Louis Vuitton Trophy-Auckland

Another tough day for Artemis today. In our match against Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, we were penalized for gybing too close in the prestart and this was too heavy of a burden for us to shake off.

With the wind blowing 15-18 knots from the Southwest, we had a fairly even start with the Italians heading right while we went to the left. At the first cross, we were one boat length ahead and we switched right on them to have the power of the right (starboard tack) at the next cross. We led them around the first mark and both boats did a gybe set. We had an ok maneuver while they had a bad one losing the tack of the gennaker. We stretched a bit because of this and had a four boat length lead at the bottom mark. The plan was to stretch it out enough to get the penalty turn done at the finish line. However, up the second windward leg, they actually closed in on us while the two boats sailed right next to each other.

We had to go into an attack mode on the final run, trying to engage them and take them past the finish line. We did not execute a critical gybe and this let them off the hook and the race was over there.

We were a bit upset with the penalty call but that is the way it goes sometimes and you can say that it is better not to put yourself in a situation were the umpires can determine your fate.

In the other matches, Emirates Team New Zealand beat Azzurra, ALL4ONE beat Aleph for the French championship, and TeamOrigin beat Synergy. No major situations to report from any of those matches. No major damage on the racecourse today so it was a good day for the organization.

Scores:
TNZ 5 wins
All4One, Azzurra, Origin and Mascalzone Latino with 3 wins
Artemis with 2 wins
Aleph and Synergy with 0

Tomorrow Artemis takes on the Brits from Team Origin in the second match of the day, following Emirates Team New Zealand vs Aleph (FRA) in the first match. The forecast is still for fairly good winds from the Southwest.

Paul

For photos of the racing and live streaming http://artemisracing.com/pages/lvtv