TeamOrigin training off Nice. Image copyright Ian Roman.
by Leslie Ryan
Britain’s TEAMORIGIN is scheduled to race in the opening match on the first day of racing at the Louis Vuttion Trophy Nice regatta which starts tomorrow, Saturday. TEAMORIGIN’s opponent will see the first ever match up between a British and Russian team at this level of competition, the match will take place on the waters of the Baie des Anges, just off the famous Promenade des Anglais city waterfront of Nice in the second flight of races of the day. The forecast conditions call for the race to be sailed in light conditions.
The last time TEAMORIGIN match raced ACC yachts against the calibre of teams that are present in Nice was in February 2009 in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland, New Zealand. The team finished 5th there following some credible race wins against all the top America’s Cup teams.
Mike Sanderson, team director and crew member commented on the team’s preparedness: “Although we have made some changes to our line-up since the Auckland event, we feel more prepared and ambitious for this event in Nice.”
The eight teams competing in Nice will sail in four ACC yachts that have been leant to the organisation and had their relative performance equalised. TEAMORIGIN has provided its yacht GBR-75 to that pool and its shore team have also taken on the responsibility of managing one of the other yachts, FRA-93.
Sanderson is conscious of the massive effort put in by the TEAMORIGIN’s shore crew in getting the sophisticated machinery re-commissioned and ready for Nice. “It has been really good to get GBR-75 back up and running and thanks to our incredible shore team, she is in great shape and ready to race. We'll be very proud to be racing on her with our colours when the draw dictates it. Given the short notice that all the teams had before this event, it is impressive to see the calibre of teams here in Nice and it shows the motivation of the active America's Cup teams to get back out racing again.”
Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal explained the significance of tomorrow’s first race: "This event in Nice is effectively the start of our 2010 sports programme. It is a great way for the team to get match fit in ACC yachts competing against the best teams in the business. This leads towards a really busy and exciting programme for next year with the Audi MedCup TP52 circuit and four more Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas in different parts of the world.”
Having won the Argo Bermuda Gold Cup last month TEAMORIGIN skipper and helm Ben Ainslie will lead the team on the water along with elements of his match race crew: “This is similar to the racing we have been doing on the World Match Race Tour, it is just with much much bigger and more sophisticated boats and four times the crew on board, a somewhat more complex project!”
“I’m really looking forward to getting into the racing as Nice should be a great event. It seems like such a long time since we all last raced at this level in February and its good to see so many other strong teams assembled here ready to get back on the water.”
TEAMORIGIN’s tactician is Iain Percy, a role he also had for the team’s recent success in Bermuda. " Like any event, we are here to do a job and we will go out there tomorrow aiming to enjoy the sailing and win races. In that respect this is an event no different to any other, although I am impressed to see so many good teams on the water here training over the last few days and I’m really looking forward to getting started.”
“Our first opponent is the Russian Synergy team, led by Karol Jablonski, an experienced match racer at this level. He was a semi finalist of the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007 with the Spanish Team. I raced against him a lot at the time when I was skippering the +39 Challenge and I know him to be an aggressive match racer. It will not be a push over by any stretch of the imagination. We all have a healthy respect for the team’s ability."
Racing is planned to continue every day through a double round robin format until Wednesday 18th November, after which the teams will move into the Semi Final and Final stage of the regatta which is scheduled to conclude on Sunday 23rd November.
Pairing List and provisional schedule for Saturday 7th November
Port Entry (boat) vs Starboard Entry (boat)
Match 1 Synergy (75) vs TEAMORIGIN (93)
Match 2 Team French Spirit-Pages Jaune (93) vs Emirates Team New Zealand (75)
Match 3 Azzurra (75) vs BMW ORACLE Racing Synergy (93)
Match 4 Artemis (93) vs ALL4ONE (75)
TeamOrigin
Louis Vuitton Trophy
No comments:
Post a Comment