Red Bull Youth America’s Cup - Switzerland’s Team Tilt in the starting
by MaxComm Communiation on 1 Sep 2013
Swiss team in action Loris von Siebenthal/Team Tilt Sailing
On Sunday, Swiss sailors onboard Team Tilt, skippered by Lucien Cujean, will line up against nine other teams for the start of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup.
After a month of intensive training on San Francisco Bay and more than 10 months of preparation, the team is keen to start the competition that unites some of the best young sailors in the world.
'We have put in 150 days of training towards this competition, but it is hard to make any predictions on our performance against the other teams,' said skipper Lucien Cujean. Saturday was the team’s last day of training and was dedicated to starts and speed tests giving the young sailors a taste of the racing to come.
'We can still improve our starts,' said tactician Bryan Mettraux. 'Our plan is sound, but we made a few errors and didn’t execute it to the letter. The speed tests on the other hand went very well: we finished fourth out of 10 teams with an average speed of 22.9 knots. We saw top speeds of 25 knots, the highest in the fleet! We sailed in strong winds for the first time and the team handled it really well, we had an excellent feeling onboard. The crew is thoroughly motivated and ready to start racing tomorrow!'
Yesterday, the Team Tilt’s development coach Matt Cooper took the young crew away from sailing for a day to prepare for the competition: 'We didn’t sail or talk about sailing or racing on Friday and it did the guys a lot of good to switch off and get in the right mindset for D-Day,' he said.
Racing is from 11:10 to 12:30, starting Sunday first September until Wednesday fourth September. The Team Tilt crew previously sailed the AC45 on the Bay for a week in February during the qualifiers which they passed with flying colours, and then again for three weeks in August. 'The improvement of the sailors since the qualifying round is impressive,' said Roman Hogara, Red Bull Youth America’s Cup sports director.
To follow the racing, please go to the America’s Cup or Red Bull YouTube channels or watch the Servus TV channel
Results of today’s speed test
1. All In Racing (GER) - 23.91 knots
2. Objective Australia (AUS) - 23.87 knots
3. USA45 Racing (USA2) - 23.38 knots
4. Team TILT (SUI) - 22.90 knots
5. Full Metal Jacket Racing (NZL1) - 22.76 knots
6. Swedish Youth Challenge (SWE) - 22.49 knots
7. American Youth Sailing Force (USA1) - 22.42 knots
8. Next World Energy (FRA) - 22.00 knots
9. ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team (POR) - 21.96 knots
Team Tilt sailing website
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