TP52 – Audi MedCup – Portimao

Another good day on the Artemis today! We got the bullet and moved into first overall for this regatta.

That is two “coastal” race wins in a row for Artemis now with this one and the win in Cagliari. They are nice to win because they count 1.5 times a normal race.

We had an ok start and went left for quite a while. It looked like there was more pressure to the left but we are always weary of the right shift upwind here. We got around the top mark 6th just barely but then got rolled by Bigamist right away. So that was our low point.

From there we battled back, first going all the way offshore on that first run to round the first gate 3rd. Matador had a nice lead and Audi Q8 was second. We held third up the second beat and onto a 120 degree reach. Team New Zealand was right behind us in fourth.

Up the third beat, Team New Zealand passed us by getting to our left. We rounded the third windward mark 4th but once again, we went the hardest offshore. We passed Audi Q8 and closed up all the distance on Matador and Team NZ.

Then the angle was up 20 degrees for 7 miles and they went with the Masthead Jib’s while we peeled to our A3 gennaker. We smoked through them to leeward and just hiked our butts off to blow through into first and make the mark. From there we just controlled Team New Zealand up the final 4 mile beat to the finish.

Obviously we are very happy with how things are going but we know this regatta is far from over. 4 races to go over the next two days and for sure we can expect less friendly tactics from our competitors.

I am leaving tomorrow night after racing as I had a previous commitment to race the 505 worlds. So Hamish Pepper, 2006 Star World Champion, and currently our strategist, will take over as tactician for Sunday. I will miss the last day of this regatta and the first day of the 505 worlds while flying home to SF.

For complete results go to 2009.medcup.org