Artemis Racing announce crew for Americas Cup World Series

Practice session ahead of the ACWS San Francisco © Gilles Martin-Raget / ACEA 2012

Artemis Racing announces crew

Artemis Racing will be competing with two AC45s in this week's America's Cup World Series in San Francisco.

Skipper Terry Hutchinson (USA) will be helming Artemis Racing – White, with Olympic medalist Iain Percy (GBR) onboard as tactician. Percy was absent from the team for the first eight months of this year preparing for the Olympics where he won the silver medal in the Star Class. Sean Clarkson (NZL) will be trimming the wing on Artemis Racing – White, with Thierry Fouchier (FRA) as headsail trimmer and Julien Cressant (FRA) on the bow.

Artemis Racing – Red helmsman Santiago Lange (ARG) and tactician Kevin Hall (USA) are busy with the preparations of the team's AC72, which will sail for the first time later this month. Both men are key players in the development of the AC72. Lange, who is a naval architect, is the design team-sailing team liaison, while Hall is head of the Performance and Information group.

Replacing Lange and Hall on Artemis Racing – Red will be Nathan Outteridge (AUS) as helmsman and Paul Cayard (USA) as tactician. Outteridge fresh from his gold medal success in the 49er Class, recently joined the Swedish team as back up helmsman. The wing trimmer on Artemis Racing – Red will be Rodney Ardern (NZL), with Curtis Blewett (CAN) on the bow and Phil Jameson (NZL) trimming.

"We have a lot going on at the moment, not unlike the other teams preparing for the America's Cup next summer. It is great to have the talent we have and to be able to mix things around depending on the priorities at hand," said CEO Paul Cayard.

Racing commences on Wednesday, 3 October with the Match Racing Qualifiers and continues through Sunday.

Sea Clean Regattas Program

The America's Cup Event Authority (ACEA) has partnered with Sailors for the Sea as the Official Clean Regattas Partner of the 34th America's Cup. Clean Regattas certification provides independent, third-party verification that a yacht club, sailing program, or regatta is environmentally responsible, and is doing its utmost to protect the waters upon which people sail.

The six previous AC World Series regattas have been mostly graded Silver, with AC World Series Newport (June 27-July 1) topping the list with a Gold certification. At Newport, ACEA worked with Sailors for the Sea and the local organizing committee to find a composting solution. Nearly two tons of material was composted, while another 8.5 tons of material was prevented from entering local landfills.

Other highlights of Newport included free drinking water provided by ACEA in an effort to eliminate single-use plastic bottles, and an extensive plan was enacted to shuttle spectators to the venue from downtown Newport via water taxi and clearly marked bike lanes to help limit automobile exhaust emissions.

The building of a rain garden was another highlight of ACWS Newport. A garden of native Rhode Island plants and shrubs was designed to capture runoff from the parking lot at Fort Adams and treat the water through a filtering system. The project was a collaboration of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the event host committee, Sailors for the Sea and the America's Cup Healthy Ocean Project.

The high standards continued at the AC World Series San Francisco in August, where ACEA: provided 2,725 gallons of drinking water to all guests and spectators (preventing the use of at least 24,700 single-use plastic bottles); diverted 11.5 tons of material from the AC Village open public area away from the landfill (a 73 percent diversion rate); used B20 biodiesel to power the event generators; established a free bike valet station at the AC Village (managed by the SF Bike Coalition) that saw more than 750 bikes on Saturday, Aug. 25, alone; and, the America's Cup Healthy Ocean Project beach cleanup had 180 volunteers pick up more than 75 bags of trash and recyclable items at Fort Baker – participants includes team members, volunteers, America's Cup staff and America's Cup partners including Sailors for the Sea's CEO Dan Pingaro.

"The efforts put forth by Jill Savery, the Head of Sustainability for the 34th America's Cup, and her team and our partners show our dedication to making the 34th America's Cup a sustainable event," said Stephen Barclay, the CEO of the America's Cup. "In collaboration with our partners like Sailors for the Sea, we are taking concrete, measurable actions to reduce our impact on the environment."

"Our work with the America's Cup Event Authority and efforts to support and certify each of the America's Cup World Series events provided us the opportunity to evaluate our Best Practices checklist," said Annie Brett, program lead, Sailors for the Sea. "We continue to collaborate with the ACEA on ways to extend knowledge through education, volunteer work, hands-on activities, and participation in coastal conservation efforts."

With the next America's Cup World Series San Francisco starting this week, ACEA invites its fans to support initiatives to deliver a Clean Regatta. ACEA will once again provide drinking water to all visitors, and also aims to divert materials away from landfill by reusing, composting and recycling. Around the venue there'll be three different colored bins – green (for compost), blue (for recyclables) and black (for landfill).

Fans are also reminded to visit the website 511.org/americascup for journey planning. The website has information on public transit, walking and cycling options. The America's Cup Healthy Ocean Project and our partners welcome you to participate in a conservation activity on Friday, Oct. 5, at Fort Mason, 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. Participants will work on a restoration and coastal cleanup to preserve the coastline near our event site.

www.sailorsforthesea.org