Louis Vuitton Trophy: TeamOrigin makes early exit

1:24 AM Thu 18 Mar 2010 GMT
Artemis despatched TeamOrigin from the Louis Vuitton Trophy in the sudden death elimination race sailed on the Waitemata this afternoon.

The reality is that was a match the the British team should not have lost, and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory just short of rounding the windward mark for the second time.

After enjoying a comfortable lead for much of the second leg, TeamOrigin elected to allow Artemis Racing to split away to a separation of 330metres, when they had a very defend-able 30 metre lead. Artemis was allowed to go left, which TeamOrigin covered, and then Artemis went to the right hand side of the course. Ian Percy, tactician aboard TeamOrigin decided to let them go and the upshot was that a right hand shift appeared around the corner of North Head, which Artemis grabbed with all hands and the margins were reversed - which Paul Cayard turned into a 30 second advantage at the mark

After a delay of several hours, racing got away at 1.30pm in a beautiful southwesterly breeze, blowing down the harbour from the City, and clear blue skies.

TeamOrigin looked to be on fire at the start snatching the early lead off the startline after crossing Artemis on port. The protest from Artemis as right of way boat, was declined by the umpires.

At the top mark TeamOrigin led even though Artemis carried a little stronger pressure, and trimmed the British lead to just a boatlength rounding the leeward gate. Skipper Ben Ainslie and his tactician Ian Percy with five Olympic Gold medals between them sailed with surgical precision to extend on the beat and should have done the job.

But an inexplicable tactical decision answered the prayers of Artemis, and the Swedish crew were not of a mind to take their foot off the British throats for the remainder of the race.

A small tear in the foot of the Swedish spinnaker caused some nervousness amongst spectators, and geed up the hopes of the British fans, but it was in a low stress area and survived the gybe and rest of the leg.

The winning margin was 30 seconds.

Thus

by Richard Gladwell. Sail-World.com

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