8 April 2012
CAYARD'S UPDATE - ACWS - NAPLES
A great day for racing in Napoli. The America’s Cup World Series was
in full flight today with match racing and fleet racing. The winds
were 8 to 12 knots from the West and there was a bit of cloud around.
The rain stopped for exactly three hours and those were the three hours
of racing.
I was the guest racer onboard Artemis today. It was nice for me as CEO
to see my team in action from up close. The six weeks of two boat
training the team has done in Valencia looks to have given them a
strong base to operate from. Notwithstanding the fact that our AC45
crew is in constant rotation, the boys seemed solid and tight as a
group. They won their match race against Emirates Team New Zealand,
the first fleet race and were leading the second fleet race when they
dropped out to be first to the crane for hauling the boat out.
This weekend was 'practice' racing, but still the Italian public made
it down to see the action. Italy is known to be one of the most
passionate nations when it comes to the America’s Cup and we are
expecting big crowds both here in Naples and next month in Venezia.
The teams will take a couple of days off now and be back on for the
official racing which starts on Wednesday.
The first challenge for Artemis Racing was to form our team. Our index
competitors, ORACLE Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and Prada are
ongoing entities. Just in the last month, it feels like Artemis is
operating as an America’s Cup team. Now, our challenge is the same as
the others, to build an AC72 and become proficient at sailing it in the
demanding conditions of San Francisco Bay.
To that end, I am heading back to Valencia tomorrow morning as we are
sailing our trimaran with the AC72 wing in it this week, as well as
racing here in the ACWS. We are a busy team with both operations going
on simultaneously, but there is so much to do and so little time. I
will be back in Naples on Friday for the racing at the weekend.
Paul
© Gilles Martin-Raget
Artemis Racing is the Challenger of Record for the 34^th America’s Cup.
Artemis Racing competes in the America’s Cup World Series, RC44
Championship Tour and Vulcain Trophy.
[1]www.artemisracing.com
KSSS
Artemis Racing represents the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS).
www.ksss.se
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