Live from Lugano: Race day two + Ed Baird Interview

16:00: Alinghi 5th, JP Morgan wins race 6
15:50: Very light conditions again - 3 knots perhaps...
15:45: Alinghi starts quite far back in the fleet
15:40: All boats are in a starting sequence
15:30: Race committee is re-setting the course

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Race 5, day 2
15:15: Finish - Alinghi 4th, JP Morgan wins race 5
14:55: The course is a triangle, all marks rounded to starboard
14:50: Alinghi starts at the committee boat end of the line, gets away in clean air
14:45: The fleet is in sequence for a start
14:40: The breeze is filling in and the race committee is getting ready for a start
13:55: Still no wind in Lugano! The X40 fleet is milling around waiting for the wind gods to smile...
12:56: Race committee is moving the course trying to get the next race in as quickly as possible. IShares are trying for up to nine races today

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Race 4, day 2:
12:50: Finish - Alinghi 4th, JPMorgan wins race 4
12:40: Very shifty conditions make racing today a bit of a lottery with plenty of lead changes at the front of the fleet
12:35: The first race of the day is underway in Lugano in very light and shifty airs and a smattering of rain. Alinghi had a clean start at the pin end...
10:30: Alinghi is off dock and sailing again with two hours to the first start...

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Alinghi's Capsize - Ed Baird's Interview
As Alinghi was climbing into second place on race one of the Lugano iShares Cup, the fleet was hit by a violent gust during a stormy squall and the Swiss team capsized. Hear from helmsman Ed Baird on what happened and how the team plans to get back on the water tomorrow to continue the learning curve towards a 33rd America’s Cup in multi-hulls.

Interview with helmsman Ed Baird:
What happened – can you talk us through?
We were sailing in light winds, we had a good race going, we were in third and looking at passing into second – the boat in front of us looked like they had a gennaker wrap so it looked like we could pass them at the mark. A squall came through just after we rounded the windward mark the second time. Most of the fleet was still going upwind when we got hit with this very violent front edge of the squall and the two boats in the worst of the velocity were us and Holmatro. Because we were both so close together neither of us had an escape route; we both went up and we both put the noses in. They were somehow able to avoid capsizing and we did not unfortunately. It’s all part of the learning of this game and unfortunately if we had been going upwind it wouldn’t have happened and if we’d been further downwind it would have been different again. It was a case of wrong place wrong time.”

It all happens so quickly, one minute we’re watching the next….“We went from sailing in a fairly benign 5-7 knots of wind to a violent gust coming through; more violent than the many others we had had during the day in the squalls that were coming through. It was a bit of a surprise; we went from racing, to survival in an instant and unfortunately we went upside down.”

How does the crew deal with a capsize - what is it actually like from onboard?
I think it’s the same in most any sailing vessel when you get hit by violent wind speeds, every boat becomes overpowered and some boats are more forgiving than others. These boats are very unforgiving in that sense. That gust was probably double the amount of wind we have ever experienced on these boats. It happened in two or three seconds so you don’t have a lot of time to react. It’s certainly something we have to get better at.”

Back on the water tomorrow - you have a lot of work to do?
“We need to put a new mast in and we should be ready to go sailing. There are always a lot of bits and pieces that need to be repaired. I gather there is a little damage to the mainsail and if not we have back ups. We should be able to get out on the water tomorrow.”

Alinghi extends its thanks to the organisation and the other teams competing in the iShares Cup for their on-water and on-shore support.