The leaderboard underwent a shake-up yesterday, after the final match was cancelled – due to insufficient wind. Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) has selected Synergy Russia Sailing Team to race in the semi final round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur.
 
ETNZ was the best team in the round robins, posting a 9-1 record in 10 starts. They consistently won in the pre-start and had flawless crew work around the racecourse: “We’re a consistent team because we’ve been together so long as a group. That helps us through the tough times,” said Barker, the winning skipper of the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup.
 
Synergy, led by Polish skipper Karol Jablonski, enters the match on a five-race winning streak and has polished its game since starting the regatta at 0-3. “It’s hard when you get to this stage of the regatta. All the teams are strong,” Barker said. “They won’t be an easy opponent and if we don’t sail well they’ll beat us.”
 
The second semi final match has TeamOrigin from Great Britain racing Azzurra of Italy. Azzurra skipper Francesco Bruni led his crew to a 1 minute defeat of Ben Ainslie and TeamOrigin in the first round.
 
The first crew to score 2 points will be the winner of each match.
 
Concurrent to the semi finals is the knockout racing for fifth through to eighth place. BMW Oracle Racing takes on TFS – PagesJaunes in one match and Artemis races All4One in the other. Both matches are one race, with the winners advancing to determine fifth and sixth, while the vanquished sail one match race for seventh and eighth.
 
Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow, Thursday 19 November.
 
The cancellation of yesterday’s match caused a re-scoring of the leaderboard based on Appendix C10.3 of the Racing Rules of Sailing, which awards partial points for those matches sailed twice. “The ranking was established in a way we were hoping to avoid,” said Chief Umpire Bill Edgerton. “There’s no difference between the top four and bottom four, but there is a difference in their order.”
 
Final Round Robin standings:

1. Emirates Team New Zealand (9-1) 6 points
2. Synergy Russia Sailing Team (6-4) 4.5 points
3. Azzurra (7-4) 4.5 points
4. TeamOrigin (8-3) 4.5 points
5. BMW Oracle Racing (4-7) 3 points
6. Artemis (5-6) 3 points
7. All4One (3-8) 2 points
8. TFS – PagesJaunes (1-10) .5 points