Synergy skipperВ Karol Jablonski and tacticianВ Rod Dawson were wearing huge smiles dockside and expressing their pleasure over a job well done whenВ Philippe Mourniac from All4One approached.

“Great job, guys. It was awesome to watch on TV,” said Mourniac, the Franco-German team’s navigator.

Synergy had recently completed a wire-to-wire win over TeamOrigin,restructuring the order at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur asperestroika revamped Russian politics in the 1980s.

Synergy today won two races and now occupies fourth place on theleaderboard with a 5-4 record, 1 point behind third-placed Azzurra.Synergy has two matches remaining in Round 2 and a victory in at leastone would ensure advancement to the semi-finals.

“That would be an accomplishment. But we still have to win it,” said Jablonski, the 47-year-old skipper from Poland. “Todaywe had a good day and we’re happy with our performance in this event.Before the start, who would’ve counted on us going forward?”

The semi-finalists took shape today with Emirates Team New Zealand wrapping up the round robins. Kiwi skipper Dean Barker came out victorious over BMW Oracle Racing and TFS – PagesJaunes and leads the event with a 9-1 record.

England’s TeamOrigin holds second at 7-3. Italy’s Azzurra didn’t racetoday but remains in third place at 6-3. Synergy is fourth followed byArtemis at 4-5. BMW ORACLE Racing is sixth (3-6), All4One seventh (3-7)and TFS – PagesJaunes eighth (1-9).

“The big deal for us is getting into the top four, and I think we’re comfortable,” said Ben Ainslie, TEAMORIGIN skipper. “It’sabout getting better and trying to get results in the semi-finalsail-offs. All the teams are battling a bit with the conditions andboats and trying to get used to it all. Like everyone else, we’retrying to get better.”

If a few breaks had fallen differently in Round 1, Synergy might beplaced even higher. The team lost a heartbreaker to Emirates Team NewZealand just five lengths from the finish line. It lost another matchthat it led when the mainsheet broke. Despite the setbacks, thelearning curve has remained vertical.

“The important thing for our team is the atmosphere,” Jablonski said. “Wewent through a difficult time at the beginning. If something goes wrongthere are a lot of possibilities for the team to explode or not behappy, but we are holding together. We have good attitudes.”

That attitude was evident when Synergy took down TEAMORIGIN. Jablonskistarted to the right of Ainslie, won the first cross on the right sideof the course, and opened a lead at the first windward mark thatwouldn’t be overcome on the short, two-lap course.

“Both sides wanted the right, but we didn’t want it with a bad start,” Ainslie said. “I thought we were in position to make their start tough, but they did a good job squeezing around the committee boat.

“It’s good to see those guys doing so well,” Ainslie continued. “They’vegot some great sailors. It’s good to see that when they get the boathandling side figured out they’ve got some smart sailors who know whata wind shift is and can figure it out.”

Three flights remain to complete the second round robin over the nexttwo days. And although the semi-finalists are taking shape, the daystill belonged to Synergy, even if they have to scream at each other.

“We don’t have a communications system on board, so we have to talk loud to make sure everyone’s on the same page,”Jablonski said. “The communication with the guy up the rig is difficultbecause he has to scream. But it doesn’t matter. It’s in Russian halfthe time so no one else can understand!”

В 

Emirates Team New Zealand, Azzurra and Artemis each won their lonematch of the day, which was shortened to two flights as light winds inthe afternoon turned the Baie des Anges off Nice into a virtual millpond.

After day six, Emirates Team New Zealand still leads the event with six points on a perfect 6-0 record. SkipperВ Dean Barker(NZL) and mates defeated BMW ORACLE Racing by 48 seconds in their lonematch and have one remaining in the round against TEAMORIGIN. Based onthe standings tonight the Kiwis need to win that match to win the round.

“We’re happy with how it’s been going,” said Barker. “We’ve beensailing with the same crew. You run the risk of injury or illness, butwe’ve had the same crew throughout.”

Italy’s Azzurra moved into second place today after winning its matchover the French and German team ALL4ONE. Azzurra and skipper Francesco Bruni(ITA) lost the lead on the first leg and then regained it on thesecond, finding more pressure on their side of the course, to win by 1minute, 56 seconds.

Azzurra has five points on a 5-1 record. It has one match remaining in the round and will place either second or third.

Azzurra leap-frogged TeamOrigin of Great Britain in the standings when skipper Ben Ainslie’s (GBR) crew lost to Artemis of Sweden in the day’s first match. Artemis skipper Terry Hutchinson(USA) put forth a masterful performance in the pre-start and cleanedout his British rival. Artemis went on to win by 45 seconds.

TeamOrigin’s loss was its first of the event and dropped it to thirdwith four points on a 4-1 mark. Ainslie and mates have two matchesremaining in the round, against Team New Zealand and Azzurra. IfTeamOrigin wins both it can still win the round robin.

Artemis solidified its fourth-place position with its dominant win.Hutchinson had been very critical of his pre-start performance inyesterday’s match against Team New Zealand, giving up lateralseparation late in the sequence. Today, he pushed Ainslie around in thepre-start and left the British triple Olympic gold medallist tacking toport almost two lengths to leeward of the line at the start gun.

“Today’s start set up similarly to yesterday’s. We just executed itbetter,” said Hutchinson. “Yesterday’s race was painful, but wedebriefed and had good communication about what we did right and wrong.Today, we learned from our mistake.”

TeamOrigin tacticianВ Iain Percy (GBR) said the team put itself in a disadvantageous position at the start.

“We got ourselves a little late having misjudged the layline and gavethem [Artemis] a powerful position,” Percy said. “For people watching,some of those moves seemed to be wrong, but the reality is that whenyou are starting with them bow forward by half a length at the favouredend wide right, the race is kind of over. Although sometimes it lookslike you are making more mistakes, in fact you are trying to giveyourself a chance to get out.”

The second half of the leaderboard sees BMW Oracle Racing in fifth withtwo points on a 2-3 record. BMW Oracle has two matches remaining,against Artemis and Synergy, and needs to win both if it hopes to moveup into the top four.

Synergy of Russia today picked up its second win of the regatta and hastwo points on a 2-4 record. With one match remaining it is locked intosixth place because it defeated ALL4ONE today, which gave it thetiebreak advantage.

The French and German team ALL4ONE is seventh with two points at 2-5and TFS – Pages Jaunes is eighth at 0-7. These two teams have completedthe first round robin and can’t move up in the standings.

Two flights remain to complete the round robin and organisers hope torun through them tomorrow. In an effort to get racing completedtomorrow’s first start has been moved a half-hour earlier to 08:30 CET.

Tomorrow’s schedule

Flight 14

M1: Artemis vs. BMW Oracle Racing
M2: TeamOrigin vs. Emirates Team New Zealand

Flight 7

M2: TeamOrigin vs. Azzurra

Flight 8

M2: BMW Oracle Racing vs. Synergy

Results – click here