Canada's Cup is Still Even After Day 4   by Ed Furry - Sailhead.com

Toronto, Canada - Day 4 of the Canada's Cup would start and end in an even
score but there was a lot of exciting racing in between.  With steady winds
at around 12-14 knots and the waves were between 1 and 3 feet.  The day
looked to be great for match racing even though it was a little colder
today.  Heartbreaker went into the day on a three race win streak and
Defiant needed to get out of their tailspin.  It was tied 3 apiece and
Defiant would be without their injured bowman, Ian Smith, once again.

Race 7 would be the first race today with Heartbreaker starting from the
starboard side and Defiant on port.  The boats would enter the box and
briefly dial up before Heartbreaker tacked out towards the Committee boat
and Defiant would gybe and chase the Americans.  Heartbreaker would slow at
the start to stay clear but would cross the line first.  Defiant had better
boat speed at the start and was to windward of Heartbreaker.  Up the first
beat the boats would split tacks with Defiant going right and Heartbreaker
left.  At the first mark Defiant would have a two boat length, 17 second
lead.

The boats would split gybes downwind mainly due to the fact that
Heartbreaker's spinnaker pole jaws were locked closed.  Hughes would tell us
later that a pin broke inside the pole.  Defiant would round the next two
marks with a 45 second delta.  On the second downwind Heartbreaker would
sail without a pole and still managed to cut the lead down to 27 seconds.  
Heartbreaker would cut the lead at the top mark to 25 seconds and would have
their pole up for the final downwind but was unable to get any closer as
Defiant would win race 7, by 27 seconds.

Heartbreaker would have a green flag up at the finish.  They asked for time
and were granted it in order to fix the spinnaker pole.  Defiant would be
back in the lead for the series 4-3, but Heartbreaker would have some
confidence going into the last race since they were able to stay so close
even without a spinnaker pole for most of the race.

Race 8 would turn out to be the best race of the regatta so far.  The start
involved Defiant controlling Heartbreaker and almost creating a penalty.  
Defiant would win the start and was able to get right first.  Defiant would
round the first mark with a 40 second lead.  Hughes said he was frustrated
by this, which seemed to motivate the team.  One spectator mentioned that
“Heartbreaker was flying downwind”.  After a gybing dual downwind
Heartbreaker cut the lead down to 11 seconds.  They would grind Defiant down
more upwind to cut the lead at the 3rd mark to 4.5 seconds.  The boats would
then get overlapped on the second downwind.  Defiant would force
Heartbreaker past the mark, to stay ahead at mark 4.

The last upwind would be pure boat-speed as Heartbreaker and Defiant would
tack back and forth with Heartbreaker working ahead and eventually rounding
the last mark 15 seconds in the lead.  The downwind leg would be a lot of
work to stay ahead as Defiant did everything they could to pass
Heartbreaker.  At the finish Defiant tried a crash gybe to catch
Heartbreaker off guard but it wouldn’t work as Heartbreaker would finish 8
seconds ahead to tie the series at 4 wins apiece.

Day 5 could be a crucial day for both teams.  Stay tuned to www.canadascup.org
for up to the minute action from Toronto.  You can also join the chatroom to
talk to other Canada’s Cup fans.