Americas Cup World Series - Naples - Day 2
by 34th America’s Cup media 12 Apr 2012 19:37 BST
7-15 April 2012
Emirates Team New Zealand dominates on day two with Luna Rossa performing well in front of large crowds in Naples
America's Cup World Series leading skipper Dean Barker showed his Emirates Team New Zealand remains the class of the fleet by winning both fleet races on Thursday. In scoring two victories, Barker now sits clear ahead of his rival James Spithill by a whopping 9 points on the Naples leaderboard.
The local favorites, the two Luna Rossa Challenge crews, also had a good afternoon in the beautiful sea breeze conditions just off the sea front of Naples, with each crew earning a second place finish.
"That's more like what we prepared for. The boys sailed awesomely today, the boat handling was epic," said Chris Draper, the helmsman on Luna Rossa Piranha, who scored a 2-3 this afternoon. "We're really pleased."
Crowds lined the waterfront on this sunny afternoon to watch the racing, with the finish line just meters from the shore.
"The people of Naples are really turning out in force to support us," Barker said, as he and his crew saluted the crowd after finishing. "If this is what happens on Thursday, I can only imagine what we'll see on the weekend."
Before the fleet races today, three matches were sailed, one of which pitted the two ORACLE Racing teams against each other. On this day, it was Bundock winning over Spithill, an upset of the form guide.
"We were up against the winner of the America's Cup, so to walk away with his scalp was great," skipper Darren Bundock said with enthusiasm. "It pushes us straight through to the semi finals, so we're looking good in the match racing."
Artemis Racing and Luna Rossa Piranha were the other match race winners and both will advance to the next stage of the competition; the losers in each match have been knocked out and assigned a final finishing position.
The teams also completed the ‘spare' race on Thursday afternoon. This fleet race will only be scored if there is no racing on Sunday. In that case, the race will be broadcast on Sunday afternoon and reported on at that time.
The program for Friday starts with Match Racing followed by two Fleet Races. The start of the first match is scheduled for 1330 CEST.
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Fleet Racing Championship after Day 2: (provisional standings after four races)
1. Emirates Team New Zealand (Skipper: Dean Barker); 38 points
2. ORACLE Racing - Spithill (Skipper: James Spithill); 29 points
3. Luna Rossa - Piranha (Helmsman: Chris Draper); 27 points
4. Team Korea (Skipper: Nathan Outteridge); 27 points
5. Energy Team (Skipper: Yann Guichard); 25 points
6. Luna Rossa - Swordfish (Helmsman: Paul Campbell-James); 24 points
7. ORACLE Racing - Bundock (Skipper: Darren Bundock); 16 points
8. Artemis Racing (Skipper: Terry Hutchinson); 12 points
9. China Team (Skipper: Fred Le Peutrec); 4 points
Match Racing Championship: (provisional results)
Q1 - Artemis Racing beat China Team
QF1 - ORACLE Racing Bundock beat ORACLE Racing Spithill
QF2 - Luna Rossa Piranha beat Team Korea
China Team finishes ninth in the Match Racing Championship; Artemis Racing advances to QF3.
ORACLE Racing Spithill finishes seventh in the Match Racing Championship; ORACLE Racing Bundock advances to SF2.
Team Korea finishes sixth in the Match Racing Championship; Luna Rossa Piranha advances to SF2.
See full results and format here.
ORACLE Racing Bundock wins face off against stable mate
Sailing today on a relatively calm Bay of Naples, ORACLE Racing Bundock advanced to the semifinal round of the ACWS Naples Match Racing Championship by defeating stable mate ORACLE Racing Spithill.
The two crews have spent hours training and testing against each other on San Francisco Bay, where the America’s Cup will be staged in 2013. Today the friendly rivalry turned fierce with the added dimension of points for the ACWS Overall Championship at stake.
“I suppose we can thank the shore crew for the victory against Jimmy,” said skipper Darren Bundock. “We’re very happy to walk away with the win from that one. I guess it’s all that training they’ve given us the past couple months.”
That Bundock’s boat No. 5 even made the start was a testament to the ORACLE Racing Shore Team. In yesterday’s racing the No. 5 boat was damaged in the rough seaway when a crack developed around a deck hatch.
The shore team, led by Andrew Henderson and including “The Three A’s” – Andrew Walker, Aaron Hunter and Andrew Rhodes – pulled an all-nighter to complete the repair job, which required grinding, new core sections and laminating.
No one was quite certain if the boat would be ready until the heat guns were turned up at full blast about an hour before the start of the race to accelerate the laminate curing process.
“Lucky for us the shore crew did a fantastic job overnight. They had four repairs to make: two cracks in the hull and a little damage from a RIB when we came dockside,” said Bundock. “Probably an hour before the race start they still had the heat guns going to set the carbon off. It was all touch and go, but lucky for us they got us out there.”
Besides the four cracks on ORACLE Racing Bundock, the shore crew also had to repair some broken frames in Spithill’s wingsail.
“It just wasn’t an issue,” said Spithill. “It goes to show, I think we have best shore team here. It gives you confidence knowing they can get both boats out there, full credit to them.”
The victory puts ORACLE Racing Bundock into the match racing semifinals where the crew will race Luna Rossa Piranha, steered by Chris Draper, with the winner advancing to the match racing final. ORACLE Racing Spithill is assigned seventh place for the match racing championship. Under the new regatta format, you must win to advance.
The match racing was followed by two fleet races of 30 to 40 minutes. ORACLE Racing Spithill placed 7-4 and holds second for the fleet racing championship behind Emirates Team New Zealand. ORACLE Racing Bundock placed 4-8 and holds seventh in the standings after having to sit out yesterday’s second fleet race due to the hull damage.
Spithill said the crew battled all day: “We really want to pride ourselves on being consistent, and today we really weren’t. That is sport, but we have to learn from it and move forward. There’s plenty of racing left, we just have to come out tomorrow firing.”
A mixed bag for Energy Team on the second day (from Energy Team)
On Thursday for the second day of the AC World Series, the conditions were completely the opposite of those encountered yesterday in the Bay of Naples. Energy Team finish in fifth place in the overall rankings after today’s two races. Sunshine, calm seas, a light SW’ly breeze between 8 and 10 knots. The three boats that suffered damage yesterday (China Team, Oracle 2 and Artemis) were back on the starting line today. For the French team, the day was not quite as fruitful with a disappointing first race, where the French finished eighth, before they took fifth place in the second race.
Race 1: Energy Team 8th
On Wednesday evening, Yann Guichard explained that he had had some problems with his control screen, which had been giving him the wrong information. A slight technical problem that led to the penalty at the start of the first race, which they nevertheless finished in a fantastic second place. Today (Thursday), at the start of the first race, the crew of Energy Team were just not lucky. They did choose the favoured side of the course, but the French AC45 was hindered twice as they tried to accelerate away: firstly by Luna Rossa Pirana, who had to bear away and in so doing blocked the French boat, then by China Team, which had come to a stop after receiving a penalty. These two pieces of bad luck forced Energy Team to begin the race from the rear, while at the front, Dean Barker’s New Zealanders walked away with this first race. Yann Guichard, at the helm of Energy Team, attempted to move off on several occasions, but in vain until the end of the second lap. Fortunately, the final upwind leg was sailed magnificently and Energy Team managed to claw back two places (moving ahead of China Team and Oracle Spithill) to get back up to seventh place... but with a penalty facing them before the line, as was the case for the Chinese boat. Spithill took advantage to take seventh place, with Energy Team eighth and China Team ninth.
Race 2: Energy Team 5th
An incredible start: the six boats at the top end of the line all got away too early. Energy Team was unfortunately among them, while Dean Barker’s Kiwis took off again, this time ahead of the two Luna Rossa boats. Energy Team was in sixth place and in a breeze that was relatively stable, the positions were not to change much during the first two laps of this second fleet race of the day. Apart from a penalty received by Artemis, everything tended to stay very much the same in this race. Emirates Team New Zealand were once again the winners with a huge lead over their rivals. On the final upwind leg, Yann Guichard moved off to the right-hand side of the race course and managed to get Energy Team hurtling back on the starboard tack to grab fifth place from Team Korea. Fifth is where Energy Team end up this evening in the overall rankings, which are dominated by the New Zealanders, who have achieved three wins in four races.
Reactions:
Yann Guichard: “In these light conditions, the teams know just how important the starts are. We were blocked by two boats that were OCS in the first race and then in the second, we were practically all over the line too early, but you have to get the boat moving at the same time as the others, and with the way positioning works out, there is no hiding place and it can all be down to just a few feet.”
Loïck Peyron: "The conditions were fine, but it was all decided at the start. We were shut in during the first race and a bit too quick on the off (OCS) in the second. It was just that little bit too much. Yesterday we managed to get it just right. The lads have worked like crazy. Today, we came back from a poor start in the second race and in the race, which doesn’t count, we finished second. Overall, the manoeuvres were decent, and out choices were correct. From tomorrow, the conditions are likely to become much stronger again."
A full team effort to repair and replace the damaged wing (from Artemis Racing)
It was a full team effort to repair and replace the severely damaged wing to get Artemis Racing back out on the water today following on from yesterday’s capsize.
Leaving the dock this morning Skipper Terry Hutchinson said: "We're a little bit tired. But happy we have a wing back in the boat. Hats off to the guys for the effort that they put in last night. The shore crew worked from about 1800 onwards for the whole night.”
In the first match race of the event, Hutchinson led the team to a clear victory over the Chinese. Artemis Racing will now line up against number one ranked Emirates Team New Zealand tomorrow morning for a slot in Saturday’s semi-finals.
In the fleet racing, the team took a third place, followed by seventh having incurred a penalty in a tussle with Team Korea.
“We were going well today, but in the second race we copped a penalty, although we were quite a distance from them. Looking forward to racing again tomorrow,” said Hutchinson.
Racing continues tomorrow through Sunday at the America’s Cup World Series in Naples.