ACWS Plymouth Wraps-up

Going out with a bang, the second installment of the America’s Cup World Series wrapped up in Plymouth, England yesterday. Capsizes and collisions marred a gnarly final fleet race sailed in breeze up to 30 knots.

With the boats hitting speeds up to 27 knots, the battle for the podium was a three-way affair between Oracle Racing’s two boats and Emirates Team New Zealand. In the prestart, Energy Team capsized trying to avoid Team Korea, although Loick Peyron’s crew managed to get the boat upright quickly and rejoin the race. But the carnage didn’t stop there — Artemis Racing tried to mount Green Comm Racing, causing the latter’s skipper, Vasilij Zbogar, to fall overboard and suffer a minor hand injury. Green Comm retired before the start.

Steering clear of trouble in the pre-start, the two Oracle Racing boats and Emirates Team New Zealand set the pace off the line. The first mark nearly claimed China Team, which capsized, but recovered quickly enough to stay in the race. The Charlie Ogletree-led China Team would go on to finish seventh when Artemis capsized later in the race, crossing the finish line 9 minutes and 54 seconds after the winner — just 6 seconds before the time limit. Aleph moved past Team Korea at the end of the race to take fourth, with Energy Team in sixth.

Oracle’s Jimmy Spithill waited until the final lap to take the win, and Dean Barker had to satisfy himself with second place ahead of Russell Coutts. “Today it was racing and survival,” Barker said. “When the wind cranked in, it was full on. The hard thing was not the wind speed but the big puffs, which were unpredictable. We always like to win, but it’s nice to get past Russell and take second.”

The fleet racing championship was a bit of redemption for Oracle Racing as neither of the team’s two entries were able to crack the podium in the Match racing championship, where Barker and his mates proved to be at the top of the class, and surprisingly Team Korea slipped into second with Artemis third. The next America’s Cup World Series event is in San Diego, November 12-20.