Jason P sent in this awesome pic taken on board Shosholoza as they cleaned America’s Cup holders, Swiss team Alinghi, in dramatic fashion.
Shosholoza
This, from Stuff:
Team New Zealand and Britain’s Team Origin have continued on their winning ways, but Team Shosholoza has produced the star turn in yachting’s Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.
The South African syndicate, who had been winless going into the fifth day of the regatta off Auckland, opened their account with a shock victory over America’s Cup holders Alinghi.
It wasn’t so much the result, but the manner in which the South Africans downed their Swiss rivals, skippered by New Zealander Brad Butterworth, that was notable.
Shosholoza’s Italian skipper, Paulo Cian, and his crew dominated the start, getting the side they wanted, timing their run to the line with precision and crossing at speed.
They then read the light, shifty conditions superbly to increase their lead to more than 200m up the first beat.
Alinghi’s problems were compounded when they sailed into a hole at the bottom mark and then had trouble with their spinnaker drop.
On the final run, Shosholoza moved ahead by more than 1km, a massive gap given that the courses being used are much shorter than for the America’s Cup.
The final margin was three minutes 49 seconds, the biggest by far of the regatta so far.
Nice.
Real nice..
Check out Shosholoza’s website here.
