Chris Draper´s team Luna Rossa has become the overall winner of the Naples AC World Series, collecting 50 points. James Spithill and his ORACLE Racing crew took an impressive second place. The AC World Series now moves to Venice, for the fifth stop on the circuit in May.
Strong winds and heavy seas suspended Saturday´s racing of the Naples AC World Series. Sunday’s racing will now determine fleet and match racing champions. Fleet races seven and eight have been abandoned and won’t be sailed, shortening the Fleet Racing Championship to seven races.
Light, offshore winds battling with an onshore swell, offered new challenges to the nine teams competing in the 34th America’s Cup World Series in Naples, Italy, on Friday.
ORACLE Racing Bundock advanced to the semifinal round by defeating stable mate ORACLE Racing Spithill on Day 2 of the Naples AC World Series. The two crews have spent hours training and testing against each other on San Francisco Bay, where the America’s Cup will be staged in 2013.
Emirates Team New Zealand has won both fleet races on the day two of the Naples AC World Series. The local favorites, the two Luna Rossa Challenge crews, also had a good afternoon in the beautiful sea breeze conditions just off the sea front of Naples, with each crew earning a second place finish.
The racing has never been more competitive. The addition of the two Luna Rossa crews has ratcheted up the intensity level on the race course. Dean Barker’s Emirates Team New Zealand and Jimmy Spithill’s ORACLE Racing, separated by just one point on the 2011-12 AC World Series leaderboard, resumed battle on day one in Naples, and not surprisingly, neither team would give an inch. After two races, both have posted one-three on their scorecard to lead the fleet.
Ambassador David Thorne experienced the first day’s competing at the Naples AC World Series today, watching the two races up close from the support boat of America’s Cup champion ORACLE Racing. As a keen sailor himself, the ambassador was disappointed when the sea conditions prevented him from competing in Race 1 aboard the ORACLE Racing boat skippered by America’s Cup champion James Spithill.
In difficult conditions on the Bay of Naples, ORACLE Racing Spithill won the first fleet race going away. The quintet followed it up with a 3rd in Race 2 and finished the day tied for the overall lead with Emirates Team New Zealand. With the wind blowing steadily in the 20s and a choppy sea running at 6 to 8 feet, the conditions were rougher today than even in the more sheltered Plymouth, U.K., last September, widely considered the windiest regatta.
Strong winds and big waves created menacing racing conditions on the first day of racing in Naples. Terry Hutchinson was leading his Artemis Racing team to a solid second place in the first race when both bows buried in impressive fashion as he rounded the top mark. The front of the boat kept going down, the wind pushing the wing over, until they capsized.
The leading French broadcaster CANAL+ will provide comprehensive live coverage of all the America’s Cup events during the next 18 months comprising this week’s World Series yacht regatta in Naples, Italy. This follows recent broadcast announcements with NBC in the USA, Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, and Italy’s Mediaset.
Naples AC World Series starts tomorrow in the afternoon. Two new Luna Rossa crews, sailing on home waters, are expected to be near the front of the fleet this week, while Artemis Racing, currently third, will be keen to improve on its podium position, with ORACLE Racing Bundock trying to knock them off.
The fascinating Naples AC World Series opening ceremony was an absolutely spectacular show – at a level not seen before at the America’s Cup World Series. The ceremony took place at the Piazza del Plebiscito, which had seating for one thousand guests. Several thousand others were packed into the large Piazza, which was standing room only.