Another race, another breakdown...
It's getting to be like a stuck record...three races, three broken boats. Even the defenders, TeamOracleUSA suffered a broken rudder in practice. It turns out they hooked the rudder on a mooring buoy line the day before they broke it off during a foiling gybe.
So in Monday's Race 3 it was Team Luna Rossa's turn to break. This time it was a sheave that controls the wing. Sheave (pronounced shiv) is Salty Dog for pulley, on boats they're called blocks too...think block and tackle...
After watching these big fast AC72 catamarans race on the Bay, I'm reminded of several old saws from motor racing....about how weight offsets horsepower, if something can break, it will break...it's always a 25 cent part that fails and stops the million dollar race car...blah, blah, blah...
Louis Vuitton Cup Finals: Scorecard
2-1 Team Emirates New Zealand in the Best Of Thirteen Finals
Blow By Blow:
Race 1 Luna Rossa loses control of their starboard Daggerboard rounding the first mark. A broken attachment point where the line lifts the Daggerboard fails. DNF, ETNZ wins uncontested. Score one point for New Zealand
Race 2 Team New Zealand wins the start, then loses hydraulics on the first downwind leg. DNF. Luna Rossa wins uncontested. Score one point for Luna Rossa
Race 3 Luna Rossa wins the start, trails by 3 seconds rounding the 1st mark, and breaks a wing sheave tacking away. DNF. New Zealand wins uncontested. ETNZ leads Luna Rossa 2-1
Two races were scheduled for each race day (Monday was supposed to be a Rest Day, but both Saturday and Sunday's afternoon races were postponed by too much wind) Mondays second race was also postponed for high winds.
Tuesday will be a Rest Day.
So what of the Red Flag Warning forecast? Any effects on the racing today? None that I could see from the HDTV Broadcast. Twitter was alive with weather tweets however. @NWSBayArea: Radar picking up a cell around 30 miles west of
about an hour before the start of Race 3
@NWSBayArea tweeted a satellite photo of the offshore T-storm action:
An hour or so later @NWSBayArea tweeted a wrap-up photo:
To my eye, the Fire Weather isn't here just yet, though in the High Sierra, some storms are firing off. @kcraFinan: Getting rain on Donner Summit on I-80.
I don't have the heart to check on the wildfire situations in The West in this heat (90.3°F) this afternoon...I'm sure it will find it's way into my Twitter Feed later this evening...
No comments:
Post a Comment