Americas Cup World Series San Francisco

Americas Cup World Series San Francisco - Overall

by 34th America’s Cup media 27 Aug 2012 06:49 BST 21-26 August 2012

ACWS San Francisco day 5 © Christophe Favreau / www.christophefavreau.com

ORACLE TEAM USA today captured the two championships of AC World Series San Francisco, thrilling the capacity crowds who had front row seats to close-quarter, fast-paced racing on San Francisco Bay.

The day began with Russell Coutts, the four-time America's Cup winner, taking out teammate Jimmy Spithill in the Match Racing Championship. In a race that saw the lead change hands three times, Coutts eked out a 1 second victory with both boats screaming across the finish line overlapped at 20-plus knots.

Then, about 40 minutes later, Spithill found himself in another charge to the finish line. This time he needed to overcome Team Korea (Nathan Outteridge) to capture the Fleet Racing and Event Championship.

Watch a full replay of the day's racing at the America's Cup YouTube channel

Spithill rounded the last mark slightly overlapped on Outteridge's stern and then got a penalty on his rival skipper. Outteridge was forced to slow down by the umpires, and Spithill sailed through to leeward and into second place for the race and a 1-point victory in the overall event standings.

"This is a fantastic result for ORACLE TEAM USA, to win the match racing, fleet racing and overall championship," said Spithill, the reigning ACWS champion. "I can't emphasize how much the boys fought around the race track. We battled our way back to the top in each event and were rewarded for it."

The first AC World Series event in San Francisco, host city for the 2013 America's Cup, was hailed as a success by Mayor Edwin M. Lee, who presented the prizes to the top three crews in the Match Racing and Fleet Racing Championships.

"This is the first of many races to come and we look forward to the second event (Oct. 2-7) when all of these teams will be back," Lee said. "Thank you to all of the teams for being here and to all of the city agencies who have worked in collaboration with the event."

Local officials estimated that more than 150,000 people visited the AC Village at Marina Green over the course of the event. Both of the ticketed seating areas were sold out each day, and Regatta Director Iain Murray said that a larger than expected spectator fleet turned out on the water to watch the racing.

"The response from the public has exceeded our expectations," said Stephen Barclay, the CEO of the 34th America's Cup. "This was our first event in San Francisco and our first opportunity to get a taste of racing the wingsail catamarans on the Bay. It's simply been wonderful for everyone involved."

Throughout the week the fans were treated to racing within reaching distance of the shoreline. They could listen to the sailors talking tactics on the water, and the sailors could hear them cheering and rooting. The close racing continued today when both championships were decided by mere seconds.

For Coutts, the match racing title was his second consecutive, coming on the heels of a victory in Newport at the beginning of July, which wrapped the 2011-12 racing season. He has developed a fine touch for starting the AC45, which he displayed again today.

"It's been a fantastic event for our team," said Coutts, the CEO of ORACLE TEAM USA. "To get both teams in the match racing final is a great result, and Jimmy and the boys continue to be superb. It looked like the fans were having fun on the shore and that's what it's all about. We were certainly having fun on the water."

Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper) won the fleet race finale by 3 seconds over Spithill, who had sailed through Outteridge into second place. As has become his custom, Draper was solid off the start line and steady around the racecourse.

At one point the crew led by 200 meters approaching the second leeward gate, but they almost gave it all away when they nearly capsized on the finish line. But the wingsail got eased just in time to avert disaster, and the finish gun fired a split-second after the windward hull slammed down into the water as the boat stabilized.

"We've seen in last few days that people who've been doing high-speed boat racing all their life – Nathan, myself, Yann (Guichard, Energy Team) and Jimmy, who has practiced here a lot – have done well," said Draper. "But everybody's going to improve, so we can't rest on our laurels. We'll train hard and come back in October with an eye towards winning."

The next ACWS regatta in San Francisco is scheduled during Fleet Week, Oct. 2-7, when the ACWS fleet will share the Bay alongside the naval ships of the Pacific Fleet in one of the largest annual events held in San Francisco.

AC World Series San Francisco – Fleet Racing Championship Results:

Pos	Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL	2	1	7	1	2	1	2	86
2	Luna Rossa Piranha	3	8	2	5	4	5	1	85
3	Team Korea	7	4	4	2	8	2	3	65
4	Energy Team	4	7	3	7	1	3	10	55
5	Luna Rossa Swordfish	9	10	1	6	5	7	4	51
6	Artemis Racing White	5	3	6	9	6	4	8	48
7	Emirates Team New Zealand	8	9	5	3	3	9	9	43
8	ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS	1	6	DNF	DNS	7	6	5	42
9	Artemis Racing Red	6	2	8	8	9	11	7	38
10	J.P. Morgan BAR	10	5	9	4	10	8	6	37
11	China Team	11	11	10	10	11	10	11	15

Match Racing Final
ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS beat ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL, 1-0

AC World Series San Francisco – Match Racing Championship
1. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS
2. ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL
3. Artemis Racing White
4. Emirates Team New Zealand
5. Energy Team
6. Luna Rossa Piranha
7. Luna Rossa Swordfish
8. J.P. Morgan BAR
9. Team Korea
10. China Team
11. Artemis Racing Red

Go to ACWS San Francisco Results for the full standings.

Energy Team fourth in the fleet racing (from Energy Team)

Energy Team finished in a rather disappointing tenth place in the day's big fleet race on Super Sunday, which marked the end of this America's Cup World Series in San Francisco. Yann Guichard and his men end up in fourth place overall in the rankings dominated by Oracle Team USA Spithill. The Americans were very clearly at ease on their home ground, as Russell Coutts's crew won the match race final this Sunday. We look back at the final race in San Francisco.

The tension reached a climax for this final fleet race, as it was going to be the decider, counting four times as much as any other race this week. Second in the overall rankings behind Oracle Team USA Spithill, Energy Team was still in with a chance of winning the fleet racing championship in the AC World Series San Francisco. But the French boat could also lose its place on the podium depending on how well everyone did. The eleven AC45s set off at 1215hrs local time (1915hrs GMT) on a thirty minute race. Getting off to a rather average start, Yann Guichard's crew was in sixth place at mark 1. They then set off downwind with speeds in excess of twenty knots and peak speeds of 23-24 knots. At mark 2, Artemis Racing White, Luna Rossa Piranha and Team Korea were leading the fleet, while Energy Team were back in seventh place. The upwind leg went well for the French AC45, which moved up no fewer than three places to round mark 3 in fourth place. They had their eyes on the podium as they set off again downwind. But they needed to watch what was going on, as there were two big names threatening them: the two Oracle boats. However, Energy Team kept going for it and made it up to third place at mark 4. The French were looking forward to another great upwind leg hoping for good speed and efficient changes of tack. But Yann Guichard and his men unfortunately received a penalty for going outside the boundary line. A penalty that was to punish them severely, as they were back in ninth place at mark 5. The downwind run to the finish did not allow them to recover. Energy Team ended up in tenth place in this race, won by a whisker by Luna Rossa Piranha ahead of Oracle Team USA Spithill and Team Korea.

Bruno Peyron reactions: "Things change from day to day, and the final was rather difficult this Sunday. We're going to have to learn to win on Sundays, rather than Saturdays, as there is such a heavy weighting. 4th overall in this first event of the ACWS 2012 / 2013... We can do better than that, but it was a fine week for the team, who once again showed that they are able to compete at the highest level with the top teams. For the start of this second season, the standard has moved up a notch. You can see it in every aspect of the racing. We're going to have to keep hard at it and continue to make progress. We look forward to coming back here in a month from now to compete again on this great race course in San Francisco."

Grand Finale in San Francisco (from Artemis Racing)

It was a perfect day for racing on San Francisco Bay.

ORACLE Team USA's two AC45s lined up for the Match Racing Finals. It was America's Cup legend Russell Coutts who won the start off teammate Jimmy Spithill, and sailed a perfect race to win the title.

In the Super Sunday fleet race, Skipper Terry Hutchinson had a brilliant start and led the fleet for the first three legs before catching an anchor rode on the downwind near Fort Mason which cost Artemis Racing - White valuable places. Luna Rossa - Piranha moved into the lead and stretched to win, with ORACLE Team USA - Spithill just a split second behind. Artemis Racing - White wrapped up the event 3rd overall in the Match Racing and 6th in the Fleet Racing, while Artemis Racing - Red was 9th in the fleet racing.

"Some highlights followed by some lowlights, unfortunately. So, we have to continue to trust in ourselves and trust that we have the right process in place. We put a lot of effort into getting off the start line leading up to this event, but all in all a bit disappointed having had the start we had today. There's a lot of work to do and I can't say enough about the effort onboard," said Hutchinson at the conclusion of the America's Cup World Series - San Francisco.

The sailing team returns tonight to Alameda where the design and shore teams are putting the finishing touches on the Artemis Racing AC72.

AC45 action will return to Marina Green from 2-6 October for the next Ameria's Cup World Series event, which takes place during San Francisco Bay's famous Fleet Week.