RC44 Trapani Cup – Perfect conditions on final day

by Paul Cayard on 6 May 2013 On the fifth and final day of the 2013 RC44 Trapani Cup there were perfect conditions in Trapani. 14-18 knots from the north, fairly steady, nice waves and sunshine.

Aqua had a great day and stole the regatta from Cereef. The two actually tied on points and Aqua won due to more wins in the series.

Onboard Artemis Racing, we had a very good day with scores of 5, 3, 4. We gained eight points on our friends Katusha but came up two shy of overtaking them for third place in the series.

I would like to thank the team that supports both Katusha and Artemis; Sarah Gundersen, coach Tom Burnham, chef Denise Wilson, Harry McGougan and Morgan Guttenkunst.

Tomorrow I will be back at work in San Francisco with our America's Cup Challenge. Our second boat was air freighted to LA over the weekend and should be in our shed in Alameda by Wednesday. Now starts a very intense period of round the clock work to re-assemble boat two and get it on the water as soon as possible.

We are the last team to get a foiling AC72 and arguably behind the others at this point. But as far as I know, they haven't given out any points yet.

Our sailing team led by Iain Percy, Nathan Outteridge and Loick Peyron are proven winners and have plenty of talent. They have been doing a good job of pushing hard, training on boat 1 and our foiling AC45. Our time with our second AC72 is short but I have a lot of confidence in our team and I suspect we will be tough to dispose of.

Equally important in the America's Cup is the shore team. Led by Chay McIntosh, our shore team is second to none. Keeping the boats on the track everyday in the strong winds of a San Francisco summer will be a competition of its own.

Now it's down to the final preparations for racing in July. The time will go fast. The boats will too!

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For complete results go to RC44 Cayard Sailing website