The seeding for the match racing has finished with the end of the second day’s fleet racing
For the second day running, Artemis Racing won two of the three heats at the Plymouth Match Racing Championship. With a second place to add to their two victories today, Terry Hutchinson’s team dominated the seeding fleet race phase of the Match Racing Championships.
“The boys did really nice work,” said skipper Terry Hutchinson. “The boat was going really well all day. The trimmers had us going as well as the boat has ever gone. But we’re mindful it’s only two days and we have a lot more work ahead of us.”
There was good news too for China Team, who earned a third place finish in the final race of the day; a rewarding result for a hard-working crew.
The breeze was steadier and slightly stronger than the previous day, making it easier for the leaders to stay ahead once they’d were in front. This put a lot of emphasis on the need for a good start, and time after time some crews pushed it too hard, being forced to go back and restart. In the first race ORACLE Racing Coutts was over early, next heat it was Team Korea, and in the final heat Green Comm Racing and ORACLE Racing Spithill.
In addition to Artemis Racing, Energy Team was a consistent performer across the two days of racing, finishing fourth in the seedings, a good boost for Loick Peyron and his French crew.
There were moments of brilliance for other new teams highlighted by China Team’s third place finish in the last race of the afternoon. Skipper Charlie Ogletree was pleased after a tough couple of days getting the boat fixed after a spectacular capsize during training on Tuesday. “We felt like we deserved that after the last couple of days. A great one for all the guys involved, nice to see the hard work paying off.”
ORACLE Racing Coutts struggled in the early part of the day, but made amends with a resounding victory at the end of the afternoon. His team mate James Spithill on the other hand could not get back into the final race after going back to restart and saw his seeding drop to fifth place.
The Plymouth Match Racing Championship continues on Friday, with match racing quarter and semi finals scheduled. Racing begins at 14:10 local time (GMT+1). As top seed, Artemis Racing has a bye into the semi finals, and will not race on Friday. The other eight teams will fight to advance in head to head match races.
All racing can be seen live on www.youtube.com/americascup. There will also be a post race press conference on Friday, streamed on YouTube at 1800 local time (GMT+1).
RESULTS Overall Positions/(points)
1 – Artemis Racing – 1,4,1,1,1,2 (56)
2 – Emirates Team New Zealand – 4,2,2,2,2,4 (50)
3 – ORACLE Racing Coutts – 5,3,5,5,5,1 (42)
4 – Energy Team – 2,7,4,4,4,6 (39)
5 – ORACLE Racing Spithill – 3,5,6,3,3,8 (38)
6 – Team Korea – 6,1,3,9,6,5 (37)
7 – China Team – 8,8,8,8,8,3 (23)
8 – Aleph – 7,6,9,7,9,7 (23)
9 – Green Comm Racing – DSQ,9,7,6,7,9 (19)
YW STORIES
Read what Matthew Sheahan and Elaine Bunting are up to in Plymouth at the AC World Series