Quantum Racing with Terry Hutchinson on the helm won the TP52 World Championship and Artemis finishes fourth losing the tie breaker with Synergy for 3rd.

One race was held today in 8-10 knots from the East Northeast.

Artemis had a decent start and played the shifts well to round the first mark 3rd. ALL4ONE, Synergy and Cristabella were all close behind.

Quantum and Matador were locked in a fierce match race by themselves.

We rounded the leeward gate in second and again played the shifts well up the second windward leg to close on Bigimist who was leading. Bigimist tacked on us at a very critical moment and this forced us to tack away and pushed us behind Cristabella and ALL4ONE. We finished that way after a big four way fight on the final run.

By beating Synergy we tied them but they beat us on the tiebreaker due to their better finish in the Coastal Race.

This event ends the TP52 season for Torbjorn and the Artemis crew. The competition in the class is at a very high level.

For complete results go to www.tp52worldchampionship.org

Paul

Not a good day for Artemis today. In moderate winds but very choppy seas, we finished 6th while Matador won easily. We had a good battle with Quantum all the way around the track, they were always just in front of us, tacking on us as much as they could but we held close and made them work for it.

Today was the “Coastal Race” but it was anything but coastal. It was an ocean triangle that never got near land. We simply sailed long legs of four miles, out in the ocean. It wasn’t a very exciting day in the 12-15 knot winds.

Matador got out to an early lead and never looked back. Cristabella sailed well to finish second. On the first windward leg, when Quantum and Artemis were believing in the left (we have to stop using the same meteorologist) the wind went right. That was the key point in the race. We were actually last at the first mark and the first leeward mark, but we managed to slowly grind our way back past three boats.

So now Quantum leads the series with 19.5 points, Matador has 20.5, Synergy has 22, Artemis 24 and ALL4ONE has 32.5. So were are just 4.5 points out of first with four races to go. Plenty of shuffling to be done I am sure.

For complete results go to www.tp52worldchampionship.org

Paul

A good start to the Championship for Artemis today with a 3, 5, 2. We had to wait for a while this morning for the Southeasterly seabreeze to fill in but when it came in, it built nicely up to 17 knots in the second and third races.

The race course just North of the America’s Cup Harbor was pretty open with no one side being favored. Artemis helmsman Torbjorn Tornqvist, working with bowman Andy Fethers, got us three good starts and that certainly helps.

The Russian team of Synergy had the best day winning two of the races and Quantum had the second best day with a win in the first race.

Matador is right there too. The points are very tight as usual in this fleet at this early stage.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a Northeast gradient wind which will make the water a bit choppy.

For complete results go to www.TP52WorldChampionship.org

Paul

One race was held today in Cagliari for the TP 52 fleet. The Mistral was in at 25-28 knots and there was plenty of action.

On Artemis we had another good race finishing 4th, overlapped with Emirates Team New Zealand who just beat us. Matador had been leading the race at the second windward mark but blew out their gennaker after the set. This saved second place for the season for Quantum who were in 5th place at that point.

For the Cagliari event, Matador sailed great to win easily with ALL4ONE in second tied with ETNZ.

This was the final event of the Audi MedCup season. Emirates Team New Zealand won again this year with Quantum second and Matador third. TeamOrigin was fourth and we on Artemis were 5th.

This year the level of the competition has been raised for sure. Emirates Team New Zealand and TeamOrigin have sold their boats to focus on the America’s Cup next year. Quantum is building a new boat, as is Matador.

In ten days time, the TP52 fleet will reconvene in Valencia for the World Championship. We did not have a very good regatta here but are looking at it as a tune up and looking forward to starting with a clean slate for the Worlds.

For complete results go to www.medcup.org

Paul

A good day for Artemis today. Once again the coastal race proved to be to our liking as we finished a very credible 3rd.

The course zigzagged us across Cagliari Bay in 11-13 knots of wind from the South.

Matador got off to a good start just to windward of us and we were 1, 2 early in the race. We got a little caught up in a pack with Quantum and ALL4ONE and Synergy, while Matador escaped and built a comfortable lead.

In the end, after 26 miles it was Matador 1st, followed by Quantum, Artemis, ALL4ONE, Synergy and Emirates Team New Zealand.

Tomorrow, we are back to windward-leeward racing. The forecast is for tricky conditions preceding a Mistral on Saturday.

For complete results go to www.medcup.org

Paul