Had the Kiwis felt miffed at the visiting teams breaking their boats, they’d be eating their words by mid morning today. Having drawn out an impressive lead on the first beat in their match against Azzura, Emirates Team New Zealand appeared to lose control of the topping lift shortly after the spinnaker hoist. The result left the pole dangling in the water until it wrapped itself around the windward chain plates. A repeat of the incident yesterday aboard Artemis, although for the Swedes the kite wasn’t fully hoisted and ended up under the boat as well. The Kiwis were more fortunate and managed to fly the spinnaker all the way down the run without the pole. But the fact remained that they had been responsible for the third pole breakage of the event so far.

Fortunately, the Kiwi lead and a left hand shift in the breeze meant that Dean and his team could fly the kite off the bow without the pole for both of the downwind legs and post another victory on the board to remain undefeated so far.

For the British match against Synergy Russian Sailing Team the result was also a one sided affair with Ainslie and Co. taking a win. But it wasn’t an easy victory, at least not for the first half of the race with the Russians putting plenty of pressure on the Brits until they fluffed their kite drop at the leeward gate and handed a further 200m to Team Origin.

And on the subject of fluffed kite handling, in their match against Artemis, Mascalzone Latino Audi team started out by planting a penalty on their Swedish opponents only to cause themselves a problem at the weather mark when they botched their spinnaker hoist. The mistake saw them trail by 13 seconds at the bottom mark after flowing just 7 seconds behind at the top.

If you watch just one match today, this is the one to watch with real match racing throughout.

At the weather mark for the second time Mascalzone Latino had reduced the deficit to just 9 seconds and pinned Artemis up to weather out on the bear away kite hoist to prevent the Swedes from setting. Gavin Brady steering Mascalzone Latino slipped through to leeward, gybed and moved themselves into the lead. Surely now the game was over for Hutchinson and Cayard who stilled owed a penalty.

Indeed this was the case come the finish, but the close racing and terrific TV images from the on board cameras made for a great race to watch.

In the opening match of the day All4One scored an easy win over the other French team Aleph.

Race wins/losses so far:

ETNZ:              5 wins, 0 losses
Azzurra            3 wins, 2 loss
All4One           3 wins, 2 loss
TEAMORIGIN 3 win, 2 losses
Mascalzone     3 win, 2 losses
Aleph               1 win, 4 losses
Artemis           2 win, 3 loss
Synergy           0 wins, 5 losses

HOW TO WATCH

CLICK HERE for free LIVE ONLINE VIEWER

Racing will be broadcast live online throughout the event and include TV from three cameras plus extensive Virtual Eye animations and audio off the boats.

LIVE RADIO
CLICK HERE for Radio LiveSport NZ – Listen online or 1476AM

LINKS
Louis Vuitton Trophy Official Site
Results

RACE SCHEDULE
10:00am (21:00 GMT): Opening trailer and welcome by Peter Lester
10:00 – 10:05 Weather, races of the day information, further news
10:05 Start procedure;
Approximately 16:30 (03:30 GMT) Finish live race broadcast
Approx. 18:00 (05:00 GMT) Press conference
Approx. 18:30 (05:30 GMT) Highlights of the races go on air
21:30 – 1:00 (08:30 GMT) Replay of the broadcast of the day

EVENT SCHEDULE
March 9 ‐ 15: Start of racing; Round Robin 1
March 16: Alternate Race Day
March 17: Elimination Round I
March 18 – 19: Elimination Round II; Semi‐Finals (best of three)
March 20 – 21: Semi‐Finals; Finals (best of seven)

TEAMS
Team Origin (Great Britain: Skipper Ben Ainslie)
Mascalzone Latino (Italy, Skipper: Gavin Brady)
Azzura (Italy, Skipper: Francesco Bruni)
All4One (France/Germany, Skipper: Jochen Schumann)
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (Russia, Skipper: Karol Jablonski)
Emirates Team New Zealand (Skipper: Dean Barker)
Artemis (Sweden, Skipper: Paul Cayard)
Aleph Sailing Team (France, Skipper: Bertrand Pace)

SKY TV COVERAGE IN UK
Louis Vuitton Trophy 16/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 16/03/10 23:00 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 16/03/10 26:00 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 17/03/10 09:00 Sky Sports 2
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy 2 17/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 2 17/03/10 22:00 Sky Sports 4
Louis Vuitton Trophy 2 17/03/10 23:30 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 2 17/03/10 26:30 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 2 18/03/10 09:00 Sky Sports 2
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy 3 18/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 3  18/03/10 23:30 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 3 18/03/10 28:00 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 3 19/03/10 09:30 Sky Sports 2
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy 4 19/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 4 19/03/10 23:30 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 4 19/03/10 26:30 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 4 20/03/10 06:30 Sky Sports 3
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy 5 20/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 4
Louis Vuitton Trophy 5 20/03/10 23:30 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 5 20/03/10 29:00 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 5 21/03/10 10:00 Sky Sports 3
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy 6 21/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 4
Louis Vuitton Trophy 6  21/03/10 23:30 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 6 21/03/10 29:00 Sky Sports 2
Louis Vuitton Trophy 6 22/03/10 10:00 Sky Sports 4
 
Louis Vuitton Trophy 7 22/03/10 18:00 Sky Sports 3
Louis Vuitton Trophy 7 22/03/10 25:00 Sky Sports 4
Louis Vuitton Trophy 7 22/03/10 28:30 Sky Sports 4