After 6 races Sweden drops to fourth

Thursday's two races determine the winner in the America's Cup youth contest. 

  • Caption: "All teams heading upwind" (c) Red Bull Content Pool/Phtoo: Balazs Gardi

  • Special to Nordstjernan from the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup Dateline: San Francisco,03Sep2013

  • Caption: "This day belonged to NZL2 & NZL1" (c) ACEA/Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

  • Tough Racing
    The Red Bull racing gets better daily and today was the toughest competition yet. By the end of the day both New Zealand teams led the pack with the local USA team in third ahead of Sweden at fourth. Burling’s New Zealand Sailing Team with ETNZ (NZL) distinguished itself, separating from the pack with both wins today. At 50 points, it now has a commanding lead over its countrymen, Full Metal Jacket Racing (NZL) with 39 points at second overall. The most welcome surprise of the day was Objective Australia (AUS), which today without any equipment problems was able to claim second in both races. The other distinctive sailing today was by the local American Youth Sailing Force, which with seventh and fourth finishes managed to put itself into third place overall. It achieved this even though it snagged one of the marker’s anchor line again; worse yet its bowman fell overboard, severely handicapping it with one man short.

  • Caption: "Germany edged out Sweden in Race 5" (c) Red Bull Content Pool/Phtoo: Balazs Gardi

  • Swedes’ finishes drop their ranking
    Sweden started the day at second place overall, motivated by its first place win yesterday. However, Germany in its best showing by far in all its races beat Sweden to the finish for third, leaving the Swedes in fourth place. Unfortunately the same thing happened in the sixth race: Sweden rounded Gate 6 first but then died as Portugal caught enough wind to slice them off at the finish line, leaving the Swedes in 6th place for that race.
    So, coming into today’s race at second, they dropped to third after the fifth race and to fourth overall by the end of the day. They are now behind NZL2 and USA2 teams both at 39 points. Losing those two very close finishes distanced them from the leader. However, if they were to consistently better the pack in both races tomorrow, they might still make it to a podium position, but that will take excellence and consistency. They showed that they have the skill as they crawled through the pack several times today and got as far as second before slipping.
    Tomorrow is not merely the final day of racing. The competition has continually improved and the first half of the pack is tight. The last race is weighted double, which will really spread the results and motivate all sailors.

  • Caption: "Portugal races Sweden to finish line in Race6" (c) ACEA/Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

  • Red Bull Youth America’s Cup – Provisional Standings on Sept. 3:
    1. NZL Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)
    2-RDG-7- 3-1-1 – 50 points

    2. Full Metal Jacket Racing (NZL) 7-1-4-6-6-3 – 39 points

    3. American Youth Sailing Force (USA) 1-7-3-5-7-4 – 39 points

    4. Swedish Youth Challenge (SWE) 6-2-9-1-4-6 – 38 points

    5. ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team (POR) 3-6-1-8-8-5 – 35 points

    6. Team TILT (SUI) 8-5-2-2-9-7 – 33 points

    7. Next World Energy (FRA) 4-4-8-4-5-9 – 32 points

    8. Objective Australia (AUS) RDG-10-6-10-2-2 – 30 points

    9. All In Racing (GER) 5-8-5-9-3-8 – 28 points

    10.USA45 Racing (USA) 9-9-10-7-10-10 – 11 points

    (RDG = redress awarded by International Jury)

  • Caption: "USA1 catches on marker" (c) ACEA/Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget

  • Ted Olsson
    San Francisco