ]; our guys are heavier than theirs, and in another tacking duel, we would have ground them down."

The damaged clip on NZL92 was quickly replaced, allowing Azzurra to put the same boat through intense tacking with Russian Synergy, and eventually secure a 41s victory.

The TeamOrigin camp recovered from their first-up loss to convincingly beat the German-French All4One, with British skipper Ben Ainslie capitalising on a startline advantage and stretching out their lead to 1m 33 on the final run.

Artemis scored their first points of the regatta in the final race of the day. Former Team New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson, at the helm, timed his run to the startline perfectly, leaving Aleph in the Swedish team's wake.

The French never recovered, and made the final distance larger with a gennaker foul-up later in the race.

Today's racing

Round robin flight 3 (from 10am):

* Emirates Team NZ v TeamOrigin

* Azzurra v All4One

* Aleph v Mascalzone Latino Audi

* Russian Synergy v Artemis