America's Cup - Artemis win Chicago as Team Japan wins two races

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 12 Jun 2016 After losing the first official day of racing due to light winds and the non-arrival of the onshore breeze, Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series got three races away on Super Sunday.

From a racing perspective, this was probably the best day of racing yet in the series which counts for points in the Qualifying Series of the America's Cup in 11 months time.

Racing under overcast skies, temperatures of 75F and the cold waters of Lake Michigan conditions were more akin to an English summer than the American Mid-West.

Points today counted for double - with three races being sailed. As no racing was held on Saturday, Softbank Team Japan entered the day as the points leader, by virtue of their win in the Substitute race sailed on Friday, which with no racing held on Saturday became a counter in the series - but only for single points.

Race 1 - Ainslie supreme
Race 1 of the day got away to an even start with LandRover BAR mid line and with a slight jump on the rest of the fleet. Emirates Team NZ surprisingly was at the leeward end of the line, at least three boat lengths back and stalled.

The breeze was much more consistent and at a strength of around 12-15kts allowing the boats to foil downwind, but without the passing lanes created by wind gusts which we have seen in the previous ACWS sailed in big city locations.

Ben Ainslie quickly got onto foils, hitting speeds of 28kts and had a useful lead at Mark 1 ahead of Oracle Team USA. The positions remained on the short downwind leg, but BAR extended, while Artemis Racing closed up on Oracle Team USA and passed her soon after the start of the first windward leg, but the Swedes had to dip both Oracle Team USA and Softbank Team Japan when they came back on port tack, midway up the leg.

BAR overstood the top mark but burned up the room by making a faster-foiling approach to the mark, doubling her lead to 20 secs at the top of Leg 3 from Oracle with Artemis a close third. Series leader Emirates Team NZ got into Groupama Team France at the top, rounding in fifth place.

BAR extended on the fourth downwind leg leading by 25 secs from Oracle Team USA with Artemis 7 secs astern. The minor placings and margins remained unchanged.

Oracle Racing picked up a penalty as they crossed Artemis Racing, who was on starboard tack. The US team slowed to take their penalty allowing Artemis through into second. Team Japan rounded in fourth, five secs behind Oracle Team USA.

Sailing a longer course with an extra windward leg and finish at the top, Softbank Team Japan grabbed third place right at the finish sailing right to the starboard boundary line following Artemis’s line while Oracle Team USA came across from the opposite layline to drop back to fourth for the race.

Race 2 - Artemis has a blinder

Emirates Team New Zealand got away to another shocker of a start, trying for the leeward end, but allowing 49er rival, Nathan Outteridge into leeward in the final seconds. Outteridge in Artemis Racing luffed the Kiwis, who were judged not to have kept clear as windward boat and picked up a penalty for their error.

Artemis broke away to lead the first mark with the fleet again foiling fast at 25kts.

Emirates Team NZ elected to gybe early at the mark and picked up a lot of lost ground to round in third place, behind Oracle Team USA, with previous race winner BAR lying in sixth place.

The Kiwis were first to tack on the port boundary line and came out slowly with Oracle Team USA tacking inside and taking second place. In the melee at the top mark, the fleet closed up with BAR making the curious choice to tack and opt for the city side of the course, but got their dividend with stronger breeze hitting speeds of more than 28kts – 5kts more than those on the other layline, as the fleet chased the flying Swedes, who enjoyed a 20 second lead at the bottom of Leg 4.

The next beat was a repeat of the first with Artemis well in front and Oracle sitting on Team NZ’s hip, or starboard quarter, and was again able to control the Kiwis as they were forced to tack first by the looming boundary line.

Artemis extended their lead by five secs at the top mark, with Oracle in second and Team NZ third.

The positions remained the same at the bottom, with Artemis losing four seconds of her lead, and BAR picking up two places after Groupama and Team Japan tangled up in the final approach.

Positions remained unchanged on the final beat to the finish with the Swedes being forced to spend some of their lead to cover Oracle Team USA with the final play taking place on the starboard boundary line. Emirates Team NZ held on for third place.

Race 3 - Barker does it again

Emirates Team NZ went for the windward end of the line with a clean start, and only Team France being out of the first row on the grid.

Four boats rounded the first mark in a line abreast. The Kiwis gybed first with three boats crossing the boundary line (BAR USA and NZL) and copping a penalty.

Those indiscretions let Softbank Team Japan into the lead at the bottom mark, with BAR second 13 secs astern followed by the Kiwis 5 secs back. Oracle Team USA dropped back to sixth, 200 metres off the lead and rounded Mark 3 with her penalty light still flashing.

By tacking early at the end of Leg 3, Team NZ squeezed through BAR as they rounded 16 secs behind Team Japan as the rounded the cityside gate and went looking for better breeze on that side of the course.

The Kiwi/Brit downwind duel proved to be a distraction, allowing fourth-placed Artemis into second place in the double points scoring race day.

BAR jumped in front of the Kiwis at the bottom of the leg, snatching third place – with the Kiwis electing to tack first and head to the port layline, chasing Team France, who had tacked even earlier.

At the end of Leg 5 Team Japan led again and shot away at speeds of 28kts and staying clear of another melee at the top. Artemis Racing sailed well to preserve their second place, with the next four jockeying for position and mark options.

At the bottom, Japan had extended their lead to a massive 46 seconds with a close group behind with three boats separated by just six seconds. With Artemis leading the bunch followed by BAR and Team NZ.

Artemis Racing were forced to dip the Kiwis as they crossed to the city side of the course and the final approach to the finish line.

Softbank Team Japan eased away to win by a large margin. Folwing was a sandwich of BAR to leeward, with Artemis to windward and Team NZ the filling in the middle.

The Kiwis elected to let BAR go for second, but luffed Artemis, who didn’t have the room to spend and was forced to luff in response, letting the Kiwis get vital room to accelerate and finish third one second ahead of Artemis, with a fast finishing Oracle Team USA swooping in to try and take advantage of the Swedish dilemma, but just missed by a boat-length and finished fifth with Groupama Team France in sixth place.

Tale of the Stats
The telling statistic for the race was that the race winner, Softbank Team Japan sailed 300 metres less than the other boats, with average speeds being similar, all boats except for ETNZ and USA did 12 tacks/gybes with USA and NZL doing 14.

On the Series Points table for Chicago, Artemis Racing topped the points score, with Land Rover BAR in second and Softbank Team Japan with two race wins taking third place, from Emirates Team NZ, Oracle Team USA, and Groupama Team France.

On the Overall Points for the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series, Emirates Team NZ is 10 pts clear on 295 points with BAR and Oracle Team USA locked on 285