Alarms sound as wind goes beyond 20 knot limits at Louis Vuitton

All four matches were raced today in winds gusting beyond the 20 knot limit outside North Head of Auckland Harbour. The Swedish Artemis team easily accounted for Azzurra in race one, while Ben Ainslie's British TeamOrigin was untroubled against the German/French entry ALL4ONE.

Alarms went off on both TeamOrigin and ALL4ONE during the second race. The alarms indicate an overload on the rigs, as wind speeds increased above the allowable 20 knots. If they continue to sound for more than 10 seconds, the team can be penalised. This is a move designed to protect the boats and rigs. With just the two identical ETNZ boats being used by all teams in the regatta, any major damage to either boat would spell the end of the event.

In the third match, Mascalzone Latino nailed the start but Aleph found a lift on the left-hand side to close the gap. However, being in "sudden death" as one of the two lowest placed teams, Aleph went for a difficult gybe-set in 20 knots of wind at the top mark, and blew their gennaker apart. Mascalzone sailed conservatively from then on to be the first boat automatically through to the semi-finals. Aleph were eliminated under the MacIntyre system, which puts the two top-ranked winners into the semi-finals, while the two lowest-placed losers are eliminated.

Synergy didn't make life easy for ETNZ in the final match, leading them round the top mark after being behind at the start. Synergy were slow hoisting their gennaker and ETNZ snuck underneath them and ahead. Rod Dawson on Synergy was pleading with the umpires for a penalty on ETNZ for sailing Synergy past the layline, but only a green flag was forthcoming from the umpires boat. Again, problems with gybing the gennaker on Synergy allowed ETNZ to take a significant lead at the gate, and they just had to sail the boat without mishap to progress to the semi-final.

The draw for tomorrow will be announced later tonight, with ALL4ONE allowed to select their opponent owing to their higher placing in the round robin.