April 15, 2011

 
Luna Rossa returns to the America's Cup.  In style, of course. Photo:©2012 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

From America's Cup Event Authority:

Luna Rossa Thrills Crowd - Wins Grand Finale Fleet Racing Championship in Naples

Chris Draper led his Luna Rossa crew to a thrilling win in the final fleet race in Naples, Italy, collecting 50 points for his efforts to vault up the leaderboard and win the AC World Series Naples Fleet Racing Championship.  The victory kicked off celebrations among the tens of thousands of Italian America’s Cup fans lining the Naples waterfront to catch a glimpse of their heroes

“We’re very pleased with the event, with the team effort,” an excited Draper said afterwards.  “We didn't have huge expectations, but to come away with a first (in the fleet racing) and a second (in the match racing) is awesome."

Conditions were light, tricky and testing on Sunday, but Draper and his crew were up to the challenge.  As was James Spithill and his Oracle Racing crew, who appeared to be dead and buried in last place early in the race, only to recover and claim an impressive second place.

“The key thing was hanging in there and looking for the opportunities, and there were plenty out there,” Spithill said.  “JK (tactician John Kostecki) and the guys did a very nice job In those sorts of conditions you can go from hero to zero in a matter of seconds.  We knew we just had to hang tough and wait for the opportunities.  The guys found some good ways back and got us up there.”

Earlier in the afternoon, the Match Racing Championship was decided when Terry Hutchinson and his Artemis Racing team took advantage of a pre-start mistake by Chris Draper’s team to sail away with a win in the sudden-death Final.  The victory was a vindication of sorts for Artemis, who had capsized in the first race of the regatta, damaging their wing and being shut out of the points on Wednesday. 

“I can't say enough about the effort from the guys on the boat and on the shore,” Hutchinson said.  “After Wednesday, we’d have taken today's result, that's for sure.  Our team trainer says it's not how you fall down, but how you get up.  Now we have to come back in a few weeks in Venice and work on our consistency.”

No records were set in this edition of the AC500 Speed Trials, as the light winds meant the fastest runs came at the end, during a brief period of stronger conditions.  Oracle Racing Bundock was able to fend off Artemis Racing by a microscopic .02 seconds to post the fastest time.

A major story in Naples has been the enthusiasm of the city as shown by the size of the crowds in the event village.  Sunday was no exception, with the crowds lined deep along the waterfront to watch the action.  Much of the support, unsurprisingly, was for Luna Rossa. 

“We sailed along the shore after the finish and it's insane to see how many people are here,” said Luna Rossa’s Draper.  “As a sailor you'd never imagine having so many people watching.  It's great for the sport, and great to be part of an Italian team in front of all these people.  We're very proud.”

The America’s Cup World Series now packs up and moves north to Venice, for the fifth stop on the circuit in May.

The results from Naples mean there is a new leader on the overall AC World Series Championship leaderboard.  Oracle Racing Spithill has overhauled Emirates Team New Zealand to lead by a slender one point after four events.  The 2011-2012 AC World Series concludes in Newport, Rhode Island on July 1, where it appears the Championship will be decided. 

Fleet Racing Championship - Standings (seven races):
1.  Luna Rossa - Piranha (Helmsman: Chris Draper); 92 points
2.  Oracle Racing - Spithill (Skipper: James Spithill); 77 points
3.  Emirates Team New Zealand (Skipper: Dean Barker); 60 points
4.  Energy Team (Skipper: Yann Guichard); 54 points
5.  Team Korea (Skipper: Nathan Outteridge); 49 points
6.  Luna Rossa - Swordfish (Helmsman: Paul Campbell-James); 41 points
7.  Artemis Racing (Skipper: Terry Hutchinson); 40 points
8.  Oracle Racing - Bundock (Skipper: Darren Bundock); 37 points
9.  China Team (Skipper: Fred Le Peutrec); 15 points

Match Racing Championship Sunday’s races

Final Artemis Racing beat Luna Rossa Piranha
SF1 Artemis Racing beat Luna Rossa Swordfish
SF2 Luna Rossa Piranha beat Oracle Racing Bundock

2011-12 America’s Cup World Series Provisional leaderboard

Place Team Match Points Fleet Points TOTAL POINTS

1 Oracle Racing - Spithill 30 37 67
2 Emirates Team New Zealand 30 36 66
3 Artemis Racing 33 21 54
4 Energy Team 25 23 48
5T Oracle Racing - Bundock 26 21 47
5T Team Korea 25 22 47
7 China Team 12 14 26
8 Green Comm Racing 11 12 23
9 Luna Rossa - Piranha 9 10 19
10 Luna Rossa - Swordfish 7 5 12

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From Luna Rossa Challenge 2013

America's Cup World Series Naples, Luna Rossa Wins

Chris Draper and crew brought Luna Rossa Piranha home with a regatta win in their first ACWS event.
 Photo:©2012 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget
 

Today Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 won the America's Cup World Series in Naples.

The catamaran Luna Rossa Piranha, crewed by Chris Draper (helm), Francesco Bruni (wing trimmer), Pierluigi de Felice (trimmer), Nick Hutton (trimmer) and Dave Carr (freestyler) won the last race of the Naples event, the most important one in terms of score, thus reaching the top of the podium.

Second place went to Oracle Racing – Bundock and third to Emirates Team New Zealand with 60 points.  Luna Rossa Swordfish finished in seventh place in the fleet ranking.

Artemis Racing was the winner of the match race trophy.  The Swedish catamaran, helmed by Terry Hutchinson, beat Luna Rossa Piranha in the final, [after] qualifying to race against Oracle Racing Bundock over which it then won.  Luna Rossa Swordfish lost the semi-final regatta against Artemis Racing.  For the duration of the racing week the weather in the gulf of Naples featured shifty winds, strong rain and storms.

Max Sirena (Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 skipper): “I'm very happy with Luna Rossa's victory in Naples.  The whole team has done really well; we worked very hard in the last three weeks and are now proud of this result, especially because it is our first time racing with these boats with which other teams have been practicing for over a year.

Luna Rossa chief Patrizio Bertelli receives congratulations from Oracle Racing skipper James Spithill.  The young Australian was helmsman on Luna Rossa's 2007 challenger.
Photo:©2012 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

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From Oracle Racing:

Spithill Grabs Overall Lead in ACWS Season

Oracle5 made the Semi-Finals, but was eliminated Sunday by Luna Rossa Piranha. Photo:©2012 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Oracle Racing Spithill placed second on the water in a testing race, but it was good enough to claim the overall lead in the America’s Cup World Series 2011-12 Season Championship with two events remaining on the schedule.

“The good news is we took the overall lead.  That’s the most important part,” said Jimmy Spithill on taking over the series lead from Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker).

The final day of competition at ACWS Naples saw yet another variety of condition: light and lumpy.  The wind on the racecourse peaked around 8 knots but at other times was non-existent, and with a lumpy sea running the AC45 catamarans were slamming on the sea due to the lack of power from the light winds.

After a slow start, Oracle Racing Spithill was in 8th place at the first reach mark and 6th through the first leeward gate.  But by the 2nd leeward gate the quintet had climbed up to 2nd place, a position the sailors would hold to the finish of the 40-minute race.

“We got a little stuck off the start line, were ordinary for a while,” said skipper Jimmy Spithill.  “But we knew there were going to be opportunities on the race track.  The guys stayed calm and JK (John Kostecki, tactician) did a real nice job calling the breeze.  I thought we had good boatspeed upwind and we clawed our way back.”

Oracle Racing Spithill crossed the finish line 1:15 behind winner Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper), which went on to win the ACWS Naples Overall Championship in the crew’s first regatta.  The Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 was formed over the past winter after the conclusion of ACWS San Diego last November.

Luna Rossa Piranha earned 50 points for the race win and finished with the high score of 92 points.  Oracle Racing Spithill placed second with 77 points and Emirates Team New Zealand third with 60 points.

By placing second in the fleet racing and seventh in the match racing, one place ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand, Oracle Racing Spithill leapt into the overall lead in the ACWS 2011-12 season championship with two events remaining, Venice, May 15-20, Newport, June 26-July 1.

“We didn’t have our best regatta here, but we’ll go back and work hard for Venice and see what we have to sharpen up on,” said Spithill.  “But the most important part of this regatta was getting the overall lead.”

Oracle Racing Bundock placed 6th in the final fleet race and finished seventh overall in the regatta with 37 points.  Oracle Racing Bundock also placed third in the ACWS Naples Match Racing Championship after dropping its semifinal match against Luna Rossa Piranha.

Oracle Racing Bundock is apparently still the fastest AC45 on the water.  The crew won the ACWS Naples 500 Meter Speed Trial today with the fastest time of 47.56 seconds at a top speed of 20.43 knots in winds between 7 and 10 knots.

By comparison, Oracle Racing Bundock won the San Diego speed trial last November with a time of 36.16 seconds at a top speed of 26.87 knots, the fastest ACWS speed trial ever recorded.  The winds were blowing 16 to 20 knots that day.

“The whole fleet’s a little up and down, that’s just the caliber,” said skipper Darren Bundock.  “We need to go away and focus on getting consistent.  Some of our starts were very average.  And today we had a good start and still finished down.  But we’ve seen almost every team have a bad race, one or two.  It’s tough out there.”

--©2012 Oracle Racing

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From Emirates Team New Zealand:

Good Record Suffers in High-Points Race

New Zealand impressive string of first-place fleet finishes did not add up to a regatta victory.  Photo:©2012 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Emirates Team New Zealand’s good record in the fleet racing championship of the Americas Cup World Series, Naples came to naught on the last day.

Going in to the start on 52 points with four wins from six races, the massive scoring of the final race (50 points for the win then  30, 20, 20, 15, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 compared with 10 for the win during the week) skewed the final result.

Emirates Team New Zealand went into the final day on 52 points, five ahead of Oracle Racing 4 and 10 ahead of Luna Rossa Piranha.

The weather was very light - not exactly Emirates Team New Zealand’s favorite conditions and a bad start (being shut out by Luna Rossa at the committee boat end of the line) meant we languished towards the back of the fleet.

In the conditions three knots of breeze at the start - there were few passing lanes. 

Emirates Team New Zealand finished seventh to collect eight points.  Luna Rossa Piranha won the race to collect to 50 points, catapulting them to 92 and top of the leader board for the ACWS fleet race championships at Naples.

Oracle Racing 4 was second on 77 and Emirates team New Zealand on 60 points was third.
 

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From Artemis Racing:

Team Update: Artemis Wins Match Race Championship

Seeded eighth out of nine, Artemis Racing shrugged off earlier problems to win the Naples Match Race Champiuobnship.
Photo:©2012 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget
 

There was a lot on the table this morning at the Americas Cup World Series Naples, with the Match Racing Semi-Finals and Championship race, followed by speed trials and the grand finale fleet race of the event.  Despite the rain, thousands of spectators lined the shore to watch the racing.

Having defeated Emirates Team New Zealand and secured a slot in the semi-finals, Artemis lined up against Luna Rossa Swordfish with Paul Campbell-James (GBR) at the helm in the first match race of the day.  Terry Hutchinson’s years of match racing experience shone through as the Swedish team defended then stretched their lead around the race course to win by 14 seconds.

Soon thereafter, Luna Rossa Piranha defeated Oracle Racing Bundock to move into the finals against Artemis Racing.  An excellent start by Terry Hutchinson put the team out in front of Chris Draper and the Italians from the outset.  Draper worked hard to try to close the gap on the Swedish team.  Despite wide splits on at least two occasions, Hutchinson stuck to his game plan and led the team to victory to win the Match Racing Championships.

Winning the ACWS Naples Match Racing Championships puts Artemis Racing at the top of the overall leaderboard after four ACWS events with 33 points, while Oracle Racing Spithill and Emirates Team New Zealand are tied for second place both with 30 points.

The speed trials immediately followed and once again Artemis was on the top of their game for the 500m sprint, with an average speed of 20.42 knots, placing the team just two one hundredths of a second behind Oracle Racing Bundock.

The grand finale ensued and the heavens opened.  In about four knots of wind, the most important race of the event got underway.  Luna Rossa Piranha closed out Emirates Team New Zealand at the start and it was Team China who led to the first two marks.  Artemis Racing gradually worked its way through the pack in the extremely light air conditions.  Luna Rossa Piranha put in an impressive performance to win the race, with Oracle Racing Spithill second and Artemis less than two boat lengths behind in 3rd.

“It was a great effort on the part of the entire team to get the boat to the spot we are in after our disastrous first day racing here in Naples.  The guys onboard did a fantastic job.  In the next few months, we won’t have two boats to train with until San Francisco later this summer, but we will be focused on the much larger wing when we get back to Valencia.  This a good base line to set for ourselves”, said Hutchinson.

“We’ve been focusing a lot on the match racing in the last six weeks back in Valencia.  So it was good to see all the hard work that we put in pay off.  These events are a great to test the mettle of our team in the match racing, but there is a lot more work ahead of us.  It is a long road to the Americas Cup,” continued Hutchinson.

For Artemis Racing, it’s back to Valencia where design, development, testing and training for the 34th Americas Cup continues.  The next stop on the America's Cup World Series tour is Venice from 17-20 May.

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