TEAMORIGIN off Cagliari. Image copyright Ian Roman/Audi MedCup.
by Leslie Greenhalgh
It was an exciting day on the race course today with the north westerly mistral blowing dogs off chains in the Bay of Angels, Cagliari.
TEAMORIGIN had a great last race of the season surfing the downwind legs in excess of 20 knots of boat speed to take second place behind Audi A1.
Video of Matt Cornwell on the boat speeds reached by TEAMORIGIN today:
Matt, Catflap, Cornwell, TEAMORIGIN bowman “We had a great race in 25-30 knots of wind. Even saw a couple of 32 knots gusts down the last run which was good fun! We hit our top boat speed which was nice, 23 knots down wind, it was on the edge but really great fun and nice to see a good result to end the series. We’ve earned our beers today!”
Matador were looking good for continuing their winning streak of this event until disaster struck going round the first mark, they ripped their spinnaker and were buried to the middle of the fleet as they retrieved it and re-hoisted another. Unfortunately this put an end to their quest to wrestle second place in the series from Quantum Racing so they stay on the podium in third overall.
Matador won this event but it's Emirates Team New Zealand who take the series once again this year having won overall in 2009 as well.
TEAMORIGIN finish the Audi MedCup series in fourth place overall, slightly disappointing given that a podium place was still possible going into this event.
Video of discussion with Ben Ainslie, TEAMORIGIN Skipper, prior to the racing:
The team will now get ready for the last match race event of their season in Bermuda and then the final Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai regatta in November before turning their attentions to multihull sailing in preparation for the America’s Cup.
Ben Ainslie, skipper and helm, TEAMORIGIN “It’s been a great season. As a team we have come a long way and improved in many key areas. We are looking forward to the next event in Bermuda and also finding out more information regarding the next America’s Cup”.
TEAMORIGIN
Audi MedCup
