America's Cup World Series Venice - Sunday May 20: Team Statements

Team Statements: America's Cup World Series Venice
Day 4 - Match Race and Fleet Race Finals

America's Cup World Series Venice: Venice Main Page | Race Results and Standings | Regatta Schedule | Race Area

May 20, 2012

On this page:
America's Cup: Energy Team, Artemis, Win in Venice
Oracle Team USA: Spithill Leads Season Standings
Artemis Racing: Artemis Wins Match Race Championship

Also See: CupInfo Sunday Race Report

From America's Cup Event Authority:

Energy Team Wins Venice Fleet Race Championship

Loïck Peyron continued to demonstrate the form he has shown all week, leading his Energy Team to a spectacular win on the final day of America’s Cup World Series racing in Venice. Peyron and his French crew have been perched atop the leaderboard all four days this week, demonstrating an impressive command of the Grand Canal race area.

“I think the lighter conditions were good for us,” Peyron, the veteran multihull sailor, said. “I’m used to this kind of tricky game, trying to be as cool as possible. The pressure was in the red zone, but it made for an exciting race for sure. This was a big victory for us. We are a small team, and hopefully this is just the beginning.”

Winds were exceptionally light on Sunday, turning the San Marco race course into perhaps the most challenging one the teams have faced in the World Series to date. The smallest puffs of wind were rewarded with dramatic bursts of speed, leading to teams quickly moving up and down the race leaderboard on the first lap of the course, the positions changing from minute to minute.

Early in the race, on the first long downwind leg, Peyron proved to be the best at finding a clear lane and escaped clear ahead of the fleet, with Oracle Team USA Spithill following suit a few moments later.

While the French built what seemed to be an insurmountable lead, Spithill kept the pressure on, closing the gap right down to the point where the result wasn’t secure until the final gybe on the finishing line. As the horn sounded to signal victory, Peyron collapsed on the trampoline of his boat in dramatic relief, while his crew celebrated around him.

In contrast to the leaders, the bulk of the fleet had trouble separating themselves and at one point became trapped in a very slow pile-up at one of the turning marks, with too many boats trying to squeeze between the mark and the nearby shoreline at the same time.

Terry Hutchinson’s Artemis Racing popped out of that incident in third place, with Emirates Team New Zealand chasing them around the race course even closing enough to incur a penalty for a slow motion collision before Artemis regained the advantage to lead the Kiwis across the line.

Meanwhile the rest of the fleet was too far back to finish within the time limit and were scored as ‘did not finish’, earning no points on the day.

Earlier in the afternoon, and for the second consecutive event, Artemis Racing defeated Chris Draper’s Luna Rossa-Piranha to win the Match Racing Championship. In the light, shifty, and tricky conditions, Hutchinson and his crew won the start and protected a narrow lead early before stretching away in the middle of the race for a hard-earned victory.

“We've had a good result in Naples and now here, in quite different conditions,” Hutchinson said. “The nice thing about the match racing at these regattas is we've executed on our game plan. We're starting to feel with the training in the boat that it's paying off for us.”

The results in Venice see Oracle Team USA Spithill gain some breathing room on the overall AC World Series leaderboard over Emirates Team New Zealand. The Kiwis will also now be looking over their shoulders, with Artemis Racing closing in as well, nine points further back.

“We came here with a one-point lead over Emirates Team New Zealand. We're leaving with a four-point lead,” said Spithill as he looked ahead to Newport. “That's the important thing. I'm happy with how the team did. Obviously we've got a lot to work on but there's no question we’ll be ready for Newport.”

The final event of the 2011-12 AC World Series will take place next month in Newport, Rhode Island from June 26 through July 1, 2012. At the conclusion of racing in Newport, the 2011-12 AC World Series champion will be crowned.

2011-12 AC World Series Overall Championship Leaderboard (after five of six events)
1. Oracle Team USA Spithill 84 points
2. Emirates Team New Zealand80 points
3. Artemis Racing 71 points
4. Energy Team 65 points
5. Team Korea 56 points
6. Oracle Team USA Bundock 53 points
7. Luna Rossa Piranha 34 points
8. China Team 31 points
9. Luna Rossa Swordfish21 points

AC World Series Venice Fleet Racing Championship

Final Leaderboard
1. Energy Team 74 points
2. Oracle Team USA Spithill 58 points
3. Emirates Team New Zealand 54 points
4. Artemis Racing 52 points
5. Luna Rossa Piranha 43 points
6. Luna Rossa Swordfish 43 points
7. Team Korea 37 points
8. Oracle Team USA Bundock 22 points
9. China Team 18 points

AC World Series Venice Match Racing Championship

Final Match: Artemis Racing defeated Luna Rossa Piranha; 1-0
1. Artemis Racing
2. Luna Rossa Piranha
3. Oracle Team USA Spithill
4. Energy Team
5. Emirates Team New Zealand
6. Team Korea
7. Luna Rossa Swordfish
8. Oracle Team USA Bundock
9. China Team
*The losers of the Semi Final and Quarter Final matches have been assigned final finishing positions (3rd through 9th) in the Match Racing Championship as per the Sailing Instructions.

From Oracle Team USA:

Spithill Leads ACWS Season Standings

Oracle Team USA Spithill finished on the podium in both the fleet and match racing championships at ACWS Venice and now holds a 4-point lead in the 20111-12 ACWS Season Championship heading into next month’s final event.

Skipper Jimmy Spithill and his four-man crew -- John Kostecki, Kyle Langford, Joe Newton and Brad Webb -- was the only team to make the podium in both disciplines. They finished second in the fleet racing and third in the match racing at the regatta that tested their resolve. After the first day of racing the crew was seventh in the standings.

“It wasn’t our best regatta, but in some ways it was a fantastic test for the team,” Spithill said. “It wasn't my plan to go out and start this regatta on the back foot, but I enjoyed seeing the team under a bit of pressure and was very happy to see our guys working away to turn it around. So I’m very happy.”

Heading into next month’s regatta in Newport, R.I., USA, which will conclude the 2011-12 season Oracle Team USA Spithill leads the standings with 84 points, 4 points ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand. Third-placed Artemis Racing of Sweden has 71 points.

“That tastes very, very good,” Spithill said. “We always wanted to go into last event having a shot at winning, and we helped ourselves today. It’s still open going into Newport, but we have a good team behind us and a fantastic shore team. We’ll come out fighting and are looking forward to Newport.”

Today’s 12-leg race was sailed again on the Grand Canal. Oracle Team USA Spithill was slow off the line and trailed in seventh at the first reach mark.

The light winds, however, prevented the leaders from increasing their advantage. Oracle Team USA Spithill worked down the shoreline on the run and moved into second by the next turning mark. From there they were never really challenged as the fleet became spread out in the light winds.

Kostecki, the tactician, pointed to the crew performing better on the downwind legs as a key factor in placing second in today’s finale. France’s Energy Team won the race by just 9 seconds over Spithill, after leading by some 10 minutes at one point.

“The key moment was the downwind sailing,” Kostecki said. “Energy Team and ourselves excelled on that first run and just got away from the pack. Our technique in the jibing was excellent. There were tactical moves that were nice and it all came together. We sailed well.”

“It was a different race today, probably the lightest we’ve sailed,” Spithill said. “For a while I thought Loïck [Peyron, Energy Team] was gone, but the boys did a good job pulling us back up.

“I really think over the past two days our downwind technique has improved, and we’ve improved by watching Loïck and Energy Team,” Spithill continued. “We think he’s been the fastest all week. It was a fantastic result for Energy Team, I’m happy for them.”

Oracle Team USA Bundock had a good start today and was in good position around the first reach mark, but on the long first downwind leg got tangled up with the fleet on the first, long downwind leg and settled into fifth place. Unfortunately for the crew, they were too far behind the leaders and were among five boats that didn’t complete the course when the time limit expired.

ACWS Newport, the final regatta of the 2011-12 season, is scheduled June 28-July 1 in Newport, R.I., home to the Cup for 50 years.

Crew Lists

Oracle Team USA Spithill
Jimmy Spithill (skipper/helmsman) John Kostecki (tactician), Kyle Langford (wingsail trimmer), Joe Newton (headsail trimmer), Brad Webb (bowman)

Oracle Team USA Bundock
Darren Bundock (skipper/helmsman), Russell Coutts (tactician), Dirk de Ridder (wingsail trimmer), Simon Daubney (headsail trimmer), Simon Tienpont (bowman)

From Artemis Racing:

Artemis Racing Wins the Match Racing Championships in Venice

Light air, plenty of current and countless lead changes, made for dramatic racing for the thousands of spectators who lined the race course for the final day of the America's Cup World Series in Venice.

Having defeated Energy Team in the Match Racing Semi-Finals yesterday, Artemis lined up against Luna Rossa - Piranha for the Finals. The Italians battled and kept the pressure on, but were unable to defeat Artemis who maintain their position at the top of the ACWS Match Racing leaderboard after the five World Series events.

"We executed exactly what we planned to do in the pre-start. We wanted to dial up Luna Rossa and get them to commit to starboard, then bear off onto port to deploy,” said Skipper Terry Hutchinson. It couldn’t have gone better, but it was a tricky race. On the first run we split at the top, it was touch and go, but we snuck across and stuck to our convictions on the second beat. Luna Rossa kept asking the question and our guys kept responding.

"We had a good result in Naples and now here, in quite different conditions. The nice thing about the match racing at these regattas is that we've executed our game plan. We're starting to feel that the training is paying off for us."

The Super Sunday fleet race followed and France's Energy Team dominated, while the rest of the fleet shuffled for position. Artemis Racing and Luna Rossa Piranha were both over early at the start, but Terry and the team battled their way back to 3rd place for a podium finish.

"It was a big, eight-car pile-up at the first corner. We were sailing to win today, over a little early on the start, but the guys did great work to get us back in. Some great gybes down the first run. We got out of sync with the fleet, and that allowed us back into the race," said Terry. "Yesterday was disappointing, but we debriefed it intensely. It was nice to come back today and sail in the way that we know how to sail. It was a really good team day.

The team now returns to Valencia to continue training with the AC72 wing before the next ACWS event in Newport from 27 June-1 July.

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