Undisputed winner of day 2 of the GC32 Oman Cup was Zoulou, with French ace Gurvan Bontemps on the helm, who put in a 1-2-2-2-1 scoreline.
This performance propelled Zoulou up to second on the leaderboard, now just a point behind Alinghi. The Swiss World Champions had a reasonable day, winning the third and fourth races, but were hampered by a pre-start incident in race three.
Throughout the day Oman Air had been hounding their arch rivals, as at stake is the 2019 GC32 Racing Tour title. Since the two teams started this event tied on points, it is a case of whoever wins here will collect the big prize on Saturday.
However prior to the gun in race three it all got too close and in a classic match race manoeuvre down by the pin, Alinghi on port failed to keep clear of Oman Air on starboard.
At a post-race hearing, the jury deemed that both boats had broken RRS 14 having failed to avoid contact. Because Alinghi had been in the wrong they were penalised two points, while Oman Air was docked one.
However the incident left Alinghi holed on her port side and this evening she is out of the water being repaired.
Sadly Alinghi is not the only GC32 out of the water tonight. Shortly before race three, in a first of its kind incident, the ‘spine’ (the fore and aft strut running between the cross beams) broke on board Argo and this evening the US team was investigating ways of finding a replacement part or effecting a repair.
GC32 Oman Cup – After 9 races
1st Alinghi 1 1 1 3 5 4 2PP/3 1 2 – – 21 pts
2nd Zoulou 4 4 4 2 1 2 2 2 1 – – 22 pts
3rd Red Bull Sailing Team 5 5 2 1 2 1 4 5 5 – – 30 pts
4th Oman Air 2 2 3 5 6 3 1PP/6 4 3 – – 34 pts
5th Black Star Sailing Team 3 3 5 6 4 6 3 3 4 – – 37 pts
6th Argo 6 6 6 4 3 5 DNC/7 DNC/7 DNC/7 – – 51 pts
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