Louis Vuitton Trophy- TeamOrigin makes early exit

by Richard Gladwell. Sail-World.com on 18 Mar 2010
Artemis Racing (SWE) dispatched TeamOrigin (GBR) from the Louis Vuitton Trophy in the sudden death elimination race sailed on the Waitemata this afternoon.

The reality is that this was a match that the British team should not have lost, and they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory just short of rounding the windward mark for the second time.

After enjoying a comfortable lead for much of the second leg, TeamOrigin elected to allow Artemis Racing, and their largely US afterguard, to split away to a separation of 330metres, when they had a very defend-able 30 metre lead.

Artemis was allowed to go left, which TeamOrigin covered, and then Artemis went to the right hand side of the course. Ian Percy, tactician aboard TeamOrigin decided to let them go and the upshot was that a right hand shift appeared around the corner of North Head, which Artemis grabbed with all hands and the margins were reversed - which Paul Cayard turned into a 30 second advantage at the mark

After a delay of several hours, racing got away at 1.30pm in a beautiful southwesterly breeze, blowing down the harbour from the City, and clear blue skies.

TeamOrigin looked to be on fire at the start snatching the early lead off the startline after crossing Artemis on port. The protest from Artemis as right of way boat, was declined by the umpires.

At the top mark TeamOrigin led even though Artemis carried a little stronger pressure, and trimmed the British lead to just a boatlength rounding the leeward gate. Skipper Ben Ainslie and his tactician Ian Percy with five Olympic Gold medals between them sailed with surgical precision to extend on the beat, and should have been able to complete the job.

But an inexplicable tactical decision answered the prayers of Artemis, and the Swedish crew were not of a mind to take their foot off the British throats for the remainder of the race.

A small tear in the foot of the Swedish spinnaker caused some nervousness amongst spectators, and geed up the hopes of the British fans, but it was in a low stress area and survived the gybe and rest of the leg.

The winning margin was 30 seconds.

By any objective analysis, TeamOrigin will have to start taking a long hard look at themselves. Despite having the best qualified crew in terms of Olympic medals, the team have plateaued in terms of results, particularly in Auckland both in this series, the Omega Cup two weeks ago and the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, here a year ago.

And that is on the back of being able to sail in supplied boats - not a full America's Cup campaign of having to design and build their own yachts, spars and sails.

What the team needs is some solid work up together on the likes of the TP52 circuit, to get their combinations right, and make changes if necessary.

On that basis their commissioning of a TP52 from Salthouse Boatbuilders in Auckland would seem to be an inspired move. The early exit from the Louis Vuitton Trophy will give the team an extra, and unexpected, couple of days in their new yacht, which has just been launched in Auckland.

Even so the spotlight will stay on the team, to see if they can climb the ladder of improved performance. Certainly for a team that prides themselves on not making mistakes twice, and with a bevy of Olympic stars and medals, TeamOrigin remains an enigma in America's Cup circles.

While they were a little unlucky with the way today panned out. The fickle morning winds caused the Elimination Round to be shortened to just one race instead of the best of three. TeamOrigin had carefully selected NZL-84 (the perceived slow-boat) on the basis that they would have been able to switch to NZL-92 for the final two races.

However their problems today could not be laid at the door of their choice of yacht.