Barcelona

The breeze was in from the East and the racing was on. Artemis had a good day with a 7, 2, 4. But it wasn’t without a lot of fighting with the other boats as the fleet is incredibly even.

Two boats flew protest flags against us in the first race so we will have to defend those if they come to fruition. The jury on the water did not whistle either of the incidents and they were within 2 boat lengths of both, so we felt confident we were ok. But you never know what will happen when you go to the room.

There was a big seaway because the wind had been blowing all night, so there was some technique involved in both upwind and downwind sailing. Our speed on average was very good in these conditions.

Three races are scheduled for tomorrow so another long day. In fact, three races will be scheduled each day as the race committee is trying to get 12 races in.

To watch the racing live, go to www.artemisracing.com and for results go to www.medcup.org

Paul

Marseille

No racing again today. There were 40 knots of wind in the Gulf de Lyon. Quantum Racing, with Terry Hutchinson at the helm, won the regatta based on their great performance in the first three days. In fact, they won 4 of the 5 races including Friday’s costal race.

Artemis finished last. This is definitely a low point for us. Never have we done this poorly. We were trying a new rudder but I honestly don’t think that had much to do with it. Will we use it in the next regatta? No. But really we have only ourselves to blame for this poor performance. We just simply did not sail well, nor particularly fast.

Anyway, that is history now and we have to look forward to the next event in Barcelona in four weeks time. Fortunately, we have the three weeks off from sailing so that will give the team a welcome rest.

I am in Geneva tonight and heading to Milan tomorrow for two meetings and a gala dinner for the 100 year celebration of Ermenegildo Zegna. I wear Zegna clothes a lot and have done so for 20 years. I love their fabrics and designs. Zegna have supported me and my teams, in various campaigns, over the years. Zegna is a classic brand in mens clothing and it will be an honor to be at their centennial tomorrow night.

Then early Tuesday, I will be on my way to SFO. Finally!

Paul

Marseille

Today 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.

For complete results go to www.medcup.org

Paul

Tough day for Artemis in the light winds of Marseille. We did not have good speed upwind or downwind in the sloppy seaway.

With scores of 7, 10, 9 we are firmly in control of last place. In fact in the second race we will probably get another point of penalty for racing with a gennaker that wasn’t “carded”. The sail was measured but not declared and that is a technical violation. Apparently a mistake was made when loading the sails this morning.

Quantum racing won the last two races after posting an 8th in the first race. I imagine they are leading.

Team New Zealand finished last in the first race after winning the last regatta with a 20 point margin.

Anyway, tomorrow will be better.

Similar forecast for tomorrow wind wise. Not sure about the extra sloppy seaway.

For complete results go to www.medcup.org

Cascais, Portugal

Race Day 4 – Today we had the coastal race. The winds were 15-25 knots from the NW. Team New Zealand led from start to finish. Matador put on their best race to finish second and Jochen Schuemann and his All4One team finished third and lie in 2nd overall due to TeamOrigin finishing 9th.

We clawed our way up to fourth and now lie in 3rd overall.

Tomorrow is the last two races. Still strong winds are forecast.

To watch the racing live go to www.artemisracing.com and for complete results go to www.medcup.org