TP52 – Audi MedCup – Portimao

Another good day on the Artemis today! Finishes of 2, 4, 2 has us tied for first with Team New Zealand on 15 points. Quantum is third with 17.

The first raced was very tricky because we started in a wind direction of 245 and finished in a wind direction of 305. In the middle, the wind went light and then banged right as predicted.

We were in good shape up the first windward leg rounding the top mark 5th. Down the run, the transition happened and the fleet bunched up. We made a gybe away from the group that paid us well and we rounded the gate fourth.

We held fourth up the 2nd windward leg in a tough fight with Sunergy and Quantum. Bigimist the local boat had the race won and Team New Zealand was comfortably in second.

Down the final run, Team New Zealand gybe set while we and Bigimist bore away and went offshore. We had 4 knots more wind out in that corner and came back to cross TNZ by one length to steal second place from them. Quantum ended up 8th!

The second race was started in 20 knots from 310. We had an ok start but Bigimist was over early. We got tacked on by Team New Zealand off the line and that set us back a bit. So we were on the back foot as we came up to the top mark but managed to get around in 5th with some tight work on Audi Q8. Down the run we moved up to 4th and that is pretty much where we stayed for the rest of the race. Team New Zealand had the good lane off the start and was very fast upwind and went on to win that one. Synergy had a good race in second and Quantum was just un front of us in third.

So all in all, another solid performance for us on Artemis. Very consistent and steady. Tomorrow is the coastal race.

For complete results go to 2009.medcup.org