Mixed fortune for Nick Moloney BT at iShares Cup
Three race wins and a mix bag of results at the second round of the iShares Cup in Hy?res, France, has left BT in fourth place overall in the iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series after two events out of five.
'The Extreme 40 fleet - iShares Cup - Hyeres'
iShares Cup ©
Conditions at the French round tested all the 11 Extreme 40s boats in winds in excess of 25 knots which at times resulted in plenty of near-misses. A full capsize TEAM ORIGIN and a spectacular pitch-pole by Tommy Hilfiger kept the crowds entertained, and across the 18 races five different boats managed to score one or more first place positions. At times it was a game of snakes and ladders on the leaderboard, as the teams struggled for consistency in the Bay of Hy?res.
Regular BT crew, Steve Mitchell, who was unable to race in Hy?res, offered this advance just before the start: 'Stay out of trouble and let the others make the mistakes, hang around and keep your nose clean!' That advice proved hard to put into practice! Although in the first day BT came charging out of the blocks to score two race wins back-to-back. After that the BT crew of Nick Moloney, Andrew Walsh, Ed Barney and replacement crew Nigel King recorded a mix bag of results.
From Nick Moloney:
'Yesterday we had so many awesome starts in third or fourth around the top mark in really good shape, and then we just lost on stupid things happening to us. There was a lot of cowboy antics happening on the course and we suffered from a lot of that. We ended up getting rammed into a mark when we were in the right and came last when we were second in that race. A lot of things didn't go our way and we reckon adding it up last night we lost 25 points yesterday from positions we were in at the top mark, and with those 25 points. Sure we gave a few away as you lose a spot here and there but still we would have been second or third overall going into last night.
'And then this morning we came here feeling really good and that we'd have a good day and get back in shape, but nothing went our way at all. That's the game, you know! We were looking at each other thinking hopefully it's all over now and all the bad races are out of the way. Even when we locked on and thought we could sail into a good position, today we couldn't even get there. That's worrying but the encouraging thing is we've won more races in two regattas than we did all year last year, and we still finished third last year. We're fourth overall in the overall series now so we're in a good spot. 
'We're looking forward to the third round in Cowes - last year we finished second there. The best thing about Cowes is that there is a big gap between now and Cowes and we've scheduled a week's training with a coach. That's always been our objective to start the year from now and we really feel that that coaching will do us good in Cowes so hopefully we will get a good result and put us up there for a shot at the last two events.'
The final day proved to be a showdown between America's Cup teams Alinghi and TEAM ORIGIN. It went to the wire in the double-points final race that was won by TEAM ORIGIN but Alinghi skipper Ed Baird and his crew did enough to finish in fourth place to the second round of the iShares Cup.
iSHARES CUP OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER 2 ROUNDS: 
1st TEAM ORIGIN (Rob Greenhalgh) 19 pts
2nd Alinghi (Ed Baird) 15 pts
3rd JPMorgan Asset Management (Shirley Robertson) 14 pts
4th BT (Nick Moloney) 13 pts
5th iShares (Hugh Styles) 13 pts
6th Holmatro (Andreas Hagara) 11 pts
7th Volvo Ocean Race (Herbert Derckson) 10 pts
8th Oman Sail (Pete Cummings) 9 pts
9th Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton) 9 pts
10th Tommy Hilfiger (Randy Smyth) 1 pt
by BT Team Ellen 
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Port Macquarie, NSW
