DUBAI // Two of sailing fiercest rivals are to go head-to-head again today in the final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy on inshore waters off the Dubai International Marine Club.
MW Oracle Racing, the America's Cup winners, beat the French/German team All40ne yesterday their way to the final. They will face Emirates Team New Zealand who defeated Italy's Mascalzone Latino Audi.
And that brings a showdown between James Spithill, the Oracle skipper, and his old rival Dean Barker of Team New Zealand.
The two raced the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007 final in Valencia, Spain - which Team New Zealand won - and Spithill is looking forward to the rematch. "I'm convinced we haven't seen our best yet, so I'm looking forward to [today]," Spithill said.
"Dean is a fantastic sailor, calm and with a good temperament. He and I have had some great racing over the years. I don't expect tomorrow to be any different."
Oracle, who won the 33rd America's Cup in February, defeated All4One 2-0 in their semi-final yesterday while Team New Zealand, also ran out 2-0 winners against the Italians.
Yesterday's winning formula for Oracle was pretty much as it has been throughout the regatta that began 13 days ago.
John Kostecki, the tactician, and Murray Jones, the strategist, called the windshifts with aplomb and trimmers Dirk de Ridder (mainsail), Ross Halcrow (headsails) and Joey Newton (spinnakers) kept the boat moving fast, while the sail handling at the turning marks was flawless.
"It's nice to have the option to put the boat where you want and the guys take care of the rest," Spithill said.
"We've got the option to go toe-to-toe or, if JK [Kostecki] and Murray see a shift, we can speed to that. The guys have been spot on throughout the regatta."
Today's final is a best-of-three race series and Barker is cautiously optimistic.
"There have been five Louis Vuitton Trophy events and we've been in the final of all of them," he said. "Here they've [BMW Oracle] been the form team and we'll have to sail well to beat them."
Spithill's team spent much of the intervening years that followed the 2007 Cup in legal limbo preparing for and winning their catamaran challenge for the 33rd America's Cup.
The American team have been major supporters of the Louis Vuitton Trophy competition, racing in several events, but without much success.
"I feel we're back at the level that's required now," Spithill said. "Obviously these Team New Zealand guys have been sailing monohulls and racing together for a long time.
"It's been a big push from us to go back to work and get back to this level. I'm happy with how the guys have really taken the challenge on.
"We've put ourselves into the position now where we can win the regatta. It's just going to come down to [today] and I think it will be a pretty tough series."
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."
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Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
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Director: Amar Kaushik
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Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
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Sand storm
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- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
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