Hometown hero leads Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series 2015

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 26 Jul 2015 America's Cup World Series - Glorious sunshine on the Solent today for Race 1 of the four race Portsmouth series. The wind was puffy varying between 10-15 knots.

Oracle had best midline downwind start, Jimmy Spithill won the drag race to the first mark followed by Dean Barker’s Softbank Team Japan.

Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) cleared out with clean air, and in spite of two slow gybes into Gate 2, she was well clear of the fleet. Second was Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR (BAR), third Softbank Team Japan.

Burling headed right for current relief. Behind her LandRover BAR kept out Softbank Team Japan.

ETNZ held her lead into mark three, followed by BAR coming in from the right, ahead of Softbank into the mark.

Then BAR passed ETNZ, extending on upwind legs.

Giles Scott, calling tactics aboard BAR, lamped on ETNZ closing on Oracle steamed fast into mark and passed around ETNZ, it was close, both boats protested, both clear.

BAR wins from Oracle, four lengths back with ETNZ, fourth was Softbank Team Japan, Artemis fifth and Groupama Team France sixth.

Waiting for the second race start Ainslie said ‘We are happy to have won the first race but there is lots more to be done especially with double points tomorrow.’

Race 1 results

1 Land Rover BAR 10
2 ORACLE TEAM USA 9
3 Emirates Team New Zealand 8
4 SoftBank Team Japan 7
5 Artemis Racing 6
6 Groupama Team France 5

The breeze dropped ahead of Race 2 start.

It was a messy start with lots of expletives especially down at the pin where Groupama held out Oracle, penalty on Oracle for contact.

However LandRover BAR had blasted off the start line and round the mark ahead gybing immediately, ETNZ and Softbank did not gybe.

ETNZ fell off the foils spectacularly, but in spite of that she had taken the lead from Groupama France and Softbank Team Japan, GBR had lost heavily as had Artemis and Oracle Team USA.

Approaching mark 3 ETNZ was still leading from Groupama Team France with Japan third. On leg 3 Groupama closed up and crossed ahead but they had a tack more to do than ETNZ.

ETNZ pinched and rounded 3 just ahead of Groupama, third was Softbank Team Japan, then BAR, Artemis and USA last.

Artemis had trouble on her code zero hoist with a halyard lock issues.

The wind was dropping and the boats were off the foils, but BAR had climbed into third place.

Heading into mark 5 6 ETNZ was leading with Groupama 18 seconds back, another 30 seconds to BAR. Softbank Team Japan led Oracle Team USA but the American team got their code zero up first and foiled away from their rivals.

It was the rich getting richer on leg 6 ETNZ extended to 250 metres ahead of Land Rover BAR with France third.

At the gun, it was ETNZ, 30 seconds behind was Land Rover BAR with Team France third another two length behind.

1 Emirates Team New Zealand 10
2 Land Rover BAR 9
3 Groupama Team France 8
4 ORACLE TEAM USA 7
5 SoftBank Team Japan 6
6 Artemis Racing 5

Overall
1 Land Rover BAR 19
2 Emirates Team New Zealand 18
3 ORACLE TEAM USA 16
4 SoftBank Team Japan 13
5 Groupama Team France 13
6 Artemis Racing 11

With races three and four tomorrow to be scored as double points, there is plenty to play for with a ten point spread between first and last in each race.

With a solid front coming through on Sunday, there will be building winds and rain. Winds during race time likely to be in low 20's but gusts up into the 30's could provide some interesting challenges.

Ben Ainslie commented ‘Sunday is double points and with plenty of wind that will be interesting, but of course safety is paramount. I think we've got 25 knots as our wind limit at the moment. And I think that's probably quite sensible.‘

Jimmy Spithill: ‘The wind limit is 25 knots. Just how that is treated is completely up to Iain Murray. But I think if you asked all the teams, we're here to race, and the boats are all the same...’

Let’s see if that limit might be eased or will the memory of the Artemis AC72 bear away capsize and the death of Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson be uppermost in everyone’s minds.

Crowds overall: A gorious British summer day with plenty of sunshine and a good spectator crowd.

Organisers reported 48,704 on the gate, 2200 boats on the water, 15,400 on water spectators, a total of 64,104 overall.

Skipper quotes:

Ben Ainslie, Land Rover BAR:

'We were blown away by the level of support. We're very proud to be based here in Portsmouth to bring the America's Cup World Series here, and so grateful to so many people for turning out, it means a huge amount to us.

'I've never seen anything like it in all of my sailing career, so I think we're all a little bit emotional, a little bit gob-smacked. It's just fantastic for our team – for all of our guys back at base in Portsmouth, and everyone else that supports the team, we're just delighted that so many people came out to support the event.'

Pete Burling, Emirates Team New Zealand:

'It's absolutely awesome. As a sportsman you want to be tested against the best people in the world, and here you have the opportunity to do that. Every team here has a really super-star line up and it's great to be able to test our skills against them, so it was really good fun.

'It was a great day for us. It was great to be in the lead in both races a couple of times. For us we haven't had much training time in these boats and feel pretty green, so we're really happy to come away in the shape we're at. We were stoked with the breeze today and the sun. But we know we've got plenty of work to do tomorrow to try and improve.'

Franck Cammas, Groupama Team France

'We were very happy to be fighting at the front of the second race. But we lost one place because of a mistake with the hoist – we were very polite with the British team, that's why we let the British in front of us! Tomorrow I hope we won't be so polite!

'This is the best competition you can imagine because all the teams are very strong. So it's nice because it's always challenging for the crew, and we have to do our best all the time.

'The crowds were a good surprise, the British public is here and it's good news because the America's Cup has to become a big event even for those who aren't fans of sailing. It's a very good show for everybody.'

Nathan Outteridge, Artemis Racing

'You just see how many people came here today to watch the racing, and how spectacular the boats were, it was a great day for sure. It was a tough day for us, and if you ask anyone on the water it was tough onboard these boats, they're very physical to sail with really big crew work.

'It's great to have the America's Cup kick off, and to have the event starting with so many people interested is awesome for the sport. For everyone who watched today it is a spectacle, and it's great to be involved in it.'