A thight race - but a new defeat for Artemis

Today's third race of the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals featured an improved Artemis Racing closing the gap to Luna Rossa Challenge. The Italians sailed their best race yet to take the point with a final delta of 1:18.

On Thursday, the team representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club spent the day working on its foiling gybes, a key to downwind performance.  This training showed on the racecourse today. Downwind Artemis Racing was much closer in performance to the Italians, completing most of their gybes as foiling gybes, in comparison to race 1 and 2 where none were completed. Each non-foiling gybe can cost a team 6-10 seconds. 

Also evident from race two on Wednesday, Artemis Racing's AC72 performs better in higher breeze. Although today's forecasted wind speed was to reach 19 knots, the racecourse only saw a maximum of 17 knots.

Race 3 got off to a great match racing start by the Italians when they grabbed the advantage in the pre start, positioning themselves on the leeward side and forcing the Swedes to slow to a near stop. Luna Rossa Challenge was first to the start line and around the first mark.

Although Artemis Racing did not win race 3, it’s still a good day for the team as the learning curve is steep the gains to be had are large. The sailing team continues to improve their techniques and maneuvers with every minute that they are on the water.

Skipper Iain Percy was happy with the team’s performance today. “We upped our game hugely today, but the bad news was so did Luna Rossa. It’s sudden death now, but we like that pressure, it just adds to the fun. We need to win one tomorrow and four on the trot. I know everyone on our team will rise to the challenge and we look forward to it.”

Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals race 4 will be held tomorrow August 10th at 13:15pst. Tune in to your local NBC network to watch the race live or watch on YouTube a few hours after racing. 

TODAYS CREW LIST:
Iain Percy (skipper/tactician),
Nathan Outteridge (helmsman),
Stu Bettany (pit),
Andy Fethers (pit),
Chris Brittle (grinder),
Julien Cressant (grinder),
Craig Monk (grinder),  
Sean Clarkson (grinder),
Thierry Fouchier (jib trim),
Iain Jensen (wing trim),
Rodney Ardern (wing assist).