Artemis Racing: Cayard rates quality of Louis Vuitton Day 8 contest

11:31 AM Tue 16 Mar 2010 GMT

'Artemis (SWE) versus All4One (GER). David Brooke is being flipped over the side by the jib sheet, but get back on board because he holds on to the jibsheet' Sander van der Borch ? Click Here to view large photo

Paul Cayard, skipper of Artemis Racing reviews the racing from Day 8, with the help of some graphics from Animation Research Ltd's Virtual Eye:

We had a great day today on Artemis. Things really went our way and it was very satisfying. First, we had a good tussle against All4One. We had the left off the line and tacked soon there after. We got good pressure from the left and were ahead at the first cross. From there we just worked the shifts, and there were plenty of them today, to stretch out to a 5 length lead. We were fairly comfortable at the last windward mark and then down the final run the wind almost died for us and shift 80 degrees. We almost lost the race on this weirdness but managed to hang on for the win.

Our second match of the day, ranks right up there with some of the all time races I have had in 20 years of racing in this class of boat. Neither boat was ever more than 50 meters ahead, there were four or five lead changes and three penalties.

Race 8 - Incident 1 - After not keeping clear of Artemis, TeamOrigin neatly clears her penalty and both boats then proceed to the leeward gate - the tracks and penalty clearance can be clearly seen in the expanded view - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Near the end of the first run, the Brits got too close to us and got a penalty. But we sailed them past the gate and they were able to get the penalty erased by tacking to get back to the mark.

The second windward leg was a real battle with them slightly ahead at the outset and us overhauling them by having better current out to the right. Then right at the top mark, I made a bad tactical error and this allowed TeamOrigin to get a penalty on us and the lead.

Race 8: Incident 2-1 TeamOrigin gets her bow inside Artemis at the windward mark (second rounding) and has right of way at the mark - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Race 8: Incident 2-2 TeamOrigin works Artemis to windward of the mark, Artemis doesn't keep clear and is penalised. - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Terry and the guys did a nice job down the run to keep it close and we even got a bit of help from the Brits who were a bit greedy. We got overlapped with them near the finish and they fouled us and got a double penalty as it was race determining.

The best thing about that race wasn't that we won. The best part was the experience that we shared as a team. There were so many situations, most we handled well, a few we made errors on, but we can learn more from that race than a week of training on our own.

Race 8: Incident 3 - 1 Both yachts running to the finish on starboard tack, with Team Origin ahead but overlapped (an ACC yacht is about 25metres long, so a 19metre separation bow to bow indicates an overlap). - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Race 8: Incident 3 - 2 After a feint by Artemis (already carrying a penalty) TeamOrigin decides to gybe onto porttack and becomes the give way yacht. - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Race 8: Incident 3 - 3 Team Origin (port tack) fails to keep clear of Artemis (starboard tack) and is penalised. - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Race 8: Incident 3 - 4 Artemis loses control and rounds up - probably as a result of having to take avoiding action - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

Race 8: Incident 3 - 5 TeamOrigin is deemed to have gained as a result of the incident for which she has been penalised once, and is given a second penalty - ARL Media Click Here to view large photo

There were 6 other matches out there today and plenty of action. Team New Zealand won their only race and the other team that did well in the end was Mascalzone Latino who finished the round second.

We ended up in the three way ties for third but ALL4ONE had beaten Mascalzone Latino in the round so that moved them to third and we lost to Azzurra so that put them in fourth and us in fifth.

Scores after the round robin:

TNZ 6 wins
Mascalzone Latino 5 wins
All4One, Azzurra, and Artemis on 4 wins
Origin on 3 wins
Aleph 1 win
Synergy with 0.

Tomorrow Artemis takes on Azzurra in the first match of the knockout series. It is a bit complicated but essentially, the two lowest ranked loosers..ie, the two lowest ranked teams (coming out of the round robin) that lose tomorrow, are eliminated. The two highest ranked winners in tomorrow's races will move directly to the semi finals and the 4 in the middle race a 2 out of 3 series in which the winners move onto the semi finals.

I know you probably cant understand this but I haven't figured out how to explain it yet.

For complete results or for live streaming of the racing and other features go to www.louisvuittontrophy.com or artemisracing.com/pages/lvtv

Paul

by Paul Cayard, Artemis Media & ARL media