Hat-trick for Shirley Robertson at iShares Cup
'Shirley Robertson celebrates leading the iShares Cup with Champagne G.H. Mumm'
Vincent Curutchet/DPPI/OC Events
Shirley Robertson, and her crew on JPMorgan Asset Management made it a hat-trick of wins on day 2 of the iShares Cup in Lugano. British skipper Robertson has now won five out of the seven races so far and has a comfortable advantage over the other eight boats including America's Cup teams Alinghi and TeamOrigin, the 2007 iShares Cup defending champions.
Day 2 of the iShares Cup in Lugano belonged to Shirley Robertson, and her crew on JPMorgan Asset Management. The British skipper, the only female racing in the circuit, took three wins in a row on the second day of racing, and has now won five out of the seven races so far.
Double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson's experience clearly showed on a day when she beat the best of the America's Cup and some top Olympic catamaran sailors, but she credited her crew member Chris Main for getting to grips with the conditions of the day, saying: 'My tactician has nerves of steel!'
She also welcomed Alinghi back to the startline after their capsize in Race 1 yesterday that stopped them in their tracks: 'I think all the competitors really felt for Alinghi, it could have been any of us. It's good to see them back out today and great to be racing against them.'
The America's Cup defenders have been fighting hard to get back to winning form, but after a series of fourth and fifth places today they will have to do something special on the iShares Cup final day of racing tomorrow to get on the podium this weekend.
'The boys had a short night last night and we got the rig back in this morning. We went for a look before racing, but we haven't had much wind to check it out. It definitely sets up differently to our previous mast and it makes our mainsail a different shape, so we're trying to fix that. We really just need some time at the dock where we have all the tools and have a bit of time to make it right.' said Ed Baird, skipper of Alinghi. 
In third at the end of the second day racing is Oman Sail, who have been having a fantastic regatta as newcomers to the Extreme 40 class. The first race of the day was as close as it can be with a photo finish. Oman Sail showed the way off the startline, closely followed by Alinghi, BT and JPMorgan Asset Management all racked up alongside each other. Alinghi came off worst, and at the first mark it was Oman Sail who led the fleet round. But on the second lap Oman Sail had to duck behind half the fleet, dropping them to fifth, whilst iShares made big gains to take the lead.
After holding second place throughout the race Robertson made her move on the final leg, to win Race 4 of the regatta. Oman recovered to take second, followed by Team Aqua and Alinghi whilst the fleet was too close to call for fifth place - iShares, BT and TeamOrigin all crossing the line simultaneously to score equal points.
The tricky conditions of light winds and sudden lulls were proving challenging for many boats, Volvo Ocean Race got caught out in some windless patches to fall to last place. Arend van Bergeijk said, 'There was a pattern in that race - there was wind wherever we weren't! It seems quite random.'
In the next iShares got a great start to lead the fleet up the first leg, whilst Alinghi were forced back into eighth place on the first leg. Downwind Robertson opted to head left towards the town, where she found more breeze to overtake iShares and go on to win Race 5. Oman picked up another good result with a third, while Alinghi fought hard to climb back up to fourth place at the finish.
TeamOrigin, who went into the day as joint leaders overall, had a shocking race to finish last of the nine boats. But they came back strongly to finish second in the next race and win the last one of the day - they now sit 14 points behind Shirley Robertson and tomorrow will see them battle for the podium.
Extreme 40 - iShares Cup Event 1 - Positions after 7 races
1 JP Morgan Asset Management 1 5 1 1 1 1 2 65pts
2 Team Origin 2 3 2 5 DNF 2 1 51pts
3 Oman Sail 4 1 3 2 3 9 DNF 44pts
4 BT 3 4 4 5 6 3 DNF 41pts
5 Team Aqua 6 DNF 5 3 7 6 4 35pts
6 iShares 7 7 DNF 5 2 8 3 34pts
7 Volvo Ocean Race 5 2 6 9 8 4 DNF 32pts
8 Alinghi DNF DNS DNS 4 4 5 5 26pts
9 Holmatro OCS 6 7 8 5 7 DNF 22pts
10 Tommy Hilfiger DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 0pts
by Event media 
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Margaret River or Osborne Park (severne shop), WA
