The French skipper Bertrand Pace put Aleph on the leaderboard in impressive style today by upsetting the hot favourites, Emirates Team New Zealand, on Day 6 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland.
With Mathieu Richard calling tactics, Aleph won the start, remained ahead at the first cross, then forced ETNZ to make an extra tack before the top mark.
Emirates strategist Adam Beashel said afterwards, "it was one of the worst races we've sailed in a long time", referring not only to his team's failure to catch the wind shifts on the first beat but what happened next, as they attempted to set the spinnaker.
"We had a little tear in the chute," said Beashel. "Just a minute or two later ... the whole thing blew out - and there was a little bit of a hiccup too with the pole and that ended up in the water." Make that a big hiccup: Emirates bowman, Stuart Bettany went overboard with the pole and, as extra crew rushed to rescue him, others restrained the pole, which was being pulled backwards, putting it in real danger of snapping. Although ETNZ clawed back some distance on the final leg, using their spare sail, Aleph won by a comfortable 38 seconds.
Next up, Artemis and TeamOrigin were circling in the start box for a much-anticipated race when Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio called a postponement as winds rose from 20 knots to 25, with gusts above 30.
The ETNZ weather man, Roger "Clouds" Badham, had warned in the morning that strong wind would put the racing at risk, and so it turned out. After staying on the water to monitor conditions until 5pm in the hope of improvement, Reggio finally called off the day's remaining races.
Tomorrow, the Day 7 races - the last of the round robin - will be run as planned, beginning half an hour earlier than usual, with today's incomplete schedule squeezed in afterwards.
slane@thenational.ae
Emirates Team New Zealand 5-1
All4One 3-2
Azzurra 3-2
Mascalzone Latino Audi 3-2
TeamOrigin 3-2
Artemis 2-3
Aleph 2-4 (1 point, due to earlier penalty deduction)
Synergy 0-5
Races are scheduled to start at 9.30am local time (12.30 am UAE time)
Synergy (NZL92) v. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL84)
Azzurra (NZL92) v. Aleph (NZL84)
Artemis (NZL92) v. All4One (NZL84)
TeamOrigin (NZL92) v. Mascalzone Latino Audi (NZL84).
slane@thenational.ae
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
HAJJAN
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