www.cruiser-racer.com will join the 40 Series in Barcelona with a new build Soto 40.

www.cruiser-racer.com, the Spanish team which is competing this week in Cartagena in the 40 Series demo boat, hull number 22, confirmed yesterday that they will race their new Soto 40 at the Conde de Godó-Barcelona Trophy from September 12th-17th. Their new Soto 40, hull number 27, will be owned by Álex Laplaza and Toni Guiu.


Guiu, who is a yacht broker and project consultant from Barcelona raced two Whitbread Round the World Races in the 1980’s aboard Licor 43 and Fortuna Lights and was an early supporter of the founding of the Barcelona World Race.


The new Soto 40 WWW.CRUISER-RACER.COM will be the sixth boat from the class to compete in the 40 Series this season on the Audi MedCup Circuit and will join the finale event of the season Conde de Godó-Barcelona Trophy on their home waters.


The owners, Álex Laplaza and Toni Guiu, revealed the details of their plans at the at theRegión of Murcia-Cartagena Trophy where they are racing the demo Soto 40 asWWW.CRUISER-RACER.COM whiile their own new boat, built by M Boats in Argentina, is aboard  a cargo ship en route to Barcelona.


The new Soto 40 WWW.CRUISER-RACER.COM will be the sixth boat from the class to compete in the 40 Series. The Spanish duo are looking to the long term in the class and  they aim to compete over the course of the full 2012 season.


“It´s all about taking advantage of a great opportunity that we´ve been handed to be in the circuit´s last two events. We are moved by our excitement, passion and desire, we left all our previous plans aside to be here”, explains Guiu who is director of the company Cruiser Racer´swhich sells, brokers and develops race and racer-cruiser boats. One of their successful projects has been the Botin designed Sinergia 40.


After just two days aboard the demo Soto 40 they race in Cartagena, aboard www.cruiser-racer.com (aka XXII), Laplaza describes the boat as “quite technical”. “We are happy with the boat speed that we´ve reached and we know our limitations and where we stand. It will be extraordinarily difficult to fight against teams like Iberdrola and NH Resorts, but the simple fact the we are doing it is positive, because we are guided by our excitement as owners”.


Guiu has also pointed out that the Soto 40 provides a great opportunity to be part of a competition of such a high level as the Audi MedCup Circuit, because it´s “the perfect plan for owners who are interested in putting a project together”.


Seventy per cent of the team come from Toni Guiu and Laplaza usual crew: “They´ve always sailed  with us, we come her directly from a third place with Sinergia at the Copa del Rey Mapfre”, says Guiu. For these next two 2011 events, the team has added two Greek sailors from North Sails Greece and German tactician Sabine Schumann, based in Barcelona.


The members of www.cruiser-racer.com are Toni Guiu, Ramón Calvera, Dimitris Degliannis, Simos Kambouridis, Lucas Llobet, Joan Navarro, Pol Oses, Sabine Schumann and Borja Vilagrán.

A day backstage

For a boat to perform well in a regatta, a good job has to be done onshore, as well as on the race course. Far from the cameras and away from the fans’ eye view, shore crews have a tough duty to take care of, frequently at the most inconvenient times, from travel and hotel logistics, to sail repairs or boat cleaning. They will tell you that there is no such thing as a typical day behind the scenes, but here is how they tend to fall:


      

8:00 am. The pontoon seems calm and still nearly deserted, but it´s just 

a false impression: underwater, wearing neoprene suits, the shore team 

member in charge of cleaning the hull, keel and bulb and the rudder are at work.

For this essential, daily task they use cloths, thin sandpaper and suction pads. 

“The cleaner the boat is, the faster we are, because it offers less resistance to 

the water”, explains Diego Torrado, one of the maintenance responsibles for 

Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE. “You might not tell the difference in 

just 24 hours, but you definitely can in 48 hours. TP52s are not like cruising boats, 

they don´t have a coat of antifouling that prevents the boat from having algae, 

slime and crustaceans grow in it. The light and the warm temperatures 

in the Mediterranean Sea really promote this growth. If you feel the hull with your 

hand after just one day it feels like a three-day unshaven beard”, explains Torrado.

Over in the cold Atlantic waters, these divers get in the water with 5 milimiter thick 

suits. “But the worst scenarios for us are those ports with little water movement. 

In some cases they´ve been the cause of gastroenteritis or ear-infections for some 

daily divers”.

13:00 pm. The fleet crosses the startline for the first race of the day. Far from 

there, Container´s highly regarded Welsh Logistics Coordinator Sarah O´Kane, 

who has experience in powerhouse Audi MedCup Circuit winning teams 

including Mean Machine and Emirates Team New Zealand, faces a 

hundred accumulated emails. After waking up at five in the morning to make 

sure that the team´s breakfast is ready, then meet with the crew, weigh them, 

pack their meals for the boat and check that it carries enough water 

without surpassing the rule´s weight limit, Sarah finally finds time to sit in 

front of her laptop. 
It´s time to pay bills, to confirm flights and work through all 

kinds of formalities regarding upcoming events, not to mention lost luggage 

problems.

“Let´s just say that are like a mother for them, you have to keep your 

eyes on everything”, says O´Kane,who has spent 24 of her 44 years of life 

doing this job. When asked about the toughest part of her job, she answers 

that “the worst nightmare for someone like me is probably food poisoning. 

I have to control the food area because it could seriously affect the team´s 

goals for the event or eventhe year”. O´Kane also proudly mentions that she has 

seen a lot of the sailors that are on the circuit right grow in ability and maturity over 

the years.

16:30 pm. Once the battle is over in the racecourse, Libby Tomlison, Quantum Racing´s Press Officer, deals with media requests from all over the world, interested in doing interviews, writing stories and recording TV footage. The team´s policy is simple: “Never just say ‘no’ as a first answer”, declares the 35 year old American. “Our attitude is to be open and available. As the circuit´s leaders we have more requests, of course, and that means that we have to adjust our agenda really well, this way we don´t have to deny anyone the chance to sail as a Crew + member or in our support boat. It´s tough, but we try to make everyone happy”.

Quantum Racing´s strategy is also driven across the social networks. “We try to be fresh, 

show different things and also have general information about our crew. I work on this 

but it´s Keith Brash, our Production Manager, who does most of the job, uploading 

great videos and pictures, something new each day”, tells Tomlison.

18:00 pm. While most of the sailors are re-charging their energies in the Race Village 

after a really long day, one of them, hanging by a safety harness, is hoisted 20 meters 

by the pedestal winch as if he was a spinnaker up to the top of the mast. At a height 

equivalent to a six-storey building, where the sails reach a tension of 7 or 8 tonnes on 

the mast, this person works his way down cleaning and adjusting the carbon fiber fittings 

of the mast, trusting his safety to his teammate´s judgement below. “Once you are up 

there you feel good, the view is spectacular, but it can get pretty shifty and it´s easier 

to feel dizzy”, says Greg Gendell, Quantum Racing´s bowman. “It´s a risky activity, 

having someone up there is always dangerous, it´s not the most popular job, not 

a lot of guys would want to do it”, he adds.

Pedro Mas, Bribón´s Bowman, feels that the daily climb is all part of his job 

description:  “because we are the ones who go up during the races, so we also 

do it at the dock”. The Spanish sailor points out “it´s less dangerous at the port, 

when you have to go up there during a race it´s probably because there´s an 

emergency. The ropes hold up to 4000 kilos and I just weight 80, so I don´t 

think that´s a problem. What´s dangerousis that when you are out to sea, 

everyone is really careful about what´s going on. Onshore, when you spend 

time up in the mast repairing something and everyoneis busy below, you 

might end up being abandoned, and then someone might let your rope go. 

In order to avoid this, we tie three knots in the halyard and we let the crew know". 

This cleaning and repairing duty can be dangerous for the sailors below too. 

“I know cases where a screwdriver has fallen down hitting someone. I know some 

bad stories”.

3:00 am. In the middle of the night, the members of the crew who are responsible for 

repairing the sails and maintaining the boat work against the clock in the containers. 

In the Marseille Trophy, a port-starboard mistake move by RÁN left Gladiator with no 

bowsprit and the Swedish team with a hole in their boat´s stern. To substitute the English 

boat´s bowsprit was easy but repairing RÁN´s damaged area was a tougher issue. 

When RÁN´s crew arrived in the port in the morning, Nipper, one of the builders, 

was still finishing the job off.

Unstable winds marked the first day in Cartagena

Today has begun the fourth stage of the Audi MedCup in Cartagena.But it was not easy at all, because the wind has not been stable and has been capricious, playing with the teams and the organizers. It was late afternoon, hanging around 16:00 local time, when the Race Ofical could take long to Class Soto 40.

The first game was clean, and the English team of Tony Buckingham could be placed at the head. In a wind field with different characteristics who touched the six nodes of the southwestern sector, the teams remained very even in this race, alternating positions as the wind fought the sun leaving the tactical vagueness of Aeolus and Helios. Meanwhile, the ship of the young crew aboard the Patagonia Australia, showed that not only came to enjoy the beautiful scenery, and watched the first, taking the lead occasionally. It was the last downwind leg which he defined almost everything, with the southern team deriving the last mark first, closely followed by the NH Resorts (News IV), Iberdrola third and Ngoni not so far, this leg was for infarction. Playing with Borneo and looking for the gusts, the ships were jibing and trying to avoid the disadvantages of the huge asymmetric opponents. Thus, as an influx of photofinish, NH Resorts Iñaki Castañer, crossed the finish line first. Behind the Ngoni took advantage of the fierce battle that developed between Iberdrola and the Australian Team and slipped into second place. While the team won the kangaroo hand in hand with the green boat and came third. At 17:30 local time came along to the second test and the day trophy. With a fleet as couple, no one wants to give a single meter, which leads to some situations force the limit. So it was in this long, where the Cruiser-Racer.com and the Australian Team having to scoot early rehabilitation. Note the presence of this new team, which has confirmed the purchase of a new unit that will be in Barcelona and in this event uses the boat test the Organization (the XXII). By the first mark, the English ship with Kevin Sproul at the helm, managed a lead of almost a minute in front of the Iberdrola, skippered by Pichu Torcida. Behind, NH Resorts, the Australian Team and the Cruiser-Racer will not tread the green boat lost.During the first downwind, the four ships pursuers were disadvantaged by the lack of wind and get upset with each other and leaving the Ngoni go to a comfortable lead. Finally, after two legs those would be the final results, the Ngoni first with an excellent day, followed by closing the podium Iberdrola and the Spanish NH Resorts.

Audi MedCup Classification Cartagena TrophySoto 40 1) Ngoni (GBR), 2 +1 = 3pts2) NH Resorts (ESP), 1 +3 = 4pts3) Iberdrola (ESP), 4 +2 = 6pts4) Team Australia (AUS), 3 +4 = 7pts5) Cruiser-Racer.com (ESP), 5 +5 = 10pts 

Cartagena, field of dreams?

The deep waters and the high surrounding cliffs which border the race course set 

the scene for a very special and tricky race area for the fourth Audi MedCup Circuit 

of the season, and it is a very different panorama from the usual Mediterranean 

backdrop.

While the high, rocky cliffs are immediately apparent it is what is below the surface which can play an important 

influence. Even very close in to the shore the waters are over 50 metres deep.

“Usually we are working on a plateau of around 90 metres deep, but if it blows strongly we have to move 

more offshore and it can be over 100 metres deep.” Explains Ariane Mainmare of the Race Committee.

 “ And also it requires more skill from the mark layers here to make sure the turning buoys are laid 

accurately, and in general terms we have to just be sure we give ourselves more time to lay and 

lift marks and get our anchor up and down.”

The waves and sea-state is very much dictated by the depth of water and the influence of the high cliffs. 

Some of last season’s most exciting images were created off Cartagena last season when the 

SW’ly winds blew resolutely to over 20 knots and the bouncy, steep seas allowed surfing but also saw 

theTP52 Series and GP42 Series boats ploughing through the liquid mountain range. Waves of up 

to two metres are common in this direction which is directly open to a long, exposed reach until the 

waves crash on the high, bluff crags.

But it is not all brisk SW’ly winds in Cartagena in August. The thermal sea breeze is usually SE’ly 

but it can also be channelled by the topography, the long flat lands which lie to the NE at the back of 

the port.

So far none of the weather experts are predicting the Eolo wind this week. Most consider that the top end 

of 11-12 knots will be more usual. Adopted local Gabriel de Llano (ESP) sails on Bribón (ESP) rounds 

up the most common weather features:

“The waters are very deep and if it is blowing hard the marks can be set in more than 100 metres of water 

and if it blows like this over a few days then the seas can build and build, bouncing back off the cliff, 

creating a very confused, difficult sea.” He says.

Paul Cayard (USA), skipper-helm on Artemis (SWE), says: “This venue can be pretty tricky, shifty. 

There are a lot of pressure differences. I have raced here twice before and had two different conditions. 

Two years ago it was very light and last year it was windy, we can get anything. At the moment it is shaping 

up to be pretty light to start.”
For the moment the meteorologists seem to be ruling out strong winds,  but as always in sailing never 

say never.

Two stops from home

For the two Audi MedCup Circuit series fleets the home straight may not quite be looming  into sight yet, but the expectation of September’s grand finale in Barcelona is growing by  the day. The Region of Murcia Trophy, the fourth of the 2011 season’s five trophy regattas, starts in one week’s time. On each of the three previous visits to the friendly, passionate city in the south east of Spain, the  racing conditions have developed a whole range of challenges. The race arena itself has high,  scrubby, rocky hills on three sides which influence the breezes and the sudden change in sea depth  as well as the long fetch to the south east can make for some spectacular sea conditions, short, aggressive steep waves which test the machinery as much as the crews. Over the years it has  become a race area that teams have grown to love or hate, but almost universally the sailors  cherish the welcome and the passion which the local Cartagena residents and hosts have  developed for the Audi MedCup Circuit. The 52 Series arrives in Murcia with the Ed Baird skippered Quantum Racing (USA) atop the leader,  not so much sitting pretty but maintaining a steady lead of seven points over Germany’sContainer.  Both of the season’s consistent standout teams did not perform to the same high level in Cagliari  as they both did in Portugal and France, finishing fifth and fourth respectively and they will be  looking to bounce back on to the Murcia podium. Already this season three different 52 Series teams have won Trophy Regattas, Quantum Racing, Container and, in Sardinia, Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE(FRA/GER). Sardinia saw the  more powerful Vrolijk designed twins, Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE and Audi Azzurra  Sailing Team prevail in first and second. The Italian flagged Audi Azzurra were the strongest  finishers in the second half of the regatta. Might they maintain that impetus through to become  the fourth boat to win a Trophy Regatta? As Matador, the core of the Audi Azzurra crew have  been on the podium twice in three years in Murcia. “Our team is in better shape now, eager to keep fighting and sail well in Murcia with the main  objective that can get to Barcelona next month with a chances to win the Circuit, that has  always been our goal” emphasises Guilermo Parada (ARG), Audi Azzurra Sailing Team’svery  experienced skipper-helm. “We´ve made a really deep analysis of what the season has been like so far in order to see what  our real strengths are, and to find out the other team´s weaknesses and strengths for these next  two events. As well as the routine stuff on the boat, we have refined the set-up. We also have two  new sails that we still have to use for the first time. We are going to Cartagena with a few new things  to test and see if we can make a leap from a competitiveness point of view”. Parada continues, “Cartagena can be a demanding regatta arena because if the wind is blowing it  can be very wavy, something like we experienced in 2009. The same happened in 2010, when we  also saw that the currents and the depth there generate waves every time it is breezy. This will  make us sail in a different way than how we´done so far this season. But you can see days with  no wind and flat water as well, and that will imply not so many boat changes regarding previous  events. We have to know how to read the race track, measure the current and find the right  side to sail. We hope to perform well because we have sailed there before.” Jose Cusi’s Bribon have also got an excellent record in Cartagena, winning in 2008 and reaching  Murcia on the heels of their first podium of the season, third in Cagliari and also just winning the  Copa del Rey on their home waters off Palma. Most off all Quantum Racing will be keen to get back to race and regatta winning ways to build  their cushion again, but Cagliari proved that the 52 Series fleet is only getting closer and tighter. The 52 Series is back to full strength with the return of the British team on Tony Langley’s  Gladiator. So too is the 40 Series with the Audi MedCup Circuit’s first ever all Australian team in the  shape of Patagonia which will be raced as Mulberry Estate under skipper Brent Fowler.  XXII will  be helmed by a local team under  the guidance of Toni Guiu while Iberdrola Sailing Teamlead  the series with a seemingly comfortable margin of 26 points. “Individually, our crew has been sailing on different boats, from the America´s Cup in Cascaisto maxis or monohulls. Aside from this, we´ve also had to repair the boat´s damages after our  crash with a media boat, and that has taken us quite some time in our base in Valencia”,  says Agustin Zulueta, project manager of the Spanish Soto 40 Iberdrola Sailing Team. “In August,Cartagena´s race area usually has strong winds and waves, demanding a lot of effort physically and delivering spectacular races. The season has been characterized by strong  winds so far, making our upper range sails go through rough times, so we´ll have to be  careful with this issue”. “We´ve achieved three back-to-back victories, performing at a high level. Also, the runner-up  in each event has always been a different team, allowing us to have a 26 point difference with  the next team in the general standings, which gives us room to stay calm. We have to keep  winning regattas and continue learning about the boat, thinking about next year”, he adds.

America's Cup World Series: Cascais

If you thought you were going to win the fleet race, and you saw this behind you, think again.
 Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ
 

On this page: ACWS Cascais Day 9 - Fleet Racing Championship Statements
America's Cup: Emirates Team New Zealand Claims First AC World Series
Artemis Racing: The Grand Finale
Oracle Racing: Oracle Racing Concludes ACWS Cascais with Larry Ellison Aboard
Team Korea: Surprise of the Week
Emirates Team New Zealand: Finishing with a Flourish

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From America's Cup Event Authority:

ETNZ's Dean Barker, Oracle's Larry Ellison and James Spithill, and Artemis's Terry Hutchinson celebrate after Day 9.
Photo:©2011 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Racing
 

Emirates Team New Zealand Claims the First AC World Series
Dramatic come from behind win for Kiwis again

Emirates Team New Zealand made an incredible recovery during the ‘winner takes all’ fleet race on Sunday to win the America’s Cup World Series Cascais, the first event of a new global series leading up to San Francisco in 2013.

With nine boats on the start line, the competition was close, and with a tricky, patchy race course area, there were passing lanes throughout the day.  Oracle Racing Spithill jumped out to a convincing lead early, but couldn’t protect it.  On the second lap of the race course, Kiwi skipper Dean Barker found more wind on his side of the race course to make the pass. 

 “For us it was fantastic,” Barker said.  “It was always going to be a very difficult race, as the breeze never really established.  There were big ‘holes’ in the race course, so it was about being at the right place at the right time.”

Artemis Racing, too, was able to work its way up to a second place finish from being back in the pack early; the early leader, Oracle Racing Spithill, was forced to settle for third. 

 “The guys did an awesome job to battle us up into the race,” said Artemis Racing skipper Terry Hutchinson, after a day where he climbed back from mid-fleet to second place.  “It’s probably the best we’ve gone in the entire regatta.  It's a very good finish for Artemis.”

But the feel-good story came from the Spanish GreenComm Racing.  From a position of dead last early in the race, Vasilij Žbogar and his crew of dinghy champions began picking off the opposition on the final leg of the race to earn a fifth place finish, an incredible achievement for the novice crew. 

 “It's a fantastic day for the team, we were last to arrive, and were very last for the first three races, then we have been improving every day,” he said.  “We were eighth, then seventh, sixth and now fifth.  Today the spirit of the team showed more than ever we never give up.  We fight to the end.  Today, we are happy with our improvement, but still not happy with the result.  We are a team of winners, so we won’t be happy until we win.”

Making its debut along with the AC45 catamaran was the new Guest Racer program where each team takes a guest aboard its race boat to compete with the team.  The list of guest racers this week included VIP guests like Yves Carcelle, the Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, pop singer Little Boots, Cecilia Meireles, the Secretary of State for Tourism in Portugal, along with names more familiar to the sailing world like former Cup winner John Bertrand, Artemis Racing CEO Paul Cayard and team principal Torbjörn Törnqvist, as well as Oracle Racing founder and principal Larry Ellison, who was aboard Oracle Racing Spithill today. 

“We had a great start but both Artemis and Team New Zealand managed to pass us and that's what these boats are all about,” Ellison said following the race.  “It makes the sailing much more exciting; it's not a matter of ‘you win the start, you win the race’.  So it's just what we hoped for when we decided on multihulls for the next America's Cup It's really competitive and that's what people want to see.  They want to see close races and the best sailors in the fastest boats.”

The America’s Cup World Series now moves on to Plymouth, UK, where the same nine teams will compete from September 10-18, before moving to San Diego, California in November.

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From Artemis Racing:

Showing great form. Artemis pulled a second place together on Sunday, sailing well despite a slow start to pass everyone except ETNZ.
Photo:©2011 Gilles Martin-Raget/americasup.com
 

The Grand Finale

After seven full days of racing in Cascais, all the money was on today’s race, the grand finale of the Americas Cup World Series Cascais.

It was another perfect sailing day with 8-10 knots of wind.  In the final fleet race, all nine teams were clear off the start line.  The two Oracle Racing teams were soon leading the pack with Emirates Team New Zealand close at their heels.

A good call on the third leg to head out to the course boundary saw Artemis Racing move up into third place and steadily close the gap on the leaders.  By leg four, Skipper Terry Hutchinson and crew were able to cross Oracle Racing Spithill and move into second place.  With a slightly different sail plan than the Oracle Racing boats and good on the water calls, Artemis Racing stayed out in front to finish second overall in the ACWS Championship only 21 seconds behind winners Emirates Team New Zealand.

It was a really good Artemis team day, from start to finish.  From the morning when we got down to the base, to the outcome on the water, said Skipper Terry Hutchinson.  The guys did great work sailing the boat.  We left plenty on the table at the start of the race so we had plenty to gain.  In typical Artemis fashion we fought until the very end.  That is probably the highlight of the day.  There was no quit or surrender during the race.  Kevin did great work positioning the boat in the breeze lines downwind.  Sean and Morgan did really good work in keeping the boat fast.  Julien, as always, was solid.  It was a very, very good day for Artemis Racing.

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From Oracle Racing:

On the back porch: Larry Ellison was the 6th man onboard Oracle4 with James Spithill, Sunday.
Photo:©2011 Gilles Martin-Raget/americascup.com
 

Oracle Racing Concludes ACWS  Cascais with Team Founder Larry Ellison Aboard

After yesterday’s victory in the match racing championship, skipper James Spithill appeared poised to capture the event championship as well.

With special guest and team founder Larry Ellison aboard as the sixth crewmember, Spithill absolutely nailed the start at the pin end of the line with speed and precision and opened a lead of nearly 1 minute at the first leeward gate.

The Oracle Racing Spithill crew maintained its lead at the next windward mark, but leading down the second run they sailed into some patches of light wind.  On the opposite side of the course Emirates Team New Zealand found a puff and crossed Spithill about two-thirds of the way down the leg.

A key element of the new class of AC45 catamarans was to create passing opportunities and this happened a second time on the next upwind leg.  Oracle Racing Spithill dropped a place to Artemis Racing in a close port-starboard crossing halfway up the leg.

At the end an exhausting 40 minutes, Oracle Racing Spithill finished third for the race, one spot ahead of teammate Oracle Racing Coutts, skippered by Russell Coutts.

“It’s been a good week for us,” said Spithill.  “We would’ve liked to finish with a win today.  I think we sailed well in tricky conditions, the other guys just managed to do it a bit better as the breeze got funny.  Full credit to Team New Zealand and Artemis Racing, they sailed well.

“The highlight was taking Larry out for his first race,” continued Spithill.  “He’s really the guy who put this concept together.”

The introduction of a new racecourse was designed to keep the racing close and make it exciting for fans and television broadcasts.  The wingsailed catamarans were developed for speed and to challenge the crewmembers in an athletic manner.  After the first event of the ACWS it appears both goals have been realized.

“I’ve driven an RC 44 for the past four or five years.  That, up until these boats, was the most fun I ever had sailing.  Now the RC 44 seems like old technology,” said Ellison, who founded Oracle Racing in August 2000.

“We’re very excited that these boats go as fast as they do and can be pushed to such extremes by these great sailors who are driving them,” Ellison continued.  “I think we made the right decision.  It’s extreme sailing.  Something the kids can get excited about, TV viewers can get excited about and even old monohull sailors like me can get excited about.”

Today’s racing featured plenty of place changing.  While Oracle Racing Spithill went the wrong way, GreenComm made a great comeback from last to finish fifth, seconds behind Oracle Racing Coutts.  It was only the eighth time skipper Vasilij Žbogar and his crew had sailed an AC45.

Yesterday’s match race final was punctuated by no fewer than five lead changes and top speeds of 45 kph/27 mph.

“Yeah, overtaking, what a shame,” Spithill chuckled.  “It’s hard to defend in these boats and that’s a fantastic thing to have in a boat race.  Make it hard to lead and have plenty of passing opportunities.  I’m very happy.”

The America’s Cup World Series next moves to Plymouth, England, Sept.  10-18.  In departing Cascais crews gave the revamped America’s Cup format a big thumbs up.  “It will only get better,” said Artemis Racing’s skipper Terry Hutchinson.

Crew Lists:
Oracle Racing Coutts: Russell Coutts (helm), Murray Jones (wing trim), Matthew Mason (middleman), Daniel Fong (trimmer), Simeon Tienpont (bow)
Oracle Racing Spithill: James Spithill (helm), John Kostecki (tactician), Dirk de Ridder (wing trim), Joe Newton (trimmer), Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (bow)

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 Team owner Larry Ellison had a prime view of the competition Sunday.  Unfortunately Oracle4's lead slipped away to ETNZ and Artemis.
Photo:©2011 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Racing

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From Team Korea:

Photo:©2011 Gilles Martin-Raget/americascup.com
 

Team Korea - Surprise of the Week at America’s Cup World Series

The first of the 2011-2012 America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) events drew to a close in Cascais, Portugal today, having set a new format competition on the way with style, excitement and huge promise.  Team Korea have enjoyed their introduction to the competition with fantastic success, and are regarded as the surprise of the week given their stellar performance, but it wasn’t quite the champagne finish in the last race that people had started to expect from them, taking seventh in the fleet race on Super Sunday the big finale to the event.

This race carries points towards the World Championship title that will finish in July next year, and the team were on a high going into the race, having unexpectedly beaten Russell Coutts of the mighty Oracle Racing team yesterday to advance to the semi-finals of the Match Racing competition.  They lost there to one of the strongest teams in the event from New Zealand, but it was an astonishing achievement to reach fourth position at the very first attempt with a brand new team, and widely applauded around the world.

Nine days ago, a seventh in an ACWS fleet race for the White Tiger Challenge would have been regarded as very respectable, but such has been the remarkable performance of the team since that first warm up day, there is disappointment in the camp tonight, as expectations have risen higher and higher as the results have improved day after day. 

Perhaps it was inevitable that a fall was coming, but as the last seconds of the countdown ticked through, Korea were looking to have carved out a good position on the start line, and right on cue, Chris Draper the teams British skipper gave the command, and their AC45 catamaran known as the White Tiger with its distinctive black and white striped hull, sprang into life, blasting down the first leg at top speed and rounding the first mark in a solid fourth position.  James Spithill of Oracle 4 led the pack followed by New Zealand, and both gybe off to the right side of the course followed by Coutts, but Draper decided to keep going in a straight line, gybing off as he said afterwards, about 20 seconds too late.  The boat sailed straight into a hole, the wind lightening as they came to a dramatic halt, watching in dismay as the rest of the fleet gybed to stay with the shifting wind and sailed by.

As has been seen all week, and as the team has painfully experienced, one mistake at this level is often catastrophic, and Korea found themselves seventh within a matter of seconds.  Gradually they filled the spectacular Tiger Eye Doyle Sails gennaker and picked up the pace again, but reached the bottom mark of this extra long course, pushing for 5th place in the melee around the gate mark.  All week the team has shown tremendous speed upwind, and those watching and urging them on expected the routine of picking off places to continue.  But today the contest had an extra edge to it, and that proved more difficult than previously with the teams all sailing well.  Rounding the top mark they were struggling to improve in the lighter and shiftier wind, and while there was a superb battle at the front of the fleet between the big teams, it wasn’t to be Team Korea’s day, failing to find the boat speed they had become accustomed to in Cascais.

As we had seen earlier in the week, there are some teams that thrive in these wind conditions, and GreenComm Racing from Spain had an excellent race taking fifth over the line their best result when it mattered, having finished last most of the time in the stronger breeze.  Emirates Team New Zealand won yet again, their performance almost faultless, but allowing Artemis from Sweden to come back at them in the closing stages and make for an exciting finish between them, together with James Spithill’s Oracle4.  With Terry Hutchinson of the USA helming Artemis, his light wind experience came to the fore, crossing second ahead of Spithill, with Coutts taking fourth.  A dejected Draper crossed in 7th place behind Aleph from France, another team that Korea has been outpacing all week, a huge disappointment for the team knowing what might have, and probably should have been a better result based on their earlier results. 

Commenting shortly afterwards Chris said, “Our performance today is very sad, it’s our worst result of the week in the race that really counts, and not only do we know we can sail better than that, but have been proving it all week.  It’s sad to finish on this note, but it’s fantastic what we have done here overall.  I am so pleased with what we have achieved this week, as we have surpassed our expectations in so many ways.  At the end of the day, it’s about the America’s Cup, and that’s what we are focusing on, so this has been an incredible week of learning, not just for us but for everyone.  We are going to get bad races we know, but it’s about how we react to them and bounce back.  Were annoyed about today, but it means we are going to have to be even stronger in Plymouth and we are looking forward to the next one.”

The team has won many fans both here and around the world, and shown that they can be extremely competitive.  CEO Kim Dong-Young said, today we are a little disappointed with seventh place, and its absolutely clear we need more support, more money and more training.  This is not an easy competition and is a big challenge for us as a new nation to the America’s Cup, with a long way to go and a lot to learn still, but it is fantastic to see Korea competing against the biggest teams at the highest level of the sport.  The good thing for us is that we can see the opportunity and the possibilities for the team after this event.  I am very happy at how we have done overall, a huge experience, and now we know what we have to do to be up with Team New Zealand, Artemis and Oracle.  Before we came, we were worried that we might finish last and be embarrassed by our performance, but its completely the opposite the whole world knows that Team Korea has arrived and is a serious contender.

There has been tremendous support for the team from within the sailing community who have welcomed Korea into the America’s Cup family, while spectators have cheered them on with enthusiasm.  The results have come through the week, counting a superb second place in the AC500 Speed Trials event, leading fleet races, and finishing a surprising fifth overall to qualify for the next stage, the match racing finals, at the very first attempt.  Yesterday was the true champagne moment for the team, one that will long be talked about in beating Russell Coutts, the greatest America’s Cup sailor of all time in their first ever match to reach the semi finals, finishing fourth.  That could never have predicted a week ago, and the praise for the team has been flowing.

Speaking after the closing press conference today, Russell Coutts said, I expected Team Korea to be good, but they have proved to be very good.  Its a fantastic team, and they have made some really good decisions on who to get involved.  I believe they could be really competitive in this America’s Cup, and there’s no reason why they can’t go on and actually win it....”

ACWS Regatta Director, Iain Murray said, “This has been an excellent week, and we’ve produced high quality races that people doubted we could deliver in a short space of time like this.  I haven’t been surprised that Team Korea have done so well here, the crew is a quality act, but to put a team together like this for the first event and perform as well as they have is wonderful achievement really, so with more time in the boat, and some more resource, I think you will see even further improvement.  With this high speed racing, where there are big gains and big losses by small mistakes, there’s a lot of opportunity for a lot of people, and so the smart guys and the good sailors will always come through, and the Korean team has got that and should do really well moving forward from here.”

The show now moves to the UK for the second America’s Cup World Series event, to Plymouth on the south-west coast where huge crowds are expected as the America’s Cup returns to the country where it was first contested, 160-years ago.  Together with some of the smaller teams, Korea plans to arrive early and train hard ahead of the regatta, with hopes high that they can improve further and close the gap on the big three teams ahead of them.  The contest begins with the preliminary fleet races on September 10th, with the finals over the following weekend, closing on the 18th.  With a big Korean community resident in Britain, support for the team is expected to again be high, and hopeful that the results will flow after the team has analyzed the lessons from Cascais.

Kim Dong-Young said, this has been an amazing event for us, and we have opened people’s eyes around the world.  Now we are focusing on improvement, fewer mistakes, and building our team stronger and broader.  It’s been a tremendous start to our America’s Cup campaign, and there is a long road ahead to San Francisco in 2013, but the White Tiger Challenge has taken its first steps with what can only be considered a marvelous success by all. 

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From Emirates Team New Zealand:

ETNZ riding high after a great ACWS regatta in Cascais. Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Finishing With a Flourish

Emirates Team New Zealand finished the Cascais AC45 World Series regatta with a flourish on Sunday, wining the final fleet race.

The win gave the team the title of AC45 World Series fleet race champions- a fitting end to a great week for Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, Ray Davies, James Dagg and Winston Macfarlane. 

They stumbled yesterday in the match racing final winning the preliminaries last weekend and three straight days of combined fleet and match-racing, but today they were back in form on a difficult race track. 

Oracle4 made a break at the start of the second leg and quickly got what looked to be a comfortable lead.  Bu it was the sort of day when passing lanes could open suddenly for a team to make a big gain; or for a hole in the breeze to form equally suddenly with consequent bit losses. 

For Barker, it was a classic come-from-behind win.  For most of the race he was the patient hunter with Oracle4 (James Spithill) in his sights after he had picked off Oracle 5 (Russell Coutts).  They dramatically snatched the lead on the second down-wind leg and Barker immediately became the hunted with Artemis, Oracle 4 and Oracle 5 chasing hard.

Barker hung on and finished 21s ahead of Artemis and 34 ahead of Oracle 4.  He paid tribute to the crew and their ability to bounce back from a bad day on Saturday. 

He said tactician Ray Davies and wing trimmer Glenn Ashby made the right calls on the breeze as they moved on Oracle 4. 
 

ETNZ is headed for Plymouth, carrying with them great momentum from a successful opening regatta for the AC45s.
 Photo:©2011 Gilles Martin-Raget/americascup.com