It's a bit strange what the organisers have come up with, namely using the results from fleet racing to determine the seeding list for match racing. Maybe it's like in Nordic combined, where the ski jumping determines the starting order in cross-country skiing. That would at least somehow explain the dominance of the Swedes, who have shown no mercy in Plymouth so far. The "Artemis" team took four of the six races sailed. To top it off, they also came second and fourth. "The boat sailed well all day," commented Swedish skipper Terry Hutchinson. "But of course we know that after these two days, the biggest piece of work still lies ahead of us."
Artemis" thus finished the fleet race ahead of the consistently good Kiwis from "Team New Zealand" and "Oracle Racing Coutts". Behind them was Loïck Peyron with "Energy Team", who attributed the improvement to the use of his native French language on board. The three Thursday races were sailed in better breeze, which also favoured "Team China", who were able to record a third place in the very last race and thus rewarded themselves for their hard repair work after capsizing on Tuesday. Some teams, such as the two Oracle boats, "Team Korea" and "Green Comm", wanted too much too quickly and were whistled back for early starts.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals of the match racing event are on the programme today from 15:10 CEST. "Artemis Racing" is the top seed and can put its feet up because it has already qualified for the final and can take a break.
To the Event page and to the Livestream.
