What’s next for TEAMORIGIN?
Azzurra take the event title
A surprising two nil defeat of Emirates Team New Zealand at the hands of the new champions Azzurra played out early on Sunday morning in light Northerly winds in front of Nice’s Promenade des Anglais.
TEAMORIGIN, knocked out themselves 1-2 by Azzurra in the semi finals on Saturday, could take some consolation from seeing the mighty Kiwis fall to the same team too.
Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal, commented to his team yesterday “For sure we were all disappointed not to get into the finals here in Nice but we should be proud of our achievements during this event. Winning the America’s Cup involves taking a million tiny steps and improving with each step and that is what we need to do as we move forward to a really full sailing programme in 2010.”
Benefits to TEAMORIGIN
The benefits of competing in Nice to TEAMORIGIN were multiple. On the sporting side the team racked up an impressive nine wins and six loses over the whole event, third only to the two finalists. Ashore TEAMORIGIN was responsible for managing and maintaining one of the two pairs of yachts used at the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta (GBR75 and FRA93). As each team rotated across all four boats at the regatta the four ACC yachts took a fair beating over the intense week of training and two weeks of competition.
David Duff, TEAMORIGIN Shore Operations Director, said this: “It has been a really challenging time for our TEAMORIGIN shore team but one which they rose to and achieved results with impressive smoothness. We did not have much time to pull a team together and managed to bring in some really talented guys many of whom had not worked together before. For sure it has been an excellent learning platform for us to build on as a Cup team.”
TEAMORIGIN’s profile, identity and general persona is better understood in the sailing and public environment and its values and philosophies were demonstrated clearly to all guests and public who came to Nice to watch the event. The web site community was extensive with thousands of supporters club members signing up and the new facebook site gathering large support since the start of the event. The media coverage and TV updates achieved in the UK and Worldwide have been considerable and builds on the team awareness and the Race for Change message.
Moving on
The team continues its sailing programme with skipper Ben Ainslie and his match race team of Iain Percy, Christian Kamp, Matt Cornwell and Mike Mottl moving off immediately to Perth for a match racing training event and then to Malaysia for the Monsoon Cup World Match Racing Tour event next month, whilst the shore crew move the ACC yachts used in Nice back to TEAMORIGIN’s new base in Valencia.
Mike Sanderson is heading to the antipodes to be a Helmsman with the Wild Oates team through the Sydney Hobart race and then to monitor the construction of TEAMORIGIN’s new TP52 being built in New Zealand for the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit which starts in May.
The commercial and marketing team return to London to continue discussions with potential partners and to communicate the 2010 programme.
The next time the whole team will be together again is at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta, which is scheduled to take place between 2-21 March 2010.
Mike Sanderson , Team Director, summed up the event and team plans going forward “It has been great to see both experienced and new America’s Cup teams back on the water racing again and to see that the WSTA/Louis Vuitton event formula continues to work well. It delivered exciting, competitive racing and generated great media and public awareness and interest – this is all vital for the future of our sport and our team.”
Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice-Côte d’Azur – Final standings
Competing teams – Country – Skipper – Record (W-L)
1. Azzurra (ITA) – Francesco Bruni, 11-5
2. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) – Dean Barker, 11-4
3. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) – Karol Jablonski, 8-6
4. TEAMORIGIN (GBR) – Ben Ainslie, 9-6
5. ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) – Jochen Schuemann, 5-8
6. BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) – Gavin Brady, 5-8
7. Artemis (SWE) – Paul Cayard, 5-7
8. Team French Spirit – Pages Jaunes (FRA) – Bertrand Pacé, 1-11