Team Statements: America's Cup World Series Naples 2013
Day 1 Qualifying, Quarter-Finals, and Fleet Races 1 and 2
April 18, 2013
Photo:©2013 ACEA/Gilles
Martin-Raget
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From
America's Cup Event Authority:
Photo:©2013 ACEA/Gilles
Martin-Raget
Ainslie Into the Lead on Opening Day
A competitive fleet of nine AC45 catamarans skippered by some of the world’s best sailors combined with unsettled wind conditions to produce an exciting opening day at the America’s Cup World Series Naples.
Ben Ainslie’s J.P. Morgan BAR crew hold the early lead in the series. They scored 21 points after placing 3-1 in the two fleet races and lead Dean Barker’s Emirates Team New Zealand crew by 1 point. The Kiwis finished 1-4.
J.P. Morgan BAR also scored a come-from-behind win in its quarterfinal race of the match racing championship in testing conditions that kept all 45 of the sailors piqued trying to decipher the tricky wind conditions.
“It was one of those days when you want to survive because it would have been easy to pick up some bad results,” said Ainslie, the four-time Olympic Gold medalist who had the British Ambassador to Italy, Christopher Prentice, aboard as a guest racer. “The wind was so shifty today coming over the headland. That was the biggest challenge.”
Reports from the race course on the Bay of Naples indicated that the wind was shifting from south/southwest to nearly west, an arc of some 35 degrees, and ranged in strength from 8 to 12 knots. Barker echoed Ainslie in finding the conditions challenging.
“There was no real rhythm to it today,” said Barker, an America’s Cup and Louis Vuitton Cup champion. “At times there were big gains to be had on the right side, and other times you could sail yourself into no wind. There were big gains and losses, particularly at the top of the course. I think we managed the course as well as we could today.”
Holding third place with 18 points is Chris Draper’s Luna Rossa Piranha crew. Draper, a world champion in the 49er class, is looking to recapture the lightning in a bottle that saw him win last year’s AC World Series Naples in a thrilling debut performance.
“I would say we had a good day,” said Draper. “We missed a couple of opportunities in the fleet racing and wound up with a 4-2. We’ll work on that for tomorrow. I didn’t trust my instincts enough when I should have and then tried to make things happen that weren’t there. But it was a good day.”
While the conditions were challenging, so was the race course for some of the new helmsmen in the fleet. Both Tom Slingsby of Oracle Team USA and Roman Hagara of HS Racing were penalized for exceeding the course boundary.
In Slingsby’s case, it meant the difference between winning the first fleet race and placing second.
“We were off to a nice lead in the first race, but being a bit of a rookie in the class I didn’t see one of the boundaries and apparently we just crossed over it,” said Slingsby, the Olympic Gold medalist in the Laser class. “After that race I told the boys to remind me about the boundaries.”
In today’s match racing action, newcomer HS Racing, led by co-skippers Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher, won the qualifier match in a “walkover” when opponent China Team was disqualified for failing to start properly.
Two of four quarterfinal matches were also held today. Luna Rossa Piranha defeated Artemis Racing White (Charlie Ekberg) in one match while J.P. Morgan BAR defeated Energy Team (Yann Guichard) in another.
The quarterfinals will conclude tomorrow with HS Racing squaring off against Oracle Team USA SLINGSBY and Emirates Team New Zealand racing Luna Rossa Swordfish (Francesco Bruni).
“It’s really nice racing here in Napoli,” said Hagara, a double Olympic Gold medalist. “It’s really good sport and especially for the spectators. It’s unbelievable the amount of people who turned out. I've never seen so many people watching sailing.”
Tomorrow’s racing will be streamed live on YouTube worldwide (subject to territorial rights agreements) beginning at 14:00 local time (CEST).
America’s Cup World Series Naples Championship Standings
(Provisional, after 2 of 7 scheduled races)
1. J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) 21 points
2. Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) 20
3. Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper) 18
4. Oracle Team USA (Tom Slingsby) 16
5.. Energy Team (Yann Guichard) 14
6. Luna Rossa Swordfish (Francesco Bruni) 14
7. Artemis Racing White (Charlie Ekberg) 11
8. China Team (Mitch Booth) 7
9. HS Raacing (R. Hagara/H.S. Steinacher) 7
From
Luna Rossa Challenge:
Beautiful Sailing in Naples
A perfect day for sailing in the Gulf of Naples: sun, 12 knots south-westerly breeze and a flat sea.
Match Race:
Luna Rossa Piranha sailed the match race quarter finals against Artemis
Racing White. Luna Rossa Piranha won the start by closing the gate to the
Swedish team and rounded the first mark in front. On the first downwind
leg team Artemis chooses to sail towards the open sea whereas Luna Rossa
Piranha goes straight to the mark but is slowed down by a sudden lull. As
a consequence the Swedes take the lead of the race and stay there all the
way to the windward mark. After rounding the mark, in a crossing, Luna
Rossa Piranha, on starboard, inflicts a penalty on Artemis and keeps the up
to the finish, thus qualifying for the semi-finals.
Fleet Race 1:
Luna Rossa Piranha and Luna Rossa Swordfish choose two opposite starting
positions: Luna Rossa Piranha at the pin end whereas Luna Rossa Swordfish
chooses the Committee boat, disturbed by China team who closes the gate.
At the reaching mark Oracle tacks in front, followed by Luna Rossa Piranha
and Emirates Team New Zealand. On the beat the positions at the front of
the fleet remain unchanged. During the first downwind leg, Emirates Team
New Zealand takes the lead and holds this position up to the finish line.
On the second upwind leg the leaders choose to sail towards the land
whereas Ben Ainslie sails offshore where he is favored by a wind shift and
moves into third place. The ranking remains unchanged up to the finish
line, with Luna Rossa Piranha finishing 4th and Swordfish taking a 5th
after gaining the inside to Artemis at the rounding of the final mark.
Fleet Race 2:
In the second fleet race both Luna Rossa start at the pin end, sailing to
leeward of the fleet and rounding the first mark together with Emirates
Team New Zealand. In proximity of the reaching mark the wind dies and the
fleet is very compact. The first teams to catch fresh wind are Energy,
Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Piranha but at the downwind mark
Ben Ainslie Racing takes the lead and moves in front of Luna Rossa Piranha
and Energy, whereas Luna Rossa Swordfish lies 7th. On the first upwind leg
these positions are unchanged, whereas on the downwind leg Luna Rossa
Swordfish catches up with Artemis and China and overtakes them, finishing
the race in 5th place. Despite several shifts in wind direction, these
positions remain unchanged and the two Luna Rossa close the race
respectively in 2nd (Piranha) and 5th place (Swordfish).
From
Artemis Racing:
Photo:©2013 ACEA/Gilles
Martin-Raget
Impressive Start for Swedish team
Sunshine and great wind conditions for the first day of the Americas Cup World Series in Naples. The wind was about 10-12kts, which provided steady conditions for today’s three match race qualifiers and two fleet races. The first match was China Team versus HS Racing won by the Austrians, followed a win for Ben Ainslie Racing/ JP Morgan over Frances Team Energy and lastly, Artemis Racing White lined up against Luna Rossa Piranha with Olympic medalist Chris Draper at the helm.
Today was the first official day of AC45 racing for 23-year-old helmsman, Charlie Ekberg onboard Artemis Racing White. The young Swede, who is the leader of the Swedish Youth Challenge for the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup team, overtook Luna Rossa on the first downwind leg despite their best efforts to stall the team and gain at the start.
Ekberg made extensive strides in his match racing skills today and managed to keep himself between the finish line and Chris Drapers team at all times and was ahead in all maneuvers.
It was at the final leeward gate however, where Artemis Racing incurred a penalty against for not giving way to the Italians who were on starboard on the downwind leg. it proved to be a very costly penalty, at a critical time in the race with just a short sprint to the finish leaving no time to recover. Luna Rossa Piranha gybed past Artemis and went on to take the victory.
We developed a lot from yesterday and the main goal for today was to learn and we want to exit this regatta with a couple good scores, says Ekberg. We are looking forward to tomorrow and we will be further up the results the further into the regatta.
Alongside Ekberg is his coach for Swedish Youth Challenge, Bj��Johansson. For Charlie this experience couldn’t be more valuable. The chance to sail against the top sailors in the world in preparation for the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup will give him the knowledge and skills to compete in September.
Racing continues tomorrow with the match racing quarterfinals and two more fleet races.
From Oracle Team USA:
Oracle in Fourth After First Day of Racing in Naples
Oracle Team USA opened the first day of racing in Naples, Italy, with split results in the first two fleet races of the America’s Cup World Series 2012-13 finale. Helmsman Tom Slingsby and crew finished second in the first race, and they crossed the line in sixth position in the second race to sit fourth with 16 points in the overall regatta fleet race standings.
"Today could have been better, could have been worse,” Slingsby said. “We had a good first race, got off to a nice start and had a good lead. Unfortunately, I didn't see one of the boundaries and got a penalty. We ended up finishing second.
“Our first race in the AC45s and we finished second,” he continued. “It was a really nice confidence-builder, and we know if we get away we're pretty hard to catch.”
Nine boats were on the line for fleet racing in the Bay of Naples for the start of the four-days regatta as crowds lined the waterfront. Winds were blowing around 12 knots at the gun, but the breeze remained split along the course throughout the day, creating challenging conditions for tacticians.
In the first of fleet race, Slingsby was off the line strong to open up an early lead on Emirates Team New Zealand and round the first two gates on the top position. On the third leg, Oracle Team USA touched the boundary line to force a penalty, and ENTZ moved ahead. The top two spots held through the finish, with Slingsby crossing the line in second.
For the second fleet race, Oracle Team USA was late on the start and rounded the first two gates in eighth place. The crew made up ground on the final two legs to finish sixth.
"Race 2, we had a tough start,” Slingsby said. “We were early to the line and were too close to build speed. So we had a bad start and from there were always playing catch-up. We managed to get three boats, and every point counts.
“We've got the speed, we've got a good crew, so there's no reason why we can't have a good result,” he said looking ahead to Friday’s races.
JP Morgan BAR, skippered by Ben Ainslie, leads the fleet race standings after the first two races, with ENTZ second and Luna Rossa Piranha third.
Oracle Team USA will face HS Racing in their first match race of the regatta on Friday. Racing begins at 14:22 local CET / 5:22 PT for the crew. HS Racing defeated China Team on Thursday to advance to the quarters. The entire fleet will then be on the line for the third and fourth fleet races of the regatta.
Racing will be streamed live on YouTube worldwide (subject to territorial rights agreements) beginning at 14:00 local time (CEST) each day.
The nine boat fleet: Artemis Racing White (Charlie Ekberg), China Team (Mitch Booth), Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker), Energy Team (Yann Guichard), HS Racing (Roman Hagara), J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie), Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper), Luna Rossa Swordfish (Francesco Bruni), and Oracle Team USA SLINGSBY (Tom Slingsby)
CREW LIST
Tom Slingsby (helmsman), Sam Newton (wing trimmer), Kinley Fowler (jib trimmer), Rome Kirby (runner), Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (bowman)
From J.P.Morgan/Ben Ainslie
Racing:
Photo:©2013 ACEA/Gilles
Martin-Raget
Tricky Conditions, But BAR on Top
It was a good start to the final Americas Cup World Series event of the current season in Naples for the J.P.Morgan BAR team. They won their quarterfinal match race against Energy Team, followed by a third and a first in the first two fleet races of the Series. Their consistent form put the team on top of the leaderboard after day one.
The breeze arrived in time for racing in the Gulf of Naples, but conditions proved tricky and inconsistent, small mistakes were punished on the race-course. No teams seemed to survive unscathed including J.P.Morgan BAR who struggled at the start of their match race against the French Energy Team. “The wind was changing all through the start of the match race it made it very, very difficult, and we just got it completely wrong. Yann Guichard and the Energy Team did really well especially in those kind of conditions when the wind is changing around so much, but the race was never really over, we got once chance to make a break and we took it, luckily it went our way so we were a little bit fortunate with that one,” explained skipper Ben Ainslie.
However the team sailed consistently in the days two opening races, to sit on top of the leaderboard after day one. “It was a good day for us in difficult conditions, we rode our luck a little bit at times certainly in the match race. The boys did a great job of staying calm and dealt with the conditions really well picking our way through on the shifts where we needed to. We won the match race and had a first and a third in the two fleet races so were happy for the first day, but there is a long way to go and we need to keep working on our performance for the next few days." added Ainslie
Supporting the team today was a special visitor; the British Ambassador to Italy Christopher Prentice CMG joined the team for their first day of racing in Naples and stepped onboard as a guest racer during the first fleet race of the day.
“The wind was fickle today, I loved being here in Naples I had a great experience sailing with the J.P.Morgan BAR team. These boats are amazing to watch and even more so to sail on, I was very excited to race with the team onboard and it is great that they are leading after day one.”
Racing for J.P.Morgan BAR starts at 1450 with the first fleet race tomorrow.
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