6:26 AM Sun 1 Feb 2009 GMT
 | Bob Fisher - Daniel Forster |
Those of us who watched the start of the match today between Team Origin and Alinghi, one question remains: Just what did happen in the final seconds before the gun? Did the Brits force Alinghi over or did Ed Baird screw up? Opinions vary.
In 18-20 knots of southerly breeze, Ainslie and the crew of TeamOrigin tricked Ed Baird and the Alinghi crew into starting early and went away as their rivals circled back to cross the starting line properly.
Mike Sanderson, the Team Origin director and member of the afterguard, claimed: 'Yes, we gave them [Alinghi] a little push at the start,' but the Swiss boat's mainsheet trimmer, Warwick Fleury tended to deny this when he said: 'We blew the start.'
Joey Allen, who sailed with Ainslie on the Emirates Team New Zealand boats for two years, watched the incident and commented: 'That was a typically aggressive start by Ben; he used to give Dean Barker, a very hard time at the start of all our in-house races.
Chief Race Officer, 'Luigi' Reggio, under whose nose the whole incident took place suggested from the gestures of Alinghi's bowman that this was an unforced error. 'He was waving his arms and trying to push Ed [Baird] back,' he said
Whichever it was, TeamOrigin was away up the track and rounded the first mark a little over a minute ahead. Alinghi picked up the new, stronger breeze first as they came downwind and closed the gap to 41 seconds at the end of the first round, but the damage done was irreparable. A win for Team Origin against the pre-series favourites was one for the Britpack to relish.
Sail-World:The image above was cut fby Animation Research Ltd from the graphics used in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. The image was cut using data received from both competitors and is accurate. You can see a full set of replays from today's racing on www.lvps09.comhowever please ensure you have Microsoft Silverlight loaded before viewing.
by Bob Fisher
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