AINSLIE And TEAMORIGIN Win Trapani Cento Cup
Action from Trapani
©Francesco Italia
Trapani Cento Cup 2007
Trapani, Italy
TEAMORIGIN, Britain's Challenge for the 33rd America's Cup, competed at the ISAF Grade 1 Trapani Cento Cup in Trapani, Sicily, at the weekend and won.
Against a star-studded line-up of skippers from the last America's Cup, including the two Danish helmsmen
Jes GRAM-HANSEN and
Jesper RADICH, the Australian
James SPITHILL and the Italian
Paolo CIAN,
TEAMORIGIN's
Ben AINSLIE,
Iain PERCY,
Matt CORNWELL and guest
Gabriele BRUNI competed in and won the 2007 Trapani Cento Cup. Trapani, on the extreme western tip of the Italian island of Sicily, was the site of Acts 8 & 9, a pair of build-up regattas for the last America's Cup sailed in full size America's Cup Class yachts in October 2005.
"This was our first international competition sailing together, our team worked well together and developed well as we went through the regatta. Sailing with Iain worked really well from a tactical point of view and this result is an important step forward for us" commented skipper AINSLIE.
"The conditions were pretty straight forward for the Round Robin series starting last Thursday, we sailed outside the harbour on open water. For the semis and finals at the weekend however we raced inside Trapani Harbour, which made it very shifty and really called for 'heads-out-of-the-boat sailing' to spot the wind," AINSLIE continued.
"Our team seemed to work well together and we won our semi-final against Jes GRAM HANSEN and the finals against Paolo CIANm who had beaten James SPITHILL in their semi-final, both 2-0."
"I am particularly pleased with this regatta not only because the team won, which is great, but because Ben and Iain worked really well together tactically. This is an important signal for TEAMORIGIN's future. We are a new team with experienced people coming from different backgrounds. This first test of getting this small but important part of the team working together has gone well," concluded Team Director Mike SANDERSON (NZL).
Event Website -
www.trapanicentocup.com
Results -
www.trapanicentocup.com/ita/classifica_gen.php
Tim Kelly (As Amended By ISAF)