Rivalry heats up ahead of 2011-12 AC World Series climax
With over 100 local junior sailors in the audience, ORACLE TEAM USA’s Jimmy Spithill and Emirates Team New Zealand’s Dean Barker both declared their intention to leave Newport with the inaugural AC World Series trophy in hand. And while Terry Hutchinson’s Artemis Racing still has a mathematical chance of playing the spoiler, most are looking at this as a two horse race for the title between Spithill and Barker.

Spithill’s ORACLE TEAM USA is in pole position with a narrow four-point advantage entering the regatta. But with 10 points available to the winner of each discipline here – match racing and fleet racing – that lead can disappear quickly.

This is why we’re in the World Series, to be in regatta pressure and put ourselves on the line,” said Spithill. “I’d rather go in to the final event four points clear than the other way, but it’s extremely close. The best thing is it will be decided on the water, and it will be decided on Sunday.”

“Absolutely,” Barker answered when asked if winning was the goal for his team. “We still think we have a very good chance. We need to put together a good result in the Match Racing Championship which will set up the opportunity to take the overall title. Then it comes down to how well we fleet race. I think we have as good a chance as anyone.”

Artemis Racing could easily have made this a three-team fight for the overall title, were it not for the fleet racing. The Swedish challenger leads the match race standings for the season, but sits in fourth place in fleet racing, something skipper Terry Hutchinson attributes to inconsistent starts: “It really doesn’t come down to anything but I haven’t started the boat well throughout the series,” explained Hutchinson. “It’s been a bit of an Achilles’ heel for us and it’s on me to make it better.”

Championship Racing in the AC World Series Newport is from June 28 to July 1 with the grand finale on Sunday to be broadcast live on NBC across the United States beginning at 1430 EDT. All four days of racing can be seen worldwide on www.youtube.com/americascup (subject to territorial broadcast agreements).

The teams have two days of official practice racing on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon before racing starts on June 28 at 1200 EDT. The full regatta schedule and format is here.

During Tuesday’s practice session, Emirates Team New Zealand had a collision with one of the mark boats in gusty conditions late in the afternoon. The initial assessment is that both boats suffered minor damage, with nothing serious enough to keep the Kiwis from racing on Thursday.

Quotes from the Newport ‘Meet the Skippers’ event:

Jimmy Spithill, ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill: I was just speaking with Dean (Barker) before coming on stage and he was saying how confident he was, that he’s got this one in the bag, and he’s cleaned out some room in his trophy cabinet (laughing). But we’re going to make him work for it!

Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand: Jimmy (Spithill) is going in as hot favorite, but we have a fantastic opportunity in front of us. It’s going to be a great event. We’ve been here for a few days and the sailing here is fantastic. It’s not getting any easier, that’s for sure – all eight teams are capable of winning races.

Terry Hutchinson, Artemis Racing: I think the great state of Rhode Island is going to deliver really, really good conditions for us. When you look at the forecasts we should have some really good sea breeze days. This race course is not that tricky that random things will happen. I think everyone will get a handle on it and if we get some solid sea breezes, we’ll have a lot of action.

Loïck Peyron, Energy Team: Any time you have the chance to sail on these boats you will improve and any time you can fight against the best, as we do here, it’s even better. But I’ve never tried to specialize in what type of boat I sail.

Nathan Outteridge, Team Korea: The 49er class is quite fast and the racing happens very quickly on short courses, so for me to step onto the AC45, while it’s obviously a big step, to be honest we have a great team that makes my life pretty easy at the moment.

Russell Coutts, ORACLE TEAM USA Coutts (on whether he is out of practice): All of these guys sitting up here should just stay out of our way this week (laughing).

Chris Draper, Luna Rossa Piranha: We’ve had some great sailing. It was so nice on day one of training here to trim on and let the boat rip. We’re looking forward to racing in these waters; we have tide, windshifts, everything we like about the sport. The city has given us a really warm welcome.

Max Sirena, Luna Rossa Swordfish: We’re still in the learning process as a team. But we’re pretty happy with our results so far. We’re looking forward this week to see if we can improve on what we did in Venice. But these guys have been sailing for more than one year and we’re trying to close the gap in time for San Francisco next year.

2011-12 AC World Series Overall Championship Leaderboard (after five of six events)

ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill…84 points
Emirates Team New Zealand…80 points
Artemis Racing…71 points
Energy Team…65 points
Team Korea…56 points
ORACLE TEAM USA Coutts…53 points
Luna Rossa Piranha…34 points
China Team…31 points
Luna Rossa Swordfish…21 points

ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill strong on day one in Newport
It was a frenetic opening day of racing at the AC World Series in Newport, the sixth and final stop on the global international circuit. In glorious conditions on Thursday afternoon, the overall series leader, ORACLE TEAM USA’s Jimmy Spithill, extended his lead, while his nearest rival, Dean Barker, saw his season championship hopes sink with a dramatic and unexpected capsize.

Spithill had roaring start in the opening fleet race, powering off the starting line in light breezes to lead from start to finish, giving the American team top seeding in the match racing quarterfinals, which started immediately afterward. Pushed to the limit in the match racing, the team responded to advance to the semi finals.

“We went one-nil down, match point down, and I thought this was a great test for the guys to keep cool and fight back,” Spithill said of his match racing. “I’m really happy with how we performed under pressure.”

Conditions were tricky to start the day, with the forecast sea breeze not having filled in by race time at noon. But that didn’t trouble Spithill, who extended a narrow lead at the first mark all the way around the race course. A big wind shift late in the race gave the chasing pack some hope, but Spithill held on for what was doubtlessly a satisfying birthday present for the 33 year-old skipper.

With the sea breeze then beginning to build ahead of the match racing, anticipation was high for an action-packed afternoon. The thousands of fans lining the shoreline at Fort Adams and crowding the race course boundaries with spectator boats on Narragansett Bay were not disappointed.

Paired against Luna Rossa Piranha, Emirates Team New Zealand unexpectedly capsized in the building conditions. More dramatically, the Kiwis couldn’t get their boat upright for nearly an hour, the wing filling with water. At one point, the boat was no longer on its side, but instead had its bows pointing straight up at the clear blue sky, as the boat drifted along in the current. Early indications are that the wing suffered damage in the incident, but the team expects to be racing on Friday.



“It was a close race, we did a normal mark rounding but the runner (one of the control lines) was caught and we couldn’t let the wing out,” Barker explained. “The boat was just too loaded up and we were at the point where we couldn’t turn up or down and the boat just rolled over… These boats have to be treated with the utmost respect. You have any little issue on the boat and it can be very punishing.”

Artemis Racing continued their strong form in the match racing series. The winners in Naples and Venice earned their ticket to the semi finals with a 2-0 sweep over Energy Team. Meanwhile, both ORACLE TEAM USA crews were pushed to the limit by their opponents. But first Coutts (over Swordfish), and then Spithill (over Team Korea), won the deciding third race to advance. This sets up Coutts against Chris Draper’s Piranha team in one semi final and Artemis Racing against Spithill in the other pairing.

“Jimmy and his guys are sailing really well and it’s going to take our best effort to beat them,” Hutchinson said. “It’s sudden death tomorrow and in order to teak one off them we’ll have to put our best foot forward, but I’m optimistic. I think we have a very good team and on the day, any team can win.”

Friday’s program has the one race Match Racing semi finals, followed by a single fleet race. Racing starts at 14:36 EDT and is live on youtube.com/americascup.

Fleet Race One Results

1. ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill
2. ORACLE TEAM USA Coutts
3. Luna Rossa Piranha
4. Artemis Racing
5. Energy Team
6. Emirates Team New Zealand
7. Luna Rossa Swordfish
8. Team Korea

Match Racing Championships, Quarter Final results (winners advance to Semi Finals)

Artemis Racing beat Energy Team, 2-0
Luna Rossa Piranha beat Emirates Team New Zealand, 2-0
ORACLE TEAM USA Coutts beat Luna Rossa Swordfish, 2-1
ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill beat Team Korea, 2-1

AC WORLD Series Newport Match Racing Championships – Results

The top four teams will race in the Semi Finals on Friday

5. Energy Team
6. Emirates Team New Zealand
7. Luna Rossa Swordfish
8. Team Korea

2011-12 AC World Series Overall Championship Leaderboard (after five of six events)

1. ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill…84 points
2. Emirates Team New Zealand…80 points
3. Artemis Racing…71 points
4. Energy Team…65 points
5. Team Korea…56 points
6. ORACLE TEAM USA Coutts…53 points
7. Luna Rossa Piranha…34 points
8. China Team…31 points
9. Luna Rossa Swordfish…21 points