Thursday, 15th September 2011
Artemis Racing - Take 1st place in Fleet Racing
Following on from yesterday’s strong results, Artemis Racing put on a repeat
performance with two first place finishes and a second today, to wrap up the
Fleet Racing in pole position at the America’s Cup World Series – Plymouth.
Tactician Iain Percy summed up the keys to today’s success on the water for
the Swedish team; “The team is starting to gel and we had great starts. We
were hitting the line at speed and were always up there at the top mark.”
“Today was a good improvement, we’ve worked well on our weaknesses but we
still have a long way to go. There is also still a lot on the table.
That’s encouraging,” said Wing trimmer Sean Clarkson (NZL).
“Morgan and Sean had the boat set up really nicely. We are fine-tuning and
making our systems better, so it’s good to see some of the work we’ve done
pay off. The boat is going very well, that helps when you make a reasonable
decision as things go even better,” said Skipper Terry Hutchinson.
“I am incredibly respectful of those we are racing against. On any given
day, anyone can win races. Our time on distance to the start line is better,
so is our boat speed, but we are still miles from where we want to be,”
continued Terry. “ We see every day of racing as an opportunity to get
better. Working on continuous improvement on how we sail the boat.”
Artemis Racing has earned a bye for tomorrow’s racing but will be out
training with Emirates Team New Zealand early on and potentially Green Comm
as well.
“No day off tomorrow,” said Skipper Terry Hutchinson. “We’ll go out and go
sailing. It would be a mistake to rest. It’s not everyday we get to go
multihull sailing. It’s nice to have the short term victory, but we will go
out and practice. We have to keep putting the hours in.”
Racing continues tomorrow for the other eight teams and for Artemis Racing
on Saturday for the Match Racing semi-finals.
All photos © Sander van der Borch/Artemis Racing
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