Kiwi yachtsmen bidding to reduce British team’s lead

Press, 1 August 1989, Page 48

Kiwi yachtsmen bidding to reduce British team’s lead

NZPA Cowes, Isle of Wight New Zealand goes into the third race of the Admiral’s Cup today determined to claw back the lead that Great Britain is beginning to build up in = the six-race series. ‘ :? “We are only too well aware that we havp got a big fight on our hands but we believe that we can do it,” Tom Dodson, the skipper of Fair Share, said yesterday. ; The New Zealand trio of Fair Share, HPropaganda and Libjah is io, > fourth place witha total of 198.5 points MUt of the 14 nations. Great Britain: is leading':? on 240 points fallowed t>y»

France on 216.5 and Denmark on 214.5 points. The gap of 42.5 points between Great Britain and New Zealand would have been, much closer but for a successful protest against it by the British team. The international racing jury upheldsa protest by the Great Britain big boat, Jamarella, that < she was impeded by Fair Share at the start of the Channel • race. , : • The incident, acknowledged by: Dodson and his crew, cost Fair Share a 12 per cent penalty dropping her five places from twelfth to seventeenth. Z Dodson conceded that t the Great Britain .team was in tremendous form and seemed to be improving i'wjmd every .race.

“Jamarella and Indulgence are fantastic boats and they are being sailed brilliantly,” he said. “Librah has the match of them and at the moment it is Fair Share and Propaganda that are struggling. But we know that wejean do better or we woutd not be here.” Dodson’ pointed out that at the same stage two years ago the difference between \ the two teams was 27 points. New Zealand went on to win the ? Cup for the first time by\ 84 j,points from Great Britain with Australia,.in .third place. “Then there were also only five races' and this time . there ire' . six :so there is still everything to play for,” he said.

The Channel Race led to a total of seven protests, unprecedented in recent years, with Australia coming off worst. Two protests were upheld against the one tonner Joint Venture following infringements at the start and early into the race. The Victorian boat, which has New Zealander Russell Coutts as tactician, was given a 48 per cent penalty, dropping her from sixth to twentyseventh, and relegating the team to fifth place on 183 points. The second Australian one tonner, True Blue, with Kiwi Chris Dickson as tactician had a protest by the Norwegian boat, Fram, which is skippered by Crown Prince Harald, dismissed.