Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

Tough day for Artemis. The short story is we won the first race leading all the way around.

The second race was abandoned after one lap when the Northeasterly died as the Northwesterly filled.

The restarted second race was all about the left and ETNZ got the left at the start. They led all the way.

The third race was for all the marbles. The wind was the same. Both boats fought hard for the left and our helmsman, Terry Hutchinson got us the left and ETNZ had to tack and head off to the right.

Somehow, for 10 minutes out of the whole afternoon, the wind went right and held. So instead of us getting paid for getting the left like on all other legs today, we didn’t and they rounded just ahead of us. From there they controlled the left, which was good again and that was it.

The Artemis team sailed better this week than we have before. We take that and move forward.

Tomorrow, the other semi final will be raced and then the final on Sunday. Time permitting there will be a petit final which we would be in.

For complete results go to: www.louisvuittontrophy.com

Paul

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

It was one of the better sailing days we’ve had here in La Maddalena. Just as Chris Bedford who provides the weather forecast for ARTEMIS predicted, the wind started to build mid-morning. In the first race of the day, Emirates Team New Zealand were spot on with their timing for the pin end at the start and Mascalzone Latino were over the line early. Both teams sailed a good race, but there was no contest and the Kiwis put another point on the board to tie with ARTEMIS.

Next up was our race against ALL4ONE who had 5 wins to date. So this was an important one for us as a win for ALL4ONE would mean they would move into first overall. Jochen Schumann’s Franco-German team have been steadily moving up the leader board this event so we knew that this would be a close race. We had an excellent start, winning the right hand side and maintained our lead for two-thirds of the race. As we sailed up the second windward leg, both boats were on port tack with Artemis to windward with a 2 length lead. The wind was going right as we sailed side by side and in fact, had gone 20 degrees right when ALL4ONE decided to tack onto Starboard. I made the call to tack on them and keep the left, thinking the wind would come back to the left following the big right shift. But the pressure was better on the right and they overtook us. Essentially, my bad decision gave ALL4ONE the race right there as they crossed us at the next intersection and built their lead to finish 15 seconds ahead. That’s life as the tactician…big calls that have a big effect on the outcome.

The event now moves into the quarter finals. Next up is Synergy vs Mascalzone Latino for the best two out of three races, followed by Emirates Team New Zealand vs AZZURRA. Time permitting, ARTEMIS will race TeamOrigin after these matches. It’s shaping up to be another long day. I’m off to do a live interview with Giulo in the RAI studio.

Paul

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Live television returns for decisive days of Louis Vuitton Trophy

The final four days of the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena will be televised around the globe, live, beginning on 3rd June. In territories without live television, fans can pick up the programme on a live internet stream.

With 10 of the best sailing teams in the world duelling on the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean off Sardinia, the Louis Vuitton Trophy is a premiere sailing competition featuring America’s Cup style match racing.

The television production will be the next best thing to being there, with inputs from two on board cameras, two chase-boat cameras and a helicopter, as well as VirtualEye animation graphics, on board audio, and expert commentary.

The live television feed will be available both online and from broadcasters. The internet feed will be streamed on the event website, www.louisvuittontrophy.com with English and Italian commentary.

Broadcasters taking the live television feed include Italy’s RAI network, Russia’s NTV, ESPN360 in the USA, and SailingChannel in Europe, while SailTV will stream the broadcast over the web. The SailTV web player for the Louis Vuitton Trophy has also been distributed free as an embed to dozens of top sailing sites worldwide.

In addition to the live production, the 36-strong television production crew is making six highlight shows (of 26 minutes each) as well as a final 26-minute wrap-up programme. These are being shown around the world by select broadcasters, including BSkyB in the UK, Italy’s RAI, Canal+ in France, NTV plus in Russia, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SailingChannel across Europe, as well as Eurosport Asia.

A shorter series of programmes (4X20 minutes) are being shown in Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa as well as on Fox Sports in the Middle East, South America, Africa and the United States and ESPN/Star in Asia.

The action at the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena has been among the best yet, and as the field of 10 gets whittled down to a final champion over the final four days of competition, the racing is only going to get more compelling. Don’t miss it.

NOTES

About WSTA
The World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) was founded in 2009 by a group of professional yacht racing teams to develop regular high-level match race regattas in large and complex racing yachts. The WSTA is jointly owned by its nine shareholders (the teams) and represents the interests of those teams in the pursuit of fair and highly competitive racing. The WSTA, in conjunction with title partner Louis Vuitton, co-organises the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

About Louis Vuitton
The world leader in luxury, Louis Vuitton has been synonymous with the art of stylish travel since 1854. Since 1987, it has been part of LVMH/Mo

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

La Maddalena, Sardinia

No racing for Artemis today. The Mistral was strong this morning and racing got underway with the first match at 1530 in about 18 knots of wind.Mascalzone Latino beat TeamOrigin to move up to 5 wins. The Italian team could tie for first in the round robin with that win depending on a few other occurrences. In the second match of the day, All4One defeated the French team on Aleph also to move to 5 wins and a chance to win the Round Robin.

Emirates Team New Zealand and Mascalzone Latino were boarding their boats for their all important match when damage was discovered on ITA 90 and she had to return to the port for repairs. It was 1900 at the time.

So tomorrow morning, round robin racing will start with the Kiwis and Mascalzone and then Artemis against All4One as the last match of the Round Robin.

Following that, the quarter finals will begin. The time limit for the quarter finals is the end of the day Thursday. So, we will go as far as we can before sunset. Quarter final 1 will be 4th vs 5th from the Round Robin. They will race a best of three. Then the second quarter final will pit the 3rd place team from the round robin vs. the 6th. Quarter final 3 will pit 2 vs. 7 and quarter final 4 will pit 1 vs. 8. In quarter finals 3 and 4, a team must win 2 points in order for their to be a result. In quarter finals 1 and 2, if time runs out and a series is partially complete when time runs out, it will be scored as follows; if one race has finished, the winner of that race will move on to the semis. If two races have been finished and the score is 1-1, the team who is higher ranked from the round robin will move on.

So the odds of 1 vs 8 happening are very low.

Five will most likely get a shot and making the semis.

For complete scores and information go to www.louisvuittontrophy.com or www.artemisracing.com

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

Big day for Artemis. In our only match of the day, which did not get underway until 1830, we beat Emirates Team New Zealand by 17 seconds to take solo possession of first place.

After a tough pre-start with Artemis entering from the left side on port tack, Dean Barker, helmsman of ETNZ, had control of us. Terry Hutchinson was cool and patient as ETNZ eventually got uncomfortable and went away. ENTZ then picked a nice lay line to the starboard end of the line and we had no choice but to start to leeward on starboard.

Again we were patient and slowly gained on the Kiwis from the left side. They tacked and we followed closely and pinned them out to the starboard lay line. The Kiwis had a go at us at the top mark with a flag but the umpires green flagged it. From there we kept to the right side on the run and got around the gate in good shape with the Kiwis following us by two lengths.

Up the second beat, we played the shifts and stretched to an 8 boat length lead. That made the final run a bit easier. A nice win for Artemis and we move to 6 points from 8 races.

In other racing, Mascalzone lost to BMW Oracle in the first race then stole one off of the French who mismanaged that last 400 meters of the race when they were leading by two lengths.

All racing took place in about 15-20 knots from the northwest. It is always shifty in the Maddalena channel and sometimes there are even two, slightly different breeze directions within the race track. That is called “split breeze”.

Tactician’s nightmare!

In the third race, Luna Rossa beat Aleph, in the fourth race BMW Oracle beat Azzurra, then Azzurra beat TeamOrigin.

We have one more race tomorrow against All4One and that will be the last match of the round robin.

The line up tomorrow will be good:

Mascalzone vs. Team Origin

All4One vs. Aleph

Emirates Team NZ vs. Mascalzone

Artemis vs. All4One

Once the round robin is complete, we will move into the 1/4 finals. It is unlikely we will finish the quarter finals on Wednesday and Thursday so there will be a premium on finishing the round robin 1st or 2nd.

Paul

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

Only one race was held today before the Mistral kicked in. In a rematch of the annulled BMW Oracle vs. Emirates Team New Zealand match, the Kiwi’s prevailed and moved into a tie for third place on 4 wins.

So the top of the leader board is shared by Artemis and Synergy. Synergy is done racing in the round robin while we still have two matches left and therefore two chances to move ahead of Synergy. There are still 10 matches left so plenty of points yet to be doled out.

There will be no racing again tomorrow as the forecast are for 40 knots all day.

Hopefully action will get back underway on Tuesday.

Paul

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

It’s all on here in La Maddalena. Six matches were scheduled for today, two of which included ARTEMIS.

First we were up against the Italians onboard AZZURRA, in their home waters, immediately followed by SYNERGY. The Russian team has shown remarkable improvement since Auckland and as of last night was tied for first.

Just as we entered in the starting sequence against AZZURRA, the wind shifted considerably. Terry Hutchinson controlled the pre-start well for us, but with only 20 seconds to go, PRO Peter Reggio abandoned the race and reset the course.

Without much of a delay, we were underway again and this time managed to get a penalty on AZZURRA and a good start. We stayed close to the Italians on the first upwind leg and rounded the mark first, but Francesco Bruni was able to roll us on the run as we both gybed to starboard. We rounded the right mark of the gate, just behind AZZURRA, and rolled into a tack immediately. We sailed out to the right a bit and when we came back to AZZURRA, they could not cross. We kept “bouncing” them out to the left. We had a near collision at the top of the beat as the Italians made a huge bear away to get behind us. We sailed a good race and by the end of it, were 100m ahead of the Italians who still had a penalty owing.

This left us feeling pretty positive for our race against SYNERGY that got underway just after 1700. The pre-start was intense and Karol Jablonski managed to start on port at the pin end of the line while we were to leeward. We decided to keep it close rather than start a tacking duel from behind. The Russians led us by two boat lengths at the top mark and down the run. As we went to drop the spinnaker, our pole went in the water and the kite followed soon there after. It took us a while to clear up the mess and the Russians won easily. As more racing was scheduled for the day, we retired from the race to give the shore team as much time as possible to prepare the boat for the next race between ETNZ and ALL4ONE.

It’s was a very valuable win for SYNERGY who will now be tied with us for first overall. Tonight, there is another protest hearing (BMW Oracle vs ETNZ) and the shore crew are going to be busy – especially the sailmakers in the sail loft.

In the other matches of the day, TEAMORIGIN defeated Luna Rossa and AZZURRA beat SYNERGY.

We are headed back to the hotel for a team debrief with our coach ‘Dog’ who captures it all on video.

Tomorrow we race Emirates Team New Zealand and ALL4ONE. A Mistral is heading our way so sometime Sunday or Monday racing will surely be suspended for at least 24 hours.

Paul

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

La Maddalena, Sardinia – Today was planned to be a big day for ARTEMIS, with two races scheduled. First was to be Emirates Team New Zealand followed by ALL4ONE in the third and fourth matches of the day. When our turn finally came round at 1700 this afternoon, there were issues with one of the mainsails, which led to more of a delay and in the end meant no race for us.

In the first match of the day, the Russian team SYNERGY put on an impressive performance against America’s Cup holders BMW Oracle Racing. In a tightly contested battle on the first upwind leg, Skipper James Spithill managed to take the Russians past the mark but SYNERGY fought back to roll the Americans on the downwind and led for the rest of the race, winning by 21 seconds.

For the next race the wind picked up, BMW Oracle stayed onboard and prepared to race Emirates Team New Zealand. James Spithill and his crew claimed their second win of the regatta in a tense race with two critical penalties, one for the American’s in the pre-start which was then offset on the final downwind leg when the umpires penalized ETNZ for too much forestay tension.

Tomorrow’s schedule has just been issue and Artemis will have two matches tomorrow, first against AZZURRA followed by SYNERGY.

Tonight is the Louis Vuitton Crew Party something we all look forward to during these events.

Paul

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

On ARTEMIS, we headed into today undefeated with four wins, having been at the top of the scoreboard for the last two days. A nice, but precarious position to be in with the best sailing teams in the world racing here in La Maddalena.

Emirates Team New Zealand, winners of the last Louis Vuitton Trophy were first up this morning winning their two races back to back against AZZURRA followed by ALEPH.

In race three it was Ben Ainslie and his team onboard TEAMORIGIN against the Russians on SYNERGY. In a tight fought match, it was the Brits who prevailed, winning by just 6 seconds.

Our race against Mascalzone Latino got underway at 1415, with a wind transition coming down the course. Gavin Brady, Skipper of Mascalzone Latino, wanted the left and we were happy with “wide right” as the right side of the line was favored. As we both headed back up to the Committee Boat end of the line we were overlapped to windward. The wind went even further right which further favored the right side but it was too much of a good thing as we found ourselves on the lay line to the committee boat. When the gun went off, both of us were at a stand still right next to the committee boat with Mascalzone Latino able to peel away and accelerate off the line.

By the time we got to the top of the course, the wind was gusting up to 20 knots and had actually gone 40 degrees back to the left. Mascalzone rounded with a nice gybe set and we planned to do the same. Unfortunately, our kite snagged on something and as soon as it filled…it exploded! We all carry a back up spinnaker onboard, but in the time it took to recover the halyard and hoist the new spinnaker, Mascalzone were well out in front. They sailed conservatively for the rest of the race and finished 46 seconds ahead of us.

In the fifth match of the day the Russians in Synergy defeated the French of Aleph. In the sixth race BMW Oracle faced Luna Rossa and this race went to the Italians.

Torbjorn Tornqvist, the chairman of ARTEMIS arrives tonight. We are all looking forward to seeing him and having him sail with the team for the next couple of days. I’m off to the gym.

Paul

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Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

Having changed the schedule around yesterday evening to ensure that all the teams had raced each other, PRO Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio had every intention of getting racing started earlier today at 0900. The wind however, didn’t fill in until about 1130 when the first match of started between the Russians onboard Synergy and Mascalzone Latino.

Skipper Karol Jablonski did a good job winning the start and the Russian team led the host team around the course. On the final downwind leg, Skipper

Gavin Brady moved in on the Russians and Synergy incurred one penalty swiftly followed by a second penalty for heckling the umpires. Another win for Mascalzone Latino.

In race two, Synergy was up against Emirates Team New Zealand. It turned out to be another close match but it was Emirates Team New Zealand who claimed the victory.

As the winds continued to build, the racing got closer and more exciting. In race three it was Jochen Schumann’s ALL4ONE up against BMW Oracle Racing. The Franco-German team did an excellent job to keep ahead of the America’s Cup holders throughout the race, before an issue with their spinnaker prevented them from gybing on the final downwind conceding victory to the Americans. ALL4ONE are requesting redress questioning the set up of the leeward mark, so the outcome of this race could change.

Going into today, we were 3-0. A good position to be in, but it is still early in the event. Our race against Luna Rossa got off at 1640 with 18-22 knots of wind. It promised to be a close match with Ed Baird helming and Torben Grael calling the shots on the Italian boat. Our helmsman, Terry Hutchinson had an almost perfect start and it was a work out for the grinders as we kept close to Luna Rossa, tacking 17 times on the first windward leg. As the race progressed, the wind got shiftier but we managed to guard and grow our lead, beating the Italian team by 35 seconds.

In the final race of the day ALL4ONE were back, this time to win against Luna Rossa.

Tomorrow, ARTEMIS will have just one race, we’ll be racing Mascalzone Latino who are in a five way tie for third place.

To watch the racing live visit www.artemisracing.com and for complete results visit www.louisvuittontrophy.com

Paul

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