LVPS: TEAMORIGIN Top of Their Group With Victory Against the Greeks

TEAMORIGIN leads Greek Challenge on leg 2 of their race. Image copyright Ian Roman.

by Leslie Ryan

The final day for Round Robin 1 kicked off with an exciting race 2 and delivered a perhaps unexpected but impressive win for Team Shosholosa against Alinghi, gaining the largest winning delta so far of the event – a whopping 3.51 seconds!

TEAMORIGIN took to their boats for race 4 of the day to be raced against the Greek Challenge, skippered by Gavin Brady. They managed to win the start by the narrowest of margins and went up the beat in very close contention with the Greeks, bouncing off tacks against each other with TEAMORIGIN going right and the Greeks on the left side of the beat. By the time they reached the first windward mark TEAMORIGIN had eaked out a lead margin of 14 seconds.

By the first leeward mark, the Greeks were still fully in contention rounding just 17 seconds behind and still pushing hard and threatening TEAMORIGIN’s lead. Up the second beat the Greeks managed to close up the gap momentarily but then TEAMORIGIN sailed an impressive 2nd half of the beat to stretch out their lead to 48 seconds.

The final downwind to the finish saw TEAMORIGIN covering the Greek team to claim their 4th win in a row by a margin of 58 seconds.

Ben Ainslie, skipper and helmsman, commented on the team’s performance in round robin 1, “A fantastic start for the team, now we have to learn from this round and keep marching forward. From here on in, all races count!”

Reflecting on the team’s performance in Round Robin 1, Sir Keith Mills shared his thoughts, “A great starting point for the team considering how little time we have spent in the boats, but as this is a sailors regatta, I think they are proving to be a great match for the best in the world.”

Finally wrapping up, Mike Sanderson commented, “An incredible first round for the guys but we need to remember that we have to learn to walk before we can run and we have to ramp up slowly. That said the guys have delivered an impressive result so far. It is still early days for TEAMORIGIN sailing together as a team. From here on, we need to go out every day and win as many races as we can.”

Other results from day five of RR1:
BMW Oracle 1 : Damiani Italia 0
Shosholosa 1 : Alinghi 0
Emirates TNZ 1 : K Challenge 0
TEAMORIGIN 1 : Greek Challenge 0

China Team and Luna Rossa – bye

TEAMORIGIN