Audi MedCup- Artemis - Not a smooth day in Cartagena

by Paul Cayard and Sander van der Borch on 29 Aug 2010
It was a long day in a strong breeze, so we are all a bit tired.

In 18-23 knot East Northeasterlies, we raced a windward leeward race and followed that up with a two mile coastal race.

Artemis had a good day with a 6, 2 although we did not sail smoothly and made plenty of mistakes.

I made a costly error trying to tack under Bribon at the first windward mark and we had to do two penalty turns. That pretty much put us in last. But a good run and second windward leg meant we rounded the top mark in third which was the result of an excellent effort by all onboard. However, we lost 3 places on the final run of the first race by missing a windshift and we finished sixth. Not horrible, but that is not going to cut it if you are going for the regatta win.

In the coastal race we had a great start and were at the front most of the way. We fell back a bit midway, but kept our focus and passed a few boats to finish strong in second. Emirates Team New Zealand has another gear upwind in the strong winds and the won both races today, so they now lead the regatta comfortably.

The winds were tricky for sure. There were two winds in the first race, as the Northeasterly wind was split around the cape just to the East of the race course. Outside the winds were in the 50's and inside you could see wind directions around 35. As the transition between the two winds swayed back and forth across the course, so went the positions of the boats.

We did have our usual good speed all day so that definitely has helped us stay in a decent position in this regatta. But we really haven't sailed that well in this event.

We are now in fourth place overall, just 6.5 points out of second. We are just 3.5 points ahead of Quantum who is in fifth. So, it will be all on tomorrow. Still plenty of opportunity to go up and down.

To watch the racing live, go to www.artemisracing.com and for results go to www.medcup.org

Paul