Valuable lessons learned in Cascais victory
The Portugal Trophy is not all Emirates Team New Zealand take away from the first Audi MedCup circuit event for 2010, in Cascais.
After securing the regatta win today with two second placings in the final races, Dean Barker and his crew are more than happy to carry a 20-point lead into the next event, in Marseille in June.
They also take lessons learned from this challenging 10-race regatta, where the roguish winds were always tough to read, and the standard of boats in the 11-strong fleet was considerably higher than the previous year.
“If someone had said before the regatta that we would come away with a 10-point lead, we would have leapt at it. So to come away with a 20-point buffer is very unexpected, and fantastic,” Barker said.
“The standard here was very high, so it makes it a tougher challenge for us to keep improving. To win this event is great, but there are still a lot of races - 40 to go – to defend our championship title.
“The biggest lesson we’ve learned here is consistency. We let ourselves down in the first couple of races, by making a lot of unforced mistakes. It’s very easy when things aren’t going well to start taking more high-risk options to make things right. But we chipped away each day and managed to reel off a very consistent second two-thirds of the regatta.
“You aren’t going to win every race, and the standard is so high, you need to accept a third or fourth is quite a good result.”
Claiming second place in the bruising opening race of the day was enough to seal the regatta victory with a race to spare. The race course was moved west of Cascais, closer to the Atlantic Ocean, to pick up the breeze, and collected 18-25 knots and big seas. Amid torn sails and gear failures on other boats, NZL380 sailed a solid race to cross the finish line behind local team, Bigamist 7.
“The boat has been so well prepared by the shore crew. The new system on the boat has paid big dividends; it’s just up to us to sail it well and take every opportunity we can,” Barker said.
NZL380 led the fleet to the top mark of the final race, but over-laid the mark, allowing other boats to sneak past. Through conscientious crew work, Emirates Team New Zealand picked off most of them to finish second behind the US boat Quantum Racing.
“It was one of those days where it all fell into place. It would have been easy to have got caught up in just trying to win the regatta,” Barker said.
That left Emirates Team New Zealand with their fifth successive MedCup regatta victory, 20 points ahead of circuit newcomers AudiA1 powered by All4One, with Swedish team Artemis finishing third overall, another 5.5 points back. A win in the final race saw Quantum Racing leap ahead of the British TeamOrigin for fourth.
The Emirates Team New Zealand crew now travel to La Maddalena, Sardinia, to compete in the Louis Vuitton Trophy event, starting this weekend.
Portugal Trophy, Cascais: TP52 Series
Final Overall
1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 6+11+1+1+4+2+1+1.5+2+2= 31.5 points
2. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE (FRA/GER), 9+7+4+6+1+5+5+4.5+4+6= 51.5
3. Artemis (SWE), 3+6+7+8+3+7+2+6+6+9= 57
4. Quantum Racing (USA), 1+5+8+2+10+9+8+10.5+5+1= 59.5
5. TeamOrigin (GBR), 4+9+2+4+2+1+7+13.5+10+7= 59.5
6. Matador (ARG), 7+2+5+9+8+12(DSQ)+6+3+3+5= 60
7. Synergy (RUS), 8+1+6+3+5+8+3+15+11+4= 64
8. Cristabella (GBR), 2+8+3+5+9+6+10+12+7+3= 65
9. Luna Rossa (ITA), 5+3+9+10+6+3+9+16.5+8+8= 77.5
10. Bribón (ESP), 10+10+10+12(DNC)+7+4+4+7.5+9+9(RDG)= 82.5
11. Bigamist 7 (POR), 11+4+11+7+11+10+12(DNF)+9+1+12(DSQ)= 88