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Home / Sport / Sailing / America's Cup

Yachting: Alinghi angry at racing in 'Las Vegas' lottery

By Robert Lowe
26 Jun, 2007 10:00 PM3 mins to read

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Alingi and Team NZ race upwind. Photo / Reuters

Alingi and Team NZ race upwind. Photo / Reuters

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KEY POINTS:

Alinghi have complained about racing going ahead off Valencia today, likening the conditions to a "Las Vegas" lottery.

Crewman on the Swiss boat Dean Phipps suggested luck was behind Team New Zealand's thriller win.

And Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli labelled the race "a little bit of Las Vegas".

He told SailWorld.com that the race should not have gone ahead.

But rival crewman Matthew Mason said Team NZ had no qualms about what the weather presented today and were happy to go racing.

There were numerous lead changes, and big gains and losses in the light and fluctuating airs, before Team NZ finally secured victory by 25 seconds.

Phipps, one of six New Zealanders on Alinghi's crew, was unhappy that racing finally got under way after a two-hour delay.

"We've worked years at looking forward to an even boat race and I guess you could play tiddlywinks and have the same result," he said.

"Just toss a coin and we should have stayed ashore, I guess."

Phipps argued that there was too much volatility in the wind to allow for a fair contest.

"We've got two even boats, two even crews, let's put on a race course that's an even spread," he said.

"It obviously wasn't today in some respects. Team NZ had a good shift on the first beat and we had a good shift out of the bottom mark and closed up 100-odd metres. Is that fair? For us, it's probably not. We just want a good close boat race in consistent conditions."

Phipps admitted that Alinghi might not have done as much practice in today's conditions as Team NZ.

"We've done obviously our own in-house racing but I guess we might have pulled the pin a little earlier when the breeze was flukey like that," he said.

"We've done our fair share, but probably not the intensity that the challengers have had."

However, Mason said there had been worse conditions during the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' series.

"This is their venue," he said.

"That's what Valencia is like on some of these days. You would lose a lot of days if you didn't go out and sail on a day like today."

It was the second race day in a row that the Alinghi camp had complained about the conditions for sailing.

After Team NZ's victory in race two, SUI100 skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth said the wash from the spectator fleet had not created an even environment.

- NZPA

Full coverage of the America's Cup from nzherald.co.nz/americascup and desktoptv.co.nz

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