America's Cup- Fantastic day for Green Comm racing in Cascais
by Pierre Orphanidis on 13 Aug 2011
Day 5 America’s Cup World Series, Cascais Pierre Orphanidis/Green Comm
The week ends on a high note for Green Comm Racing. Not only did they score their best ever result in a fleet race, with a fourth, they also had their very first match race for fifth and sixth place overall against Team Korea. The team is making huge steps forward and as Vasilij Zbogar stated in the post-race press conference, all team members have been incredible today.
Green Comm Racing finished the day sixth overall and is now focusing on the closing 40-minute fleet race on Sunday where the America's Cup World Series Cascais title is at stake.
The day couldn't have started better for Green Comm Racing. As Javier de la Plaza stated on Thursday, the crew was already feeling confident enough with their crew work and started working on their tactical calls. And what a call did Ed Wright make before the start. Conditions were getting light and tricky and Wright saw the big right shift that was to come.
Vasilij Zbogar positioned the AC45 yacht at the pin end of the line and the Spanish were off to a great start. Green Comm Racing rounded the first mark in second place and held off most of the fleet. They scored their best result with a fourth place, trailing sailing giants such Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Racing.
Green Comm Racing's good performance continued in the second race. Once again the crew made a good call to start at the pin end, however with a slower pace than the previous race. The Spanish yacht fell at the bottom of the fleet but the Olympic champions onboard once again showed their sailing skills. Green Comm Racing climbed two positions during the race and crossed the finish line in seventh, a mere 6 seconds behind Loïck Peyron.
The long and tough week started taking its toll on Green Comm Racing's crew but as helmsman Vasilij Zbogar says 'we'll die before we give up.' Just like the previous race, an average start didn't affect the morale onboard and an excellent final upwind leg gave Race Comm Racing the opportunity to pass Aleph and China Team and finish again seventh.
Quotes of the day
Vasilij Zbogar, helmsman: 'This has been a FANTASTIC day. We have only been sailing for seven days on an AC45 and we clearly showed the potential we have. So far this week we didn't want to push too much in the prestart but today all the guys on the boat decided it was time we did push a little bit in the starting line.
We are making huge steps forward but we still need to work on our maneuvers. Sailing upwind was a problem for us but are now getting much better, especially after the training session we had with Russell Coutts.
I want to thank the entire team, they have all been incredible today!'
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