Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena

Another win for Artemis today over the previously unbeaten Aleph Team of France.

After a long wait for wind this morning, racing finally got underway at 1430. In the first flight of the day, the Brits on TeamOrigin beat BMW Oracle by controlling the start and getting a penalty on the Americans. In the other match, the Russian team, Synergy won a closely fought match against the French/German team of All4One. The lead changed a couple of times in that one.

The conditions were 6-8 knots and very flat seas. We are racing inside the archipelago of La Maddalena, so the mountains cause plenty of volatile wind shifts which makes it challenging for the teams.

We made a change of call about 2.5 minutes before our start changing from “wide right” to “tight leeward” as our desired position off the line. It looked like the French were happy with the right so we each got what we wanted in the left. The first shift went left and we controlled the French as they tacked to port. From there we never let them have a sniff of the left as it got better and better of there. We won fairly easily in the end.

In the other match in our flight, Azzurra stole the win off Prada on the first run in another Italian battle.

Then in flight three, Emirates Team New Zealand beat TeamOrigin too in its first outing of the series and All4One beat Mascalzone Latino Audi Team in the other match. There was a red flag penalty on Mascalzone Latino at the first windward mark and that pretty much ended the race.

With two wins from two starts, we are starting out nicely on Artemis. But again, this is a tricky venue and anything can happen in any match. Tomorrow, we are up against BMW Oracle in the first flight of the day.

For complete results go to www.louisvuittontrophy.com