Audi MedCup: Artemis in the Coastal Race off Marseille

by Paul Cayard

Friday we had the coastal race. The course was beautiful, taking the fleet around several islands and down along the coast eastwards to a city called Cassis.

On Artemis we did not do much better than we have been doing all week. We finished 8th after blowing up 2 spinnakers during the race. We had an ok start but did not go very well up the first windward leg and ended up second to last at the first mark. We gybed first and made big gains on the fleet down the first run. But then our gennaker exploded and we lost it all.

The day was kind of like that so it was plenty frustrating. The conditions were 16-26 knots. The sea was pretty big at times. The bows of these boats are so narrow that they spend a fair amount of time with the bow under water going downwind in 25 knots of wind. We did well to make it down the run in 26 with our A2 (.5oz) kite up after we had shredded both of our heavy kites.

Quantum sailed really fast in the big breeze and won the race easily over Emirates Team New Zealand and All4One.

We are still in last place. We just have to forget the scores and try to have some good races tomorrow and Sunday. The forecast is for strong winds again this weekend.

Artemis
Audi MedCup