Two second places, one in the fleet race and one in the match race, were easily enough for Jimmy Spithill at the final event in Newport/Rhode Island to crown himself and his team the first and deserved winner of the America's Cup World Series. The winner in the match race classification was Artemis by the skin of its teeth.
"Consistency did the trick," said the beaming winner afterwards. "We were the last team here, but we performed well under pressure. It was extremely satisfying to step on the gas while the others fell behind under this pressure." A strong statement, but he fails to mention that Oracle has a budget that is several times higher, more boats, more time to train and more resources to perfect the all-important soft sails, i.e. headsails and gennakers, without which an AC45 cat would not be competitive.
Nobody can keep up. Neither Team New Zealand nor Artemis, who still have relatively little to show for their hard work, nor Luna Rossa, who with Chris Draper in Newport were at least able to record a respectable success with their victory in the fleet race. In the real Cup with the AC72s, these differences in money, technology and manpower are likely to become even more apparent. Spithill's team-mate Russell Coutts, who won the match race competition in Newport, put it like this: "We're always out to win, we don't just race for the tonnes - we want to win."
Team New Zealand had a bad day, capsizing at the start of the regatta due to a defect and disappointing in the fleet race at the end. Nevertheless, second place in the final ranking is good motivation for the ambitious Kiwis to make life difficult for the giant Oracle again in the coming season.
Things did not go as well as in Venice, where they had won, for the French Energy Team, who are the best of the little ones and were undoubtedly an asset. "After six regattas and almost a year on these boats, we still need to improve our match racing. But we are absolutely happy with our third place in the final fleet race," said the experienced fox Loïck Peyron, the very busy and highly respected skipper of the French team.
In its first year, the ACWS organised six events with a total of 30 sailing days and 130 races. Only one day was postponed due to the weather, emphasise the organisers, who want to set new standards for sailing as a spectator sport with their elaborate TV system and the AC45 cats that can be sailed in practically all common winds. The number of participating teams is not looking so great. There were only six of them at the start in Newport: Oracle and Luna Rossa with two boats each, Team New Zealand, Artemis, plus Energy Team and Team Korea. China Team, Aleph from France and Green Comm from Spain were omitted from the first season.
The season continues with the start of the next season in San Francisco from 21 to 26 August. This is after the Olympic Games, so the Ben Ainslie Racing team, which is at least partially financed by Oracle, will also be at the start.
Overall ranking AC World Series 2011/12
1st Oracle Spithill, 102 points
2nd Emirates Team New Zealand, 93
3rd Artemis Racing, 82
4th Energy Team, 74
5. Oracle Coutts, 68
6th Team Korea, 66
7th Luna Rossa Piranha, 52
8th Luna Rossa Swordfish, 31
9th China Team 31
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