Americas Cup World Series San Francisco Super Sunday
by 34th America’s Cup media 8 Oct 2012 09:14 BST
3-7 October 2012
ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL wins second consecutive America's Cup World Series San Francisco
ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL (Jimmy Spithill) rebounded from last place at the first turning mark of the "Super Sunday" fleet race finale to win the America's Cup World Series San Francisco Championship.
Spithill and crew Dirk de Ridder, John Kostecki, Jono MacBeth and Joe Newton were "dead last" off the start line, but fought their way back through the fleet. They rounded the last windward gate first and held on for a 17-second win over teammates ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS (Russell Coutts).
Spithill won 40 points for the race and totaled 79 points for the series. That put the crew in a tie with J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) for the series championship, which placed fourth in the final race. Spithill won the championship based on the final race finishes.
"The difference is the four guys on the front of the boat," said Spithill, referencing his crew. "We were dead last off the start line but it didn't faze these guys. We have a real team of fighters here. We're really, really happy."
ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL put an emphatic stamp on this regatta. Yesterday the crew won the Match Racing Championship after capsizing and breaking frames in the wingsail during a fleet race. The crew also won the August AC World Series San Francisco Championship by 1 point, previously the closest finish at an AC World Series event. The tiebreaker surpasses that mark.
"We've always said we need to be able to come from behind and overcome adversity," said Spithill, who skippered the team to victory in the 2010 America's Cup. "I thought I gave them that yesterday with the capsize, but it's really a sign of a strong team. The shore crew, our coaches, it's been a fantastic team effort."
Artemis Racing – White (Terry Hutchinson) placed third in today's race and finished third overall. Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) placed fourth overall and ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS fifth.
AC World Series San Francisco Fleet Racing Championship: (after 7 of 7 races)
1. ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL (Jimmy Spithill) 8-1-6-5-DNF-2-1 – 79pts
2. J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) 1-3-1-2-4-1-4 – 79pts
3. Artemis Racing – White (Terry Hutchinson) 10-2-2-1-3-3-3 – 72pts
4. Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) 2-8-5-6-1-4-7 – 57pts
5. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS (Russell Coutts) 3-5-8-7-8-10-2 – 56pts
6. Artemis Racing – Red (Nathan Outteridge) 4-4-4-4-9-8-5 – 52pts
7. Energy Team (Loick Peyron) 6-7-7-3-6-7-6 – 47pts
8. Team Korea (Peter Burling) 5-9-10-8-2-5-10 – 40pts
9. Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper) 9-6-3-10-10-6-9 – 36pts
10. China Team (Phil Robertson) 7-10-11-9-5-11-8 – 28pts
11. Luna Rossa Swordfish (Iker Martinez) 11-11-9-11-7-9-11 – 20pts
(Scoring, Races 1-6: 1st = 12 points, 2nd = 10, 3rd = 9, 4th = 8, 5th = 7, 6th = 6, 7th = 5, 8th = 4, 9th = 3, 10th = 2, 11th = 1; Race 7: 1st = 40 points, 2nd = 25, 3rd = 20, 4th = 16, 5th = 13, 6th = 11, 7th = 10, 8th = 9, 9th = 8, 10th = 7, 11th = 6)
AC World Series San Francisco Match Racing Championship:
1. ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL
2. Emirates Team New Zealand
3. Artemis Racing – White
4. Artemis Racing – Red
5. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS
6. Energy Team
7. J.P. Morgan BAR
8. Team Korea
9. China Team
10. Luna Rossa Piranha
11. Luna Rossa Swordfish
Go to AC World Series San Francisco Results
Spithill completes sweep on Super Sunday in San Francisco (from ORACLE TEAM USA)
ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL clawed back from a slow start to win today's Super Sunday fleet race and take home the fleet racing overall championship at the America's Cup World Series San Francisco. With the win, ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL captured both the match racing and fleet racing titles at the regatta. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS crossed the line in second in the final of seven fleet races on the week to finish fifth overall.
"We were dead last off that start line, but it didn't even faze this team," skipper Jimmy Spithill said. "We've got a real team of fighters here, and we're very, very happy. I've got a great group of guys behind me.
"We've always said that we need to be able to come back from behind, and we need to be able to face some adversity. I thought I gave them some of that yesterday with the capsize," Spithill joked. "It really is a sign of a strong team. From our support crew, our coach Philippe [Presti] and all of our shore crew, it was a fantastic team effort."
ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS rounded the first mark today in third place with ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL in last. While helmsman Russell Coutts and crew held position, Spithill gradually made up ground. At the fourth gate, Coutts and Spithill were sitting first and second, respectively, before Spithill took the lead down the fifth leg.
With bonus scoring on the table, ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL finished tied with J.P. Morgan BAR, skippered by Ben Ainslie, at 79 total fleet points, but won the overall title with a first-place finish in the final race. It was the second consecutive ACWS fleet racing title for Spithill. ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS closed out the week with 56 points in fifth place and also finished fifth in the match race standings.
"I changed my strategy today, changed the way we set up into the starting line, and we had a really good start – exactly what we wanted. We positioned the boat a bit differently, got in a really nice spot early on," Coutts said. "To be honest, I didn't feel that great about how we were sailing going into the week. Sometimes you feel really good, and sometimes you just can't really get it together. But, no excuses. It was a good week of racing overall, and good to be part of Fleet Week festivities. And, Jimmy and Ben are both sailing really well."
On Saturday, ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL claimed the match racing championship. The team bounced back from capsizing in the fleet races to return to the race course and defeat Emirates Team New Zealand.
ORACLE TEAM USA now turns its attention to sailing the new AC72 in the coming weeks. The next ACWS will take place in Spring 2013.
Cayard's Update - San Francisco wraps up (from Artemis Racing)
The AC World Series is over after the Super Sunday race amid the Blue Angels, the Blue Grass Festival the 49ers and the Giants.
Today's race was heavily weighted with 40 points for first place rather than the 12 points for the winner of the first 6 fleet races. Artemis Red got off to a great start and led and the first and second marks. Meanwhile Artemis White was near the back of the fleet with Oracle Spithill bringing up the rear.
Up the first windward leg, we on Artemis Red were not going that well compared to Korea and Oracle Coutts. At the windward gate, we got caught by Oracle Coutts and made a mistake there in allowing him to force us to tack and round the left mark when we were all set to round the right mark. We almost capsized and had a bad set of the gennaker. Later we were penalized and in slowing for that Oracle Spithill and Artemis White got by us.
Things got worse and then got better again for Artemis Red and we finally finished 5th.
Meanwhile, Artemis White was sailing well and fast. Terry and the guys did a great job of working their way through the fleet to finish third in the race and third place overall.
Compared to a month ago, I feel that we have improved as a sailing team. I say that because the reality of this regatta is the Ben Ainslie sailed the best and Terry Hutchinson and his team, with Iain Percy as tactician, were second best. I think "Super Sunday" is great for the excitement but "Super Sunday" skews the results with the weighting of the scoring. So I make those observations by looking at things from a true performance standpoint. Nathan Outteridge and Artemis Red were a new team with four days of sailing together prior to the first race. Having a 53 year old crew member probably didn't help the kid but was was good for Artemis Racing for the long run. Also having both teams in the semi finals of the Match Racing is a decent result.
The AC45 sailing will take a break for now and I for one will miss it. It was amongst the most challenging and exhilarating sailing I have ever done. The young sailors of today have a lot to be thankful for due to the changes that have been made in the America's Cup. And the world is seeing sailing like it has never been seen before. From tonight, Artemis Racing is focused on our AC72 and the development of that very challenging piece of equipment.
Congratulations to the Oracle boys for winning. I want to thanks my buddies Curtis Blewett, Rodney Ardern and Phil Jameson for taking me for one of the best rides of my life this week. And Nathan, the only 26 year olds who have better jobs than you are those kids flying those Blue Angel jets around on US tax payer dollars!
Paul