by Paul Cayard
Having changed the schedule around yesterday evening to ensure that all the teams had raced each other, PRO Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio had every intention of getting racing started earlier today at 0900. The wind however, didn’t fill in until about 1130 when the first match of started between the Russians onboard Synergy and Mascalzone Latino.
Skipper Karol Jablonski did a good job winning the start and the Russian team led the host team around the course. On the final downwind leg, Skipper
Gavin Brady moved in on the Russians and Synergy incurred one penalty swiftly followed by a second penalty for heckling the umpires. Another win for Mascalzone Latino.
In race two, Synergy was up against Emirates Team New Zealand. It turned out to be another close match but it was Emirates Team New Zealand who claimed the victory.
As the winds continued to build, the racing got closer and more exciting. In race three it was Jochen Schumann’s ALL4ONE up against BMW Oracle Racing. The Franco-German team did an excellent job to keep ahead of the America’s Cup holders throughout the race, before an issue with their spinnaker prevented them from gybing on the final downwind conceding victory to the Americans. ALL4ONE are requesting redress questioning the set up of the leeward mark, so the outcome of this race could change.
Going into today, we were 3-0. A good position to be in, but it is still early in the event. Our race against Luna Rossa got off at 1640 with 18-22 knots of wind. It promised to be a close match with Ed Baird helming and Torben Grael calling the shots on the Italian boat. Our helmsman, Terry Hutchinson had an almost perfect start and it was a work out for the grinders as we kept close to Luna Rossa, tacking 17 times on the first windward leg. As the race progressed, the wind got shiftier but we managed to guard and grow our lead, beating the Italian team by 35 seconds.
In the final race of the day ALL4ONE were back, this time to win against Luna Rossa.
Tomorrow, ARTEMIS will have just one race, we’ll be racing Mascalzone Latino who are in a five way tie for third place.
To watch the racing live visit www.artemisracing.com and for complete results visit www.louisvuittontrophy.com
