Stars & Stripes' attack on the Rade Sud

With the wind topping 28 knots at times during the second windward-leeward contest of the day, the American boat Quantum, skippered and steered by Terry Hutchinson (USA) proved the best in the breeze, posting a first and a second while Russell Coutts (NZL) guided USA-17 to a lead of eight points in the regatta, going in to the final day of racing on a classic race arena. Marseille has proven universally popular with competitors on this Audi MedCup Circuit.

Coutts, who won the 2007 title as tactician with Artemis, proved his excellence in the very shifty and gusty conditions as USA-17 finished fourth in the first race, they lost their lead on the final downwind, and won the second race which was the windiest the MedCup Circuit has seen for a long time.

“We were just pleased to have survived.” Coutts may have quipped on the dockside, but while USA-17’s crew work was strong, their hand strengthened by astute tactics in the big wind shifts, their prudence on the ‘corners’, especially approaching the leeward mark at speeds in excess of 22 knots at times, paid an equally valuable dividend. Early, safe gennaker drops ensured that they were well settled for the 2.2 miles beat back upwind.

With the windward turning marks again set close to the islands, there were large changes in wind strength and direction to contend with. In the first race Quantum Racing managed to roll around the windward mark abreast of USA-17 just after both were forced to tack by a big, heading wind shift when they were only a boat length from the mark. That was decisive moment for Hutchinson and tactician Morgan Larson (USA), for whom the speeds and downwind angles sailed today would feel second-nature from his Olympic 49er skiff sailing, but they went on to only just hold off the fast advancing Artemis (SWE) by one second on the finish line.

In the second race USA-17 lead at the first turning mark of the longer course of three windward-legs and two downwind legs, but it was only on the blustery final beat that USA-17 managed to slip through Quantum to take their third winning gun of the week.
With the possibility of two further races tomorrow, Coutts, and strategist/helm
James Spithill (AUS), need one consistent day to complete what would be their only regatta victory on the Circuit, as the team will not race at any more Audi MedCup regattas in 2008.

Michele Ivaldi (ITA), USA-17‘s navigator and project manager:
“We set out to do more on this Circuit and it was an important priority of what we were planning but we need to concentrate on other things now and the priority has changed. But it was great racing today. We made two good starts and were leading in the first race in very tricky conditions. It was very patchy and shifty and so we had to defend our overall lead some of the time and with the wind at between 25-28 knots at times it is just as important to get off the water in good shape with nothing damaged. Russell had said this morning that today would be as much about getting around the corners, so it is as well to prepare early and maybe lose three lengths going in to a turn than losing 15 lengths coming out.”

“We have certainly improved every day, and considering we had only sailed the boat a couple of days before we came here, it is good to have a boat which is going fast and which we learn more about every day. Coming here I thought a top three would be nice, so it is good to be in this position.”

Terry Hutchinson (USA), Helmsman and skipper of Quantum, who were top boat today but had a very difficult coastal race yesterday scoring a ninth and sixth:
“I’m pretty sure that nobody was satisfied after yesterday, and even up until today we have felt that our performance at best was somewhat lacklustre. So as every good team does, we had to address what we thought the problems were to try and move forward with it. Each guy in their own area and myself included. As evident in the last start I’m certainly not doing my job perfectly by any stretch of the imagination. So it was more about taking responsibility for individual areas and not making mistakes. It was nice to come out and have a good day after feeling disappointed yesterday – from front to back in the boat."

"Today was very shifty and puffy. After completely botching the start in the second race we had to dig ourselves out of a big hole, but the whole team did a great job of keeping a cool head, and let the boat do its thing for us. We have high expectations for ourselves and there are a lot of things as a whole collective group to learn from a day like that. Our success lies in the details and everybody on the boat has a fair amount of work to do.”

City of Marseille Trophy
Top 10 Provisional Results after eight races (14 starters)
(Position, Boat, Country, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6a, R6b, R7, R8 Total Points)
1st USA-17 (6, 5, 1, 1, 3*, 3, 2, 4, 1, 26)
2nd Artemis SWE (12, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 5, 32)
3rd Platoon by Team Germany GER (7, 9, 5, 3, 6, 1, 1, 5, 4, 41)
4th Bribón ESP (4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 5, 8, 3, 42)
5th Quantum Racing USA (3, 6, 12, 6, 1, 11, 8, 1, 2, 46)
6th El Desafío ESP (11, 10, 9, 8, 8, 5, 4, 6, 9, 70)
7th Matador ARG (2, 2, 7, 7, 12, 6*, 6*, 15, 15, 72)
8th Audi by Q8 ITA (8, 7, 8, 13, 9, 6, 7, 9, 6, 73)
9th Cristabella GBR (15, 3, 13, 12, 7, 7, 8, 3, 10, 78)
10th Mean Machine MON (1, 14, 3, 9, 4, 15, 15, 10, 7, 78)
* - Redress Given

2008 Audi MedCup Circuit Top 10 Standings
Provisional Results after 16 races
(Position, Boat, Country, Total Points)
1st Bribón ESP 84
2nd Artemis SWE 92
3rd Quantum Racing USA 92
4th Platoon by Team Germany GER 99
5th Mean Machine MON 119
6th El Desafío ESP 135
7th Matador ARG 139
8th Audi by Q8 ITA 159
9th Cristabella GBR 163
10th Mutua Madrileña ESP 173