Many America's Cup fans say this is their best source of information.
Britain’s Giles Scott is the heavy favorite in the Finn class in Rio. Tactician for Land Rover BAR, Scott has missed the last three America’s Cup World Series to concentrate on preparations for Rio. Racing in the Finn begins Tuesday August 9th; the medal race is scheduled a week later on the 16th.
Giles Scott Photo: Richard Langdon
Artemis Racing helmsman Nathan Outteridge and teammate Iain Jensen are the underdogs as they try to defend their gold medal from London in the 49er. Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Pete Burling and Blair Tuke took silver in London and then won 24 regattas in a row, including four 49er world championships. The 49er racing begins on August 12th. Racing continues on the 13th, 15th, 16th and concludes with the medal race on the 18th.
Outteridge and Jensen
Burling and Tuke Photo: Yachting NZ
In Portsmouth three of the six teams were 100% nationals: Groupama Team France – 100% French, Land Rover BAR, 100% British and Oracle Team USA, 100% Australian. What’s your suggestion for a nationality rule? Join the conversation in the Cup Experience Facebook group.
Blue light means Artemis has a penalty. How did that happen? Green light means they are in the three boat length zone at the gate. (Explanation of lights here.)
As they approach the three boat length zone at the mark, you can see Artemis’s bow, just about to enter the zone. Team Japan is overlapped with New Zealand, who are overlapped with Artemis. Rule 18 gives both NZL and JPN rights to round the mark inside Artemis.
JPN has gybed and gone behind NZL, and they still have rights to round inside SWE.
NZL escaped the mess at the mark. SWE has been penalized for not giving JPN room. Meanwhile Land Rover BAR has stayed out of the fray and now has enough speed to round outside. Artemis was in third place as they approached the mark but finished the race last. Ouch!
America’s Cup World Series Leaderboard After 7 Events
America’s Cup competition format and scoring explained here.
Ben Ainslie and his all British crew had three firsts, two seconds and a fifth place to win the Portsmouth America’s Cup World Series. Again. They also won the event here in 2015. The win puts them at the top of the overall series leaderboard. Oracle Team USA got back on the podium, one point behind the Brits for the Portsmouth event.
Oracle takes over second place overall, pushing the Kiwis into third. New Zealand had big gaps on board in the two most important positions: Ray Davies handled wing trim for the first time since wing trimmer Glenn Ashby was on the helm replacing Peter Burling, off in Rio to prepare for the Olympics. Like Team New Zealand, Artemis was without their regular helmsman. Nathan Outteridge is also in Rio, hoping to defend his 2012 gold medal against silver medalist Burling. Francesco Bruni stepped in as helmsman – his first time ever to sail an AC45F. The rules prevent sailing the AC45F’s between events. The conditions were different each day, so there was no chance for Bruni to learn the boat. Artemis finished last in Portsmouth – a frustrating result after their win in Chicago last month.
Dean Barker and his men on SoftBank Team Japan confirmed their performance in Chicago with their second podium finish. Groupama Team France shared the lead after the first day of racing but fared less well in the stronger conditions on Sunday.
