Paul Cayard's Update From Naples - AC45 ACWS

8 April 2012

CAYARD'S UPDATE - ACWS - NAPLES

A great day for racing in Napoli. The America’s Cup World Series was in full flight today with match racing and fleet racing. The winds were 8 to 12 knots from the West and there was a bit of cloud around. The rain stopped for exactly three hours and those were the three hours of racing.

Photo: © Gilles Martin-Raget

I was the guest racer onboard Artemis today. It was nice for me as CEO to see my team in action from up close. The six weeks of two boat training the team has done in Valencia looks to have given them a strong base to operate from. Notwithstanding the fact that our AC45 crew is in constant rotation, the boys seemed solid and tight as a group. They won their match race against Emirates Team New Zealand, the first fleet race and were leading the second fleet race when they dropped out to be first to the crane for hauling the boat out.

Photo: © Gilles Martin-Raget

This weekend was 'practice' racing, but still the Italian public made it down to see the action. Italy is known to be one of the most passionate nations when it comes to the America’s Cup and we are expecting big crowds both here in Naples and next month in Venezia.

The teams will take a couple of days off now and be back on for the official racing which starts on Wednesday.

The first challenge for Artemis Racing was to form our team. Our main competitors, ORACLE Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand and Prada are ongoing entities. Just in the last month, it feels like Artemis is operating as an America’s Cup team. Now, our challenge is the same as the others, to build an AC72 and become proficient at sailing it in the demanding conditions of San Francisco Bay.

To that end, I am heading back to Valencia tomorrow morning as we are sailing our trimaran with the AC72 wing in it this week, as well as racing here in the ACWS. We are a busy team with both operations going on simultaneously, but there is so much to do and so little time. I will be back in Naples on Friday for the racing at the weekend.

Paul