Long considered among the best monohull racing teams in the world, Emirates Team New Zealand's second place finish at the Extreme Sailing Series event in Qingdao shows the America's Cup team is now taking to the multihull game... quickly. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/Lloyd Images/OCThirdPole.
by America's Cup media
The Kiwis led for much of the regatta, eventually recording a second place finish that saw them just five points behind the winner, Luna Rossa.
"Realistically five boats were still in a position to win the event on the final day," said Emirates skipper Dean Barker. "Our first (multihull) event in Almeria was only October last year so being on the podium here is a big improvement, but we still have a long way to go."
Artemis Racing was the other America's Cup team in the fleet, and after a strong opening day, the Swedish squad settled for sixth place in the fleet.
"We could have done better than that. But we also could have done worse in this fleet!" was the assessment of trimmer Morgan Trubovich.
"Aside from our results, we achieved a number of our goals. We learned a lot more about catamaran racing. We developed some new sailing partnerships amongst the crew. And we got our boat around the course without flipping over!"
That was no small feat in a fleet where four capsizes were recorded in gusty conditions earlier in the event.
Other America's Cup sailors were scattered among crews throughout the fleet as the Cup world takes up the challenge of learning as much about multihull racing as possible ahead of the first America's Cup World Series event in Cascais in August.
Extreme Sailing Series
America's Cup
