Artemis Racing on the eve of action

Today was the final shakedown for the nine teams competing in the first America’s Cup World Series regatta, which starts tomorrow and runs through 14 August in Cascais, Portugal.

In a steady 8-15 knot breeze, Artemis Racing lined up against the competition for three short practice fleet races. It was just a glimpse of what is to come in the next eight days as the world’s top teams battle it out in AC45 catamarans.

“We have a new team and we are learning a lot of things about ourselves, catamarans and multihulls in general. We’ll use the scorecard here as one measure of success, but performance increases each day will be another measure, regardless of results. It’s a strong fleet and promises to be an exciting week of racing,” said Terry Hutchinson, Skipper of Artemis Racing.

This is the first regatta on the road to the 34th America’s Cup and will include match racing and speed trials, plus the winner takes all championship race next Sunday.

Skipper Terry Hutchinson’s crew onboard the Artemis Racing AC45 includes Kevin Hall (camber), Julien Cressant (bow), Sean Clarkson (wing trim) and Morgan Trubovich (trim).

Today also saw three practice races for the Artemis Racing crew onboard the Extreme 40 in Cowes (UK), helmed by double Olympic medallist Santiago Lange. The Extreme Sailing Series – Cowes also starts tomorrow and Lange’s crew includes sailing team members Andy Fethers, Michele Ivaldi and Phil Jameson.

“Today was our third day of sailing and we are improving everyday. We are learning heaps and it is showing in our crew coordination. Given our stage of preparation this is OK. We know what we have to do,” said Santiago Lange, Helmsman and Design Team Liaison for Artemis Racing.

Racing starts at the America’s Cup World Series – Cascais at 1400 BST and will be streamed live on www.americascup.com.

Fans can also follow the Extreme Sailing Series – Cowes live on www.extremesailingseries.com.