The latest round of America’s Cup Class (ACC) practice racing ahead of the 35th America’s Cup concluded on a beautiful spring Sunday on the Great Sound. Artemis Racing had a good weekend, winning six straight races on Saturday and Sunday.
All five America’s Cup teams now based in Bermuda took part in a series of match races in varied conditions, racing each other on a course that closely mirrors that to be used in May and June 2017 when the 35th America’s Cup itself will take place.
Artemis Racing had a tough start on Friday losing their first two races in windy and wavy conditions. But the team finished the day with a win against Oracle Team USA, and then went on a strong winning streak, grabbing every point available on Saturday and the first three races on Sunday.
”It got much lighter, and I was really pleased with the way we were able to step it up,” said Nathan Outteridge. He continued, ”It all came down to our final race with Oracle. We started strong, lead for the majority, but they got a shift on the last beat, and managed to get in just ahead of us. We’ve certainly learnt a lot, and now we have a bit of time to start working on improving the way we sail the boat, the way we race the boat, as well as installing a few upgrades.”
“It’s been a really informative few of days, and it’s exciting to have a number of race weeks ahead of us. Now we just have to keep moving things forward, improving our race boat to be even faster and more effective on the race course,” said Kalle Torlén, Trimmer and Grinder, after the last race.
Iain Percy commented, ”We took a lot of lessons away from it, and I think the conclusion is we have a lot of work to do, but we’re in the hunt. Our performance this weekend has certainly motivated us to step up our efforts even more.”
Unofficial results (won-lost):
Oracle Team USA 9-2
Artemis Racing 7-3
SoftBank Team Japan 2-2
Land Rover BAR 2-8
Groupama Team France 1-6
