America's Cup World Series Newport - Sunday July 1: Team Statements

Team Statements: America's Cup World Series Newport
Day 4 - Final Match Race and Final Fleet Race

July 1, 2012

On this page:
America's Cup: Oracle Team USA Wins 2011-12 ACWS Overall
Oracle Team USA: Coutts Wins Match, Spithill Wins Season
Artemis Racing: Swedish Team is Season Match Race Champion
Luna Rossa Challenge: First in Fleet, Third in Match for Newport

From America's Cup Event Authority:

ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL wins 2011-12 AC World Series

Newport proved to be a statement event for the US defender of the America’s Cup as ORACLE TEAM USA was prominent in all areas of the leaderboard. Jimmy Spithill’s team earned the overall 2011-12 AC World Series Championship with a strong second place finishes in both the match racing and fleet racing in Newport. Spithill also claimed the overall season Fleet Racing Championship while Sweden’s Artemis Racing won the inaugural season’s Match Racing Championship.

“Consistency had been the key,” Spithill said moments before he was handed the newly commissioned AC World Series trophy. “We were the last team to arrive here, but we came out and performed under pressure. For us it was very satisfying to see us step up and the other guys fall back when the pressure came on.”

His veteran stable-mate very nearly stole the day in front of a capacity crowd of spectators at Fort Adams. Russell Coutts won the Newport Match Racing Championship over Spithill and almost took out the fleet race as well, but was denied that honor by Chris Draper’s Luna Rossa Piranha team, who took advantage of a penalty to the Coutts team to grab a lead they would extend to the finish, to grab the Newport Fleet Racing Championship. Coutts was under intense pressure in the latter stages of the race from the Italian Swordfish team, but just held on for second place.

“Today just happened to work out for us. We got some nice breaks, but I wouldn’t give us too much credit for it,” Coutts said. “As a team, we’re really happy. Jimmy and his guys won the World Series and that’s what we came here to do… We’re always out there to win, we’re not there to just sail around the buoys - we want to win.”

For Chris Draper, the fleet racing win was a nice turn around after a difficult week: “We’ve had a tough week, the team’s been pretty down, but I’m pleased that both boats did well today. We needed that result to prove to ourselves that we could do it, so we’re happy.”

Terry Hutchinson’s Artemis Racing placed fourth in the Newport Match Racing Championship this week, which earned his team enough points to win the Match Racing title for the season.

“It’s a nice milestone for the team,” Hutchinson said, his mood tempered somewhat by a poor fleet race on Sunday. “But I think we have a lot of work to do. There are a lot of areas we can do better. But we have 14 months to do it and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

The Newport event marks the end of the first season of AC World Series racing and follows previous events in Cascais (POR), Plymouth (UK), San Diego (USA), Naples and Venice (ITA). Regatta Director Iain Murray and his team have conducted 130 races over 30 days of racing in the six international venues. Over the time, only one day of races has been postponed due to weather.

Sunday’s racing was broadcast live, coast to coast, in the USA on NBC, marking the return of the Cup to network television for the first time in more than 20 years. The final day of racing in the opening two events of the 2012-13 AC World Series in San Francisco in August and October will likewise be shown on NBC.

Racing will start anew next month with the 2012-13 AC World Series in San Francisco from August 21-26. The new Ben Ainslie Racing will join the circuit as it comes to the host city of the 34th America’s Cup.

Quotes:
Loïck Peyron, skipper, Energy Team, reflection on the season: “After six events and almost one year of racing, we need to improve still in our match racing, but in the fleet racing we are happy to be third overall for the season, which is good. Now, we look forward to the racing in San Francisco in August and October.”

Dean Barker, skipper, Emirates Team New Zealand, on a tough day: “We had a nice start and we’re second at the first mark and then we just blew it. We made a couple of mistakes and fell back to fifth or sixth and from there it was very difficult to fight our way back through.”

Nathan Outteridge, skipper, Team Korea, on his team’s performance: “We didn’t have an ideal start, but we kept moving forward and on the last leg upwind we really nailed it and made up some places. I think we’ve performed better than we were initially hoping. This week I think we sailed the best we’ve sailed the whole time. So we’re really looking forward to San Francisco.”

2011-12 AC World Series Overall Championship Leaderboard
(Team, Match Racing Points, Fleet Racing Points, Total Points)
1. ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL…47 – 55 – 102 points
2. Emirates Team New Zealand…41 – 52 – 93 points
3. Artemis Racing…50 – 32 – 82 points
4. Energy Team…38 – 36 – 74 points
5. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS…39 – 29 – 68 points
6. Team Korea…33 – 33 – 66 points
7. Luna Rossa Piranha…26 – 26 – 52 points
8. Luna Rossa Swordfish…15 – 16 – 31 points
9. China Team…15 – 16 – 31 points

From Oracle Team USA:

Oracle Team USA Spithill Wins ACWS Season Championship

ORACLE TEAM USA CEO Russell Coutts stood giving an interview to a reporter, reflecting on the final day of racing at ACWS – Newport when team skipper Jimmy Spithill sidled up next to him.

“Nice work you old bugger. Hey, you still got a few tricks in you. How you feeling, alright?” said Spithill, who turned 33 years old earlier this week and had just been crowned the first-ever America’s Cup World Series overall champion.

“You’re too young to know some of those tricks,” the 50-year-old Coutts shot back with a laugh.

Earlier in the day Coutts had defeated Spithill to win the ACWS – Newport Match Racing Championship. The four time America’s Cup winner then nearly pulled off victory in a thrilling fleet race finale. In a race marked with constant place changes, Coutts showed that he still has a deft touch and steely determination despite having competed little in the past six months.

“We started well in the match race, and that was good. But Jimmy had a couple of problems onboard today, they had a bad furl that killed their race,” Coutts said. “But I’m really mad that we messed up that fleet race. If we were ever going to win a race, that one would’ve been it.”

Although Coutts finished second the day was full of positives for ORACLE TEAM USA, which is gearing up to defend the America’s Cup in San Francisco in September 2013. Spithill placed second in both the ACWS – Newport fleet and match racing championships, the fourth time in six events that his crew has placed on both podiums. And now it adds the America’s Cup World Series trophy alongside the venerable America’s Cup itself, won in 2010.

“I’m pretty happy with the state of everything,” said tactician John Kostecki. “Most importantly the World Series seems a huge success. We’ve been through Europe and now here in the States. I think this Newport regatta was a huge success; it’s a really nice venue here. Each event has gotten better and better and San Francisco will be exciting too.”

ORACLE TEAM USA now heads home to its base at Pier 80 in San Francisco for the next four months with a full slate of activities on the schedule. The team’s first AC72 will begin sailing next month, and the first regatta of the 2012-13 America’s Cup World Series is scheduled Aug. 23-26. It’ll be the first time that America’s Cup racing will be featured on the Bay.

“We’re looking forward to getting back home to San Francisco,” said Spithill. “We have some testing sessions coming up and the launch of the first AC72. That’s an exciting time. And when the ACWS kicks off again it’ll be another level of racing that we’ve seen. You’ll see more thrills and spills, and more teams. It’s exciting. I can’t wait to see the event back in our hometown.”

The first ACWS season visited six venues in four countries, and Coutts voiced satisfaction with the state of the game. But he knows that changes are needed to keep improving.

“The America’s Cup World Series is good right now, but we have to take it to the next level and we’ll see some of that in San Francisco later this summer,” said Coutts.

From Artemis Racing:

Final Sunday Report

Racing wrapped up at the America’s Cup World Series this afternoon in Newport, with the Match Racing finals and the Grand Finale fleet race.

Coutts’ win over Spithill in the Match Racing finals made Artemis Racing’s title official and Artemis was crowned Match Racing Champion for the 2011-2012 America’s Cup World Series at this evening’s prizegiving. An important milestone for the team, as they look ahead to the 34th America's Cup, the ultimate match race.

In the overall Series standings, Artemis Racing finished third with 82 points behind Emirates Team New Zealand (93 points) in second place and winners ORACLE Team USA Spithill (102 points).

As with all ACWS events, the race for all the points is the Super Sunday fleet race. Challenging conditions today saw plenty of lead changes today, but it was Luna Rossa Piranha with Chris Draper at the helm who took the top prize. Artemis battled through the fleet but an incident at the second windward mark rounding, which later saw ORACLE Team USA Coutts penalized, dealt a tough blow to the team which was difficult to recover from. Artemis finished 7th.

“Winning the ACWS Match Racing Championships is great, but I have to admit it is a little bit bittersweet after today’s race. It is a nice milestone for the team but we have a lot of work to do,” said Skipper Terry Hutchinson (USA). “There are certain aspects of our programme that are really good and certain areas where we can improve. We have 14 months to do it and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Training and preparations for the 34th America’s Cup continue for Artemis Racing, meanwhile the next event is the RC44 Sweden Cup (18-22 July) in Marstrand followed by the America’s Cup World Series in San Francisco from 21-26 August.

Luna Rossa Challenge 2013

Luna Rossa First in Fleet Race Standings, Third in Match Race

Newport (Rhode Island, USA), July 1st 2012 -Luna Rossa Challenge today won the final event of the 2011-2012 America's Cup World Series (fleet racing ranking).

The Luna Rossa Piranha crew, with Chris Draper (helmsman), Francesco Bruni (wing trimmer), Pierluigi de Felice (trimmer), Nick Hutton (trimmer) and Dave Carr (freestyler), took a win in the final fleet race and earned the 30 points necessary to reach the podium as winners of the overall event scoreboard.

It was clear that both Luna Rossa AC45 catamarans were ready to fight for the podium from the moment they crossed the starting line: Luna Rossa Swordfish chose the committee boat and Piranha started on pinhead. At the first mark Oracle-Coutts was at the head of the fleet, with both Luna Rossa catamarans close behind. On the second downwind leg Luna Rossa Piranha, in a good controlling position with respect to its American rival, overtook Oracle -Coutts and took the lead. From the downwind leg onwards Draper’s boat kept a comfortable advantage and defended his position up to the finish line. Luna Rossa Swordfish, with a strong comeback, alternated its position between second and third place throughout the regatta and finally crossed the finish line third at only 7 seconds from Oracle-Coutts.

“We sailed well today – declared Max Sirena (skipper of Luna Rossa Challenge 2013) – we didn’t have a good week but in spite of this the team reacted as hoped and achieved an excellent result, both in the fleet and match races in which we placed third.”

In the Newport fleet race event Luna Rossa Piranha came in first and Luna Rossa Swordfish fifth.

Patrizio Bertelli, in Newport for the induction to the America's Cup Hall of Fame ceremony, was doubly pleased to witness the victory of Luna Rossa in this Newport event.

The match race final was sailed between the two Oracle boats: James Spithill was beaten by Russell Coutts. The match race ranking therefore shows Coutts first, followed by team-mate Spithill, with Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper/Francesco Bruni) in third place.

Team Luna Rossa’s next race event will be in the America's Cup World Series 2012-2013 to will take place in San Francisco (USA) from August 21st to August 26th.

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