Team Origin - Syndikat für Americas Cup und Oceanracing

TEAMORIGIN Newsletter August 2008

TEAMORIGIN: OVERVIEW

It's been two months since our last newsletter and we are well into our “summer” sailing season. Extreme 40 events have provided more action that we might have expected but TEAMORIGIN still heads the leaderboard after three events, Speedboat is building up to a transatlantic record attempt and all eyes have been on Ben Ainslie, TEAMORIGIN Skipper and Helmsman, competing in the Finn class in the Beijing Olympic Games and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson competing in the Star class – both winning gold medals – an incredible result for Ben, Iain and Bart, for TEAMORIGIN and for British sailing!

It was an historic day (Sunday 17 Aug) for Great Britain’s sailors as Ben Ainslie sealed Finn class gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Regatta in Qingdao.

Five-time Finn World Champion Ainslie, who is also Skipper and Helmsman of TEAMORIGIN, successfully defended the title he won at Athens 2004 to become Britain’s most decorated Olympic sailor of all time, surpassing Rodney Pattison’s previous record of two golds and one silver, a feat Ainslie had matched thanks to his Laser silver (Atlanta 1996), Laser gold (Sydney 2000) and Finn gold (Athens 2004).

Ben’s medal race had been rolled over to Sunday after light winds put paid to any chance of deciding the silverware on the intended Saturday, but in often monsoon conditions on the Yellow Sea Ainslie retained his crown in emphatic style romping to a race win to seal gold.

Victory in Qingdao has seen Ainslie match Germany’s Jochen Schumann and Russian Valentin Mankin’s three golds, one silver Olympic sailing haul leaving only Dane Paul Elvstrøm, winner of four consecutive golds between 1948 and 1960, with more Olympic sailing gold. Brazilian legend Torben Grael has won five Olympic sailing medals – two gold, one silver and two bronze.

Ainslie said: “It felt like it would never come but there was great breeze and to win the race as well, I am a happy man. Conditions have been really tough, the light winds have been a real strength of will but today was a complete turnaround. I approached the race a bit differently to yesterday, as because the breeze was so light yesterday I couldn’t let Zach get away from me but today I was confident that with my boat speed and fitness I could get away and it all came good.

“You take each Games as it comes. Each one has been tough and we’ll see what happens in the future but I’ve enjoyed every minute of my Olympic sailing career, I’ve been very lucky. The draw of 2012 and racing on your home waters is huge. It's a long way away but if I've got a chance to be there and do well, I'd love to do it."

Rod Carr, RYA Chief Executive added his congratulations: “For me, Ben’s gold medal proves that he is the greatest dinghy sailor in the world at the moment. His record is only bettered by Paul Elvstrom. In many ways Paul and Ben are similar characters; slightly shy and retiring onshore but supremely determined and talented in a boat. His attitude and talent are an inspiration to thousands of young Brits who aspire to follow in his wake.”

(Photographs: Rick Tomlinson / James Taylor)

percy and simpson make it a hat trick

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson at the Beijing Olympics 2008.

(Photographs: Richard Langdon /www.oceanimages.co.uk )

As we write this newsletter TEAMORIGIN's other representatives in the Beijing Olympics, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson have struck Gold in the Star class, making it a golden end for Team GB at Beijing 2008.

Percy and Simpson’s gold is Britain’s sixth sailing medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which surpasses the Brits’ medal total at the past two Games in Athens and Sydney, where Britain won five medals apiece.

Iain and Bart’s Finn dinghy was designed and developed in collaboration with Juan K, also part of the TEAMORIGIN design squad.

It also means for the third successive Olympics, Britain finishes the regatta as the world’s top performing sailing nation, and leaves Britain’s sailors with their best Olympic medal haul for 100 years.

extreme 40: hyeres and cowes events completed:
teamorigin still in the lead

Three of the five events have now been completed in the iShares Cup Extreme 40 sailing series and TEAMORIGIN hold the lead by a narrow 1 point margin. The series has extremely close racing, with Alinghi hot on the heels of Rob Greenhalgh and his team and BMW Oracle Racing joining the line up in Cowes where we finally saw some America’s Cup teams racing against each other!

At the Hyeres event, fresh and pretty much perfect conditions greeted the teams and the full quota of races were carried out. TEAMORIGIN managed a spectacular capsize on the first day and so had to work hard to get back to 2nd place for this event. Alinghi took its first event win after finishing 5 th in Lugano.

Skandia Cowes Week is the world’s biggest sailing event and the Extreme 40’s added drama and action with their 3 days of racing. The wind was hardly ever less than 25 knots and most teams (except Alinghi) managed a capsize and our TEAMORIGIN boys did a fantastic job of recovering back to take 2nd place overall but really pushing the Alinghi team to the limit.

Looking ahead to the next two events, Rob Greenhalgh commented “ The 2008 Extreme 40 circuit has so far lived up to expectations. Competition has been significantly higher than last year. 2008 has seen us finish 2 nd at each event – a good consistent result. We have however made some errors, capsizing at the last 2 events. We are currently holding a 1pt lead over Alinghi for the series. Kiel is going to be critical to the final standings. We are going with the aim of winning the event to help secure our overall series standing.”

(Photographs: Ian Roman )

speedboat completes its first event and prepares for transatlantic

Speedboat, the Juan K designed 100 ft super maxi yacht competed its first event back in June taking line honours in the Newport to Bermuda race. There were 12 of TEAMORIGIN sailors onboard, led by Skipper Mike Sanderson.

The team have been planning a transatlantic attempt for some months now and are holding an optional window of the months of September and October to take it on should the right weather pattern present itself. Mike is also working with yacht owner, Alex Jackson, to put together the ongoing programme for the boat and TEAMORIGIN sailors – more news to follow on this soon…..

(Photograph: Cory Silken for SailingScuttlebut.com)

charles dunstone's tp52 competes in cork and cowes weeks

Charles Dunstone, investor and partner in TEAMORIGIN, continued campaigning his TP52 ‘Rio’ in TEAMORIGIN colours, competing in both Cork and Skandia Cowes Weeks. Charles sails with a number of the TEAMORIGIN squad sailors onboard including James Stagg, Ian Weighell, Matt Cornwell and David Carr. Rio finished 2 nd in its class at Skandia Cowes Week gaining two significant race wins during the week.

(Photograph: On Edition)

coming up during the next few months...

End August : Ben Ainslie, Iain percy and Andrew Simpson return home to the UK after the Olympic Games, next newsletter will feature interviews with them and will outline plans for their next sailing activities
Aug 29 th to 31 st : iShares Cup Extreme 40 event, Kiel, Germany
Sept 19 th to 21 st : Final iShares Cup Extreme 40 event in Amsterdam, Holland with Ben Ainslie attending
Speedboat transatlantic attempt and ongoing programme to be announced shortly

Follow TEAMORIGIN activities on www.teamorigin.com

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