TeamOrigin racing off Nice. Image copyright Ian Roman/TeamOrigin.
by Leslie Ryan
TEAMORIGIN’s unbeaten run at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta ended early this morning with a defeat to the Swedish Artemis.
In trouble in the pre-start, with perhaps an error of judgement in the final minute of the countdown, meant that TEAMORIGIN lost control of their opponent and crossed the start line a full boatlength behind Artemis and seriously compromised tactically. The first beat saw an exchange of tacks as the pair moved their way upwind, with TEAMORIGIN attempting to find a favourable windshift but the Swedish team kept in phase and converted the initial advantage at the start to a 14 second lead at the first mark. The short legs, just 1.3 nautical miles long, being sailed in Nice leave little opportunity for catching up after a bad start. The strength of the Swedish team’s afterguard, with skipper Paul Cayard and helmsman Terry Hutchinson, meant that they were never going to leave an opportunity for the British team to re-take the initiative on this short course. The final winning margin was 45 seconds to the Swedish team.
TEAMORIGIN tactician Iain Percy explained after the race: “We got ourselves a little late having misjudged the layline and gave them [Artemis] a powerful position. For people watching, some of those moves seemed to be wrong but the reality is that when you are starting with them bow forward by half a length at the favoured end wide right, the race is kind of over. Although sometimes it looks like you are making more mistakes in fact you are trying to give yourself a chance to get out.”
And on the end of the team’s run of wins Percy continued: “I think the whole team didn’t have their best race this morning. It is frustrating to lose any race. It was one of those races where things didn’t fall into place. I know personally we could have managed things slightly better, but it is time to get ready for the next race and makes sure we learn from the mistakes we made.”
The team’s second scheduled match of the day against the still undefeated Emirates Team New Zealand was postponed until Friday die to lack of wind in Nice.
TeamOrigin on the wind off Nice. Image copyright Ian Roman/TeamOrigin.
Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur
Round Robin One - Current Standings
Competing teams - Country - Skipper - Record (W-L)
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) - Dean Barker, 6-0
Azzurra (ITA) - Francesco Bruni, 5-1
TEAMORIGIN (GBR) - Ben Ainslie, 4-1
Artemis (SWE) - Paul Cayard, 3-3
BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) - Gavin Brady, 2-3
ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) - Jochen Schuemann, 2-5
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) - Karol Jablonski, 2-4
Team French Spirit (FRA) - Bertrand Pacé, 0-7
Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur
Round Robin One – Schedule of racing for 13th November
Flight 14
Match 1 Artemis vs BMW ORACLE Racing
Match 2 Emirates Team New Zealand vs TEAMORIGIN
TeamOrigin
Louis Vuitton Trophy
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