Defending champion's capsize

Nick Moloney, skipper of BT, was equally excited: “I’m so pumped! We talked about it before the start and we just said; okay let’s be conservative and stay out of trouble. Then the switch just flicked and it was full adrenalin, full tempo, lots of screaming onboard motivating each other, ‘Come on, come on!’”

After a morning onshore waiting for the Mistral wind to abate, the fleet went out for three short and sharp windward-leeward races in over 20 knots. Although no fifth men were allowed to sail onboard due to the testing conditions, only four of the 11 Extreme 40s opted to reduce sail area for the first race, with all the boats flying high on one hull and sending up plumes of spray at each mark rounding.

BT, skippered by Nick Moloney, and Oman Sail duelled at the front for most of Race 1, with BT keeping in front to take the first win. Behind them Team Aqua made big gains to come in third, but places were changing rapidly as gusts of wind surged through the fleet.

With the windward mark placed right next to the breakwater in Hyères, the watching crowds enjoying scorching sunshine could get a close up view of the handbrake turns as each boat went for the tricky bear away before heading downwind.

JPMorgan Asset Management, winners of the first event of the iShares Cup series in Lugano, got a flying start in Race 2, reaching the line at full speed bang on the gun to soar away, but it was BT, helmed by Andrew Walsh who took the second win in a row.

“In the second race at the top mark we led with TEAMORIGIN behind,” said Nick Moloney after racing, “They passed us on that run, then we got them back at the next beat, then on the last run we went round the top mark and I was shouting ‘No way they’re passing us this times boys, come on, come on!’ And we were just going hell for leather and we won that one as well.

“On a really personal note, we went into today not really knowing what to expect and it’s really exciting for us to think we can win in this stuff, but it came good for us today.”

TEAMORIGIN were pushing hard in second from Oman Sail in third, while Holmatro had to retire after their mainsail tumbled the mast down suddenly in the punishing conditions.

In a building wind, race three got away quickly with Oman Sail, Volvo Ocean Race and Alinghi taking the lead. Flying downwind on the first leg TEAMORIGIN dove between Oman and Alinghi on the approach to the gate mark, but buried one bow and quickly capsized. One crewmember plummeted into the water, but all four were unhurt and quickly scrambled to right the boat in case a fourth race was held.

Skipper Rob Greenhalgh said, “Basically we would have piled straight into the back of Oman Sail, so were forced to go around their transom just to avoid a crash — we rounded up, stuck the nose in and over we went.”

The British helmsman, who won last year’s iShares Cup circuit, said that the increased number of capsizes this season — two during racing so far and one during training earlier this week — wasn’t surprising in the ultra-competitive fleet: “There are more boats on the racetrack so the boats are having to push harder to get to the front.”

As the fleet scattered in the third race Volvo Ocean Race survived the conditions best to win, while JPMorgan Asset Management finished in last place having sailed most of the race with only one rudder. “We went to bear away just as a big gust hit and the rudder popped up,” explained skipper Shirley Robertson afterwards. “We couldn’t get it down again, I think we’d broken something, but we saw other boats were having problems too so we decided to sail with one rudder – which is something we’ve never done before so we learnt something there!”

With the Mistral sending gusts of over 30 knots through the Bay of Hyères the race committee opted to send the fleet ashore, with no more races held today. At least six races are scheduled tomorrow.