America's Cup World Series - Cascais Day 8: Match Racing Championsip: Team Statements

Team Statements: America's Cup World Series Cascais
Qualifying - Day 8 - Match Race Championship Finals

August 13, 2011

James Spithill and Oracle4 beat Dean Barker and his boys on Saturday.
Photo:©2011 Guilain Grenier/Oracle Racing

On this page: ACWS Cascais Day 8 - Match Racing Championship Statements
America's Cup: Spithill Sweeps Match Racing Championship
Oracle Racing: James Spithill crowned Match Race Champion
Team Korea: White Tiger Challenge Lights up Match Racing Finals
Emirates Team New Zealand: Win Streak Comes to an End

From America's Cup Event Authority:

Spithill Sweeps Match Race Championship

James Spithill and his Oracle Racing crew swept aside the previously ascendant Emirates Team New Zealand to win the Cascais AC Match Race Championship on Saturday, as the AC World Series Cascais enters the final weekend of racing.

Many of the matches featured close starts, blazing speed runs to the first turning mark and early passing lanes. With the race course boundaries crowded by spectator boats, Spithill and his crew sailed near flawless races on Saturday, with good starts, strong crew work, and winning decision-making.

“I feel like we’ve ramped up as we’ve gone through the week,” Spithill said, after the victory. “We’ve peaked at the right time. I’m very happy. It feels fantastic.”

For Emirates Team New Zealand it was a disappointing day, after the team dominated the competition to this point.

“Like any day there’s a list of things you can do a lot better, we have a lot of improvement left to make and things to develop,” Barker said. “We’re looking for an improvement tomorrow”

Artemis Racing was forced to settle for third place after withdrawing from their Semi Final against Spithill when their giant gennaker sail came tumbling down on deck before it could be furled. Rather than risk more damage to the equipment, skipper Terry Hutchinson made the wise decision to pull out of the race.

“We had a little bit of an issue in which the gennaker came down and it was quickly going to start doing a lot of damage to the boat so we took the decision of retire and protect the asset,” Hutchinson explained. “But we did a lot of things really, really, well.”

In fourth place was a very happy Team Korea. Chris Draper and his crew opened the day with a win over Oracle Racing Coutts, to make it into the semis.

“We’re over the moon to finish where we have,” Draper said. “It’s surpassed our expectations. We were very pleased to have beaten Russell Coutts, so it was a bit difficult to control our emotions, but we’re over the moon.”

The top three teams were celebrated in a podium ceremony following the last match, where winning skipper James Spithill was presented with a Louis Vuitton Watch by Yves Carcelle, the Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton.

On Sunday, the focus shifts back to fleet racing. All nine teams will be on the water for the AC World Series Cascais Championship, a winner-takes-all, single fleet race, for ranking points that will carry forward throughout the America’s Cup World Series. Start time is 1500 local time (GMT+1).

From Oracle Racing:

Spithill gets the flags flying, beating ETNZ in the Final 2-0
Photo:©2011 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

James Spithill crowned Match Race Champion

In a pair of thrilling match races that featured four lead changes, skipper James Spithill and his impressive Oracle Racing Spithill crew won the America’s Cup World Series Cascais Match Racing Championship with a 2-0 defeat of Dean Barker’s Emirates Team New Zealand.

Spithill’s team of John Kostecki (USA), Joe Newton (AUS), Dirk de Ridder (NED_ and Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (NED) displayed slick work, sharp thinking and calm attitudes in reversing the tables on their old foes from down under. They previously had lost the daily final to the Kiwis on Wednesday and Friday.

“It feels fantastic to win. It’s good to get a couple of wins back on Deano and his guys,” said Spithill of today’s two fast and thrilling matches.

The Oracle Racing Spithill crew succeeded on a day when the wind was shifty and puffy. The windspeed appeared stronger on the bottom of the racecourse than the top, which made it tricky sailing upwind.

“The guys did a fantastic job today,” Spithill said. “JK (tactician Kostecki) was on fire calling the tactics and wind.”

In the first race, Spithill and crew won the start and led at the first mark rounding but the Kiwis closed up on a puff and the two crews were racing boat-for-boat again, just as they had finished Friday afternoon.

Oracle Racing Spithill held a slim lead around the leeward mark. On the ensuing upwind leg the two crews swapped the lead three times. Oracle Racing Spithill was overlapped to the outside at the next mark rounding, and then overtook and sailed away from the Kiwis when they had troubles with their gennaker, the large sail at the front of the catamaran that is mounted on a roller-furling system.

Team New Zealand got the jump off the start line in the second race, but Oracle Racing Spithill overtook the Kiwis at the first mark rounding when they again had trouble with their gennaker.

The two crews were essentially even at the leeward gate, but Oracle Racing Spithill gained control on the next leg and then sailed away to a large win of more than 2 minutes.

“The crew with the minimum amount of errors wins. We feel that we’ve ramped up through the competition,” Spithill said. “When we started last week we were missing a few things. But we’ve put it together through the week.”

The Oracle Racing Coutts crew also advanced to today’s final rounds of the match racing championship, but was vanquished in the quarterfinals by Team Korea. Oracle Racing Coutts, led by skipper Russell Coutts, placed fifth overall.

“We just haven’t had a great regatta tactically. It’s tough, you know,” said Coutts, the four-time winner of the America’s Cup. “Team Korea sailed a very, very nice race and got some good shifts.”

While Coutts may have lost on the water, his vision of an America’s Cup in catamarans appears a sure victory. Today’s racing for the championship was as good as match racing gets. The action was tight with plenty of lead changing.

“There’ve been a lot of comments about match racing in catamarans; guys sitting on the fence and the jury’s out,” Spithill said. “But it’s obvious that it’s going to work.”

Crew Lists

Oracle Racing Coutts: Russell Coutts (helm), Murray Jones (wing trim), Matthew Mason (middleman), Daniel Fong (trimmer), Simeon Tienpont (bow)

Oracle Racing Spithill: James Spithill (helm), John Kostecki (tactician), Dirk de Ridder (wing trim), Joe Newton (trimmer), Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (bow)

Oracle Quotes:

James Spithill:

The guys did a great job today. JK (John Kostecki, Oracle Racing Spithill tactician) was on fire calling the tactics and wind.
It feels fantastic to win. It’s good to get a couple of wins back on Deano (Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand skipper) and his guys.
Both boats were very even speed-wise. Today, the pressure was so up and down it was all about who was in a puff and who wasn’t. Both boats are very even.
The crew with the minimum amount of errors wins. We feel that we’ve ramped up through the competition. When we started last week we were missing a few things. But we’ve put it together through the week.
There’ve been a lot of comments about match racing in catamarans; guys sitting on the fence and the jury’s out. But it’s obvious that it’s going to work.
The reaching start is an absolute winner. I think in monohulls you spend half the time stuck head-to-wind. It’s good, exciting and fast.
The majority of teams are ramping up as well. Some don’t have as much experience, but look at Green Comm. They had a fantastic day yesterday. Tomorrow we’ll see a great fleet race.
Regarding tomorrow’s concluding fleet race: We have to go back and focus on some of stuff we did today. I feel like we ended the fleet racing well yesterday, but if we have breeze like today it’ll be a tricky race.

Russell Coutts:

We just haven’t had a great regatta tactically. It’s tough, you know. Team Korea sailed a very, very nice race and got some good shifts.
We obviously made a mistake at the bottom mark the first time.
We had a couple of opportunities after that too, but once again, we didn’t make the right choices.
We’re tacking OK and sailing the boat better, probably, than we have been earlier in the week in those conditions.
We need to think about how we are calling some of these moves.
For quite of few of us it’s a matter of experience in these boats. Not many of us on our boat have raced in multihulls in earnest.
We have done a lot of testing miles, particularly in windy San Francisco conditions. In the light, shifty conditions we haven’t really done much. None of us on our boat have done the Extreme 40 circuit and any serious multihull racing.
I think that shows. Sometimes we have flashes of sailing well; other times sailing less well.
We know some of the errors we’ve made for sure, so it’s a question of how to avoid these the next time.

From Team Korea:

Korea's White Tiger Challenge Lights Up Match Racing Finals in Portugal

The Cinderella story for Team Korea went into the realms of the surreal today, when they beat Russell Coutts and his all star Oracle Racing team in the quarter finals of the Americas Cup World series event taking place in Cascais, Portugal , to claim a place in the final four of the match race finals with an outstanding performance.

It was an extraordinary achievement to reach this stage of the competition, having taken their AC45 catamaran for an inaugural test sail exactly one month ago, and is a tribute to the skill and strength of the sailing crew led by Chris Draper of the UK, together with a first rate support team.

Team Korea were facing a massive challenge to advance through the winner-take-all single match against Coutts, but the team were quietly confident leaving the dock, heading out to try and write their name in the history books. An uneventful two minute pre-start saw the teams barely close, but as the start neared, Coutts put the pedal down and blasted across the line ahead, Korea slightly slower on the gas, and it looked as though it might just be all over.

Rounding the first reaching mark, Coutts held his line, while Draper gybed to the right side of the course, and straight into better pressure coming from the right. Coutts went to cover, but Team Korea quickly made up the ground and overtook him, according to the Virtual Eye graphics on TV. Coming into the leeward gate at mark two on starboard, Draper held Coutts out wide, reaching the two boat length circle first, and gybing around with just a seven second lead over this legend in the sport. Everyone watching this spectacle play out wondered if the upstarts from Korea achieve a shock result, or would the experience of Coutts and his Americas Cup winners see them breeze past?

Learning from his mistake while leading a qualifying fleet race earlier in the week, Draper stayed on top of Coutts, matching their every tack, and rounding mark three at the top of the course with Coutts right on their tail, the White Tiger then bearing off downwind at top speed. By the bottom of the run downwind, Oracle were closing fast, and approaching mark four for the turn upwind again, Coutts went for what he thought was a gap by the mark boat, only to see Korea slam the door shut, Coutts calling for a penalty. The umpires disagreed, and that proved to be the defining moment as Team Korea roared away, stretching their lead all the way home, making no mistakes this time and covering the opposition the whole way, to land a historic victory, the team whooping in delight across the line with a winning margin of 130 meters, some 40 seconds lead over one of the greatest sailors of all time.

A thrilled Chris Draper said, “I met Russell Coutts a few years ago when I was nominated for the ISAF World Sailor of the year award, and always wanted to race against him. It’s quite something to beat a sailor of his caliber and experience. We’re going well, and enjoying it.”

To his credit and showing his professionalism, Russell came across later to congratulate the team on their success, certainly one of the stellar results of this new version of the Americas Cup competition that he has championed and helped create.

Team CEO Kim Dong-Young was overjoyed, “We had a marvelous day, no-one could imagine we would beat such a legendary sailor like Russell. I am glad we are performing so well as we are making the Americas Cup World Series races even more exciting by being the surprise team here, showing everyone what we can do. I warned Russell we would try and beat him last month and we did! I want to thank everyone who believed in us and helped us get here it is really amazing.”

Meanwhile, Sweden’s Artemis defeated Team Energy from France to also advance to the semi-final stage of the contest, where they would face yesterdays winner, James Spithill with the second Oracle racing boat. For Korea the mammoth task of taking on one of the favorites to win, Emirates Team New Zealand began, starting out as the definite underdogs given the experience, the financial backing and the sheer level of high quality training the kiwis have been able to afford, in the build up to the competition over the past seven months.

Entering the pre-start, the team looked to have a solid position for the first minute, but Dean Barker helming ETNZ has been here before, and managed to take control, positioning the boat closer to the start line at the pin end, and bearing off with almost perfect timing. Initially Korea held on in their wake, then gybed off to the right again in the same move that worked against Coutts, but the sheer boat speed of New Zealand saw them extend away into an astonishing 28 second lead by the second mark.

The kiwis were looking invincible again on this form, and covered Team Korea the whole way around the course, though once again Korea had impressive upwind speed, and managed to stay in contention. The onboard audio from the Korean yacht being relayed live to the internet, was testament to the never give up attitude of the crew, Draper urging everyone on in the hope that either a wind shift or an error by Barker and his crew would help them, which at this level can see a team go from first to last in seconds.

Barker and his team were faultless, taking the win by 40 seconds and inflicting the first match racing loss on Team Korea, now counting three victories and one defeat in the regatta, as New Zealand advanced to face Jimmy Spithill and his Oracle Racing team in the final. Unfortunately for ETNZ they lost the first race of the final after their gennaker fouled, and then Spithill dominated the next to take the first Americas Cup World Series Match Racing title with a two-zero score, and maximum championship points.

Skipper Draper was disappointed at losing to ETNZ, saying “We should have attacked them harder I feel, maybe I gybed away from them too early and should have stayed there longer with them off the start. After that, we simply didn't have their armory and we struggled to close the gap, but its still early days, were pleased at how we have developed and grown together over the past month. Now we have to keep that momentum going and build on what we’ve achieved here we know we can do better.”

What’s become clear over the past week of competition however, is largely what was expected ahead of the contest, in that the well financed teams of Oracle Racing, Artemis and New Zealand have topped the table, their experience, training and the sheer size of their operation enabling a clear advantage over the smaller teams. For Team Korea to achieve fourth place in the match racing contest of a new format event with a small crew, a fledgling team and still limited financial support is a stunning success, and testament to the work, dedication and skill of everyone who has helped achieve it.

But no-one is sitting back and enjoying the moment too much, as there is a still a quantum leap to be made if Korea is going to seriously challenge the bigger teams on a regular basis. Kim Dong-Young who founded the team commented, we have a long way to go yet but the interest in supporting the team in Korea is growing. We are putting Korea in the spotlight around the world, though baseball and soccer are our sports, but hopefully people will start to understand what we have done here at our first regatta and get behind us. Out on the water today the atmosphere was amazing when we were coming into the dock, with people on the boats cheering and applauding us and shouting Go Korea! We are the peoples favorites it seems, they like the little team that does well and we really appreciate their support. If we can get that happening back home, who knows what might be possible. We’d like to have a team with 48 million people on board!.

Tomorrow is the final day of the first event in a new era of the Americas Cup, and as in Formula One motor racing, there is just a single race to decide the points. After a week of practicing, all nine teams will bear down on the start line once again, with people watching live on TV and online around the world for a single 40-minute long race. The winner of the nine teams will score ten points towards the Fleet Racing World Championships, which will play out over eight regattas in all between now and July next year, the points accumulating from each of the races, finishing in Newport, Rhode Island in the USA.

The favorites to win tomorrow are certainly Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Racing, though Artemis should feature too, though what we have seen is that some teams are stronger than others depending on the wind conditions. Team Korea has delivered solid results throughout this week, but the tension is sure to be running high at 2pm local time tomorrow when the starter horn sounds, and hopes are high that the team can avoid any costly mistakes with the pressure fully on.

From Emirates Team New Zealand:

Win Streak Comes to an End

After an almost flawless five-day winning run the regatta preliminaries last weekend and then proving to be unbeatable in the daily combined fleet and match racing contests Emirates Team New Zealand faltered in the match racing final.

Today the performance of earlier in the week counted for nothing. It was match racing final day and the skate was wiped clean of accumulated points.

Emirates Team New Zealand was straight through to the semi-final on the strength of its daily wins, as was Oracle 4.

Barker dispatched Team Korea in the semi-final. James Spithill did the same with Artemis. Tension was in the air for the final between the two top-performing teams.

Barker said the team had made a number of uncharacteristic errors in the two final races sailed.

We didn’t put together the performance we wanted. To win you have to get more right than the other team. Today we didn’t.

The gennaker was again at the centre of the trouble: A wineglass at the third mark of the first race let Oracle 4 get away, yet Barker and crew were able to claw their way back into the race and twice took the lead only to have Spithill reclaim it.

In the second race Barker and crew led from the line and rounded the first mark in control but again gennaker handling gave Spithill the opportunity he needed to roll over the top and take the lead.

The crew never gave up the fight and a tacking duel closed the gap. At times it looked promising but Oracle 4 was never in grave danger. A large calm patch at the top mark cost NZ a lot of ground and the race were as good as over.

Barker said every team had learned a lot at Cascais about sailing catamarans in both fleet and match racing. Foundations were being laid for faster, closer and more exciting racing, he said.

We will take a lot away from Cascais and look forward to the next World Series regatta at Plymouth in September.

But the Cascais regatta is not over yet. Tomorrow fleet racing returns with one winner-take-all race. The winner will be declared champion of the Cascais AC45 World Series regatta.

Additional Links and Info:

Visit Official America's Cup website

CupInfo Home

Inquiries please contact: