Objective Australia in the Red Bull Youth America's Cup trials - Day 1
by Objective Australia 28 Aug 2013 10:53 BST
1-4 September 2013
Objective Australia on day 1 of the Red Bull Youth America's Cup trials © Objective Australia
Objective Australia had a solid first day in the trials series leading up to the Red Bull Youth America's Cup starting September 1 in San Francisco.
This trial regatta is a test event for teams and officials after an intensive one month training programme in the AC45s.
All the boats have been standardised and today all ten teams from around the world were using their regatta sails, so today's results really are an indication of form.
The racing was held in typical breeze for the San Francisco bay – around 11-17 knots out of the West, there was little tide though.
In the first race the favoured Kiwis dominated – Peter Burling and Will Tiller both nailing the start and maintained good speed. However, Objective Australia skippered by Jason Waterhouse had a solid race after an average start to finish in third place.
In the second race though, the Aussie's dominated from start to finish with the US team picking up second in front of the Kiwi's.
Coach Traks Gordon said: "It's a promising start, obviously it only counts when the main event starts but it seems today at least, that the work has paid off and we are on the right track. Many things can be better though so we'll focus on that tomorrow".
Skipper Jason Waterhouse was happy; "The guys did well today. Suddenly we were in a race setting but the training has been good and we all kept cool heads which is so important. We have to sail minimum risk in this fleet, I don't think there will be too many Jesus cards handed out!"
The trails regatta continues tomorrow with two more races ahead of an enforced two day rest before the Red Bull Youth America's Cup starts on September 1st.
Fox Sports will be carrying the regatta live each day and it can also be viewed live from the America's Cup website and YouTube channel.
Thanks from; Jason Waterhouse, Keiran Searle, Fang Warren, Josh McKnight, Tom Burton, Luke Parkinson, Ted Hackney, James Wierzbowski, Traks Gordon and Tony Walls.
www.objective-racing.com