Louis Vuitton Cup- Emirates Team NZ wins solo race with new helmsman

by Richard Gladwell on 28 Jul 2013
Australian Glenn Ashby became the third Australian helmsman in the America's Cup Regatta, when he stepped in for Dean Barker, on Emirates Team NZ.

Ashby took 30 minutes and 39 seconds to complete the five lap course sailed in San Francisco. The Round Robin 4, Race 3 was originally destined to be sailed against Swedish challenger, Artemis Racing who has now been sailing for just three days since her launch earlier in the week.

Artemis, if they choose to race now have just two races left in which they can compete before the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals, where they will face Italy's Luna Rossa.

The team is said to have lost a lot of time on the rudder issues, arising from the botched implementation of the changes to the AC72 Class Rules as part of the new Safety Recommendations, they will use the time out from the Semi-Finals to implement developments expected to make signifcant speed differences to their already fast AC72.

The purpose of Ashby, sailing was to give the wing trimmer experience in the helmsman's role should Dean Barker be incompacitated for any reason. Ashby is a multiple world champion in the singlehanded A- class catamarans and the former Olympic Tornado catamaran, in which he won a silver medal Qingdao in 2008.

The race, as such was an unspectacular affair with Emirates Team NZ sailing at speeds of 30kts or less, according to Virtual Eye - about 10kts slower than previous racing. Winds peaked at abround 17kts on the course, with a 2.2kt incoming tide.