Sail-World.com : America's Cup WS: Ben Ainslie Racing takes early lead in Fleet Racing
America's Cup WS: Ben Ainslie Racing takes early lead in Fleet Racing
|
England’s Ben Ainslie arrived at the first America’s Cup World Series San Francisco in August fresh from winning his fifth Olympic medal. With scant time to prepare for some of the most competitive sailing in the world, he struggled to learn a new boat and new fleet.
Now, with a month of preparation under his belt, Ainslie has streaked to the early lead in the fleet racing championship of the second AC World Series San Francisco.
Sailing in 15-knot winds late this afternoon, Ainslie’s J.P. Morgan BAR crew won the first race by 17 seconds and followed it up with a third in the second race to lead the series with the high score of 21 points.
Five points behind in a three-way tie for second is Oracle Team USA (Jimmy Spithill), winner of the second race, Artemis Racing – Red (Nathan Outteridge), which scored a pair of fourths, and Oracle Team USA (Russell Coutts), which scored a 3-5.
'We had a nice start and a good first race with Nathan and Team New Zealand. We hung on and are delighted to get our first win in this series,' said Ainslie, who won his fourth Gold medal at the Olympics. 'It comes down to practice and time in the boat, just like anything else. If you don’t train and put the effort in you’re not going to get the results.'
Spithill, who won the August AC World Series San Francisco, was disappointed with the first race, an eighth place. He noted a bad start and a few mistakes around the racecourse, but rebounded in the second race to win going away by 37 seconds.
'It was good to get that one under our belt. The boys were fired up after the first race and they ground us up into a sizable lead,' said Spithill. 'Any team here can win. The boats are the same and it comes down to the team that sails well. Ben did a fantastic job and deserves to be leading. He sailed very well.'
Outteridge, sailing his first fleet races with Artemis Racing, showed the steady hand he’s shown in the past by scoring a pair of fourths.
'We had two really good starts,' said Outteridge. 'We focused hard on getting the good starts and it worked well for us. We need to work on the other little pieces of the race to stay ahead, but if we can sail every day like today, we’ll be alright.'
The fleet races were held later in the afternoon after the first two quarterfinal races in the match racing championship. Artemis Racing – White (Terry Hutchinson) defeated young upstart Team Korea (Peter Burling) while Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) beat Energy Team (Loïck Peyron).
The two remaining quarterfinal matches are scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, with Artemis Racing – Red taking on Oracle Team USA (Russell Coutts) at 4:05 pm PDT and J. P. Morgan BAR meeting Oracle Team USA (Jimmy Spithill) at 4:22 pm PDT.
After that, fleet races three and four are scheduled, beginning at 4:50 pm PDT.
AC World Series San Francisco Fleet Racing Championship (After 2 of 7 races)
1. J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) 1-3 – 21 points
2. Oracle Team USA (Jimmy Spithill) 8-1 – 16
2. Artemis Racing – Red (Nathan Outteridge) 4-4 – 16
2. Oracle Team USA (Russell Coutts) 3-5 – 16
5. Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) 2-8 – 14
6. Artemis Racing – White (Terry Hutchinson) 10-2 – 12
7. Energy Team (Loick Peyron) 6-7 – 11
8. Team Korea (Peter Burling) 5-9 – 10
9. Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper) 9-6 – 9
10. China Team (Phil Robertson) 7-10 – 7
11. Luna Rossa Swordfish (Iker Martinez) 11-11 – 2
by Sail-World
Click on the FB Like link to post this story to your FB wall
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=102634
4:18 AM Fri 5 Oct 2012GMT
Click here for printer friendly version
Click here to send us feedback or comments about this story.
Click for further information on
2013 America's Cup
Related News Stories:
MORE STORIES ...
|
|
|
Our Advertisers are committed to our sport, please support them!
This site and its contents are © Copyright TetraMedia Pty. Ltd and/or the original author, photographer etc. All Rights Reserved.
Photographs are copyright by law. If you wish to use or buy a photograph you must contact the photographer directly (there is a hyperlink in most cases to their website, or do a Google search.) with your request.
Please do not contact
Sail-World.com
as we cannot give permission for use of other photographer’s images.
Only if the photographer named on the image is Sail-world.com, Powerboat-world.com, Marinebusiness-world.com or NZBoating-World.com.
Contact us
.
Ph: +61 2 8006 1873
or complete our
feedback form
Contact us
.
View our Privacy Policy.
[ Go Home]
[ Banner Advertising Specification]
[Bot Archive ]
Customised news feeds -Marine Industry companies, Clubs and Associations have their own customised version of our news feed on their website.
Look_here_to_see_examples
|
| | |
