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2008 Audi MedCup: Quantum Racing Report

Skipper Terry Hutchinson and the crew of the TP 52 Quantum Racing lead the MedCup standings as the circuit stops in Spain.

Stop 4: Mallorca

Quantum Racing Wins Again at Puerto Portals

PUERTO PORTALS, MALLORCA, July 26, 2008 -The Botin Carkeek TP52 Quantum Racing dominated competition at the Breitling Regatta in Puerto Portals this week, cementing her second consecutive regatta victory and tightening her grasp on the prestigious Audi MedCup circuit championship.

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With two regattas remaining in the summer-long competition for the 2008 circuit championship, Quantum Racing enjoys a lead of 30 points over the second-placed Swedish TP52 Artemis.

Racing was abandoned today for lack of wind. However, competing on the Bay of Palma for the previous four days, Quantum Racing built a commanding lead of 14 points over second-placed Matador.

“We’ve been working for this result ever since we put the boat in the water at the beginning of the summer,” said skipper and helmsman Terry Hutchinson. “We started the season with a good boat, a great crew and the latest in sail technology from Quantum. Since then it has been a steady process of refinement. We continue to get more out of the boat and the sails as we focus on the fine points of our crew work and communication. Every day we just try to get better. I am relentless in the pursuit of improvement and I impress that strongly on the guys.”

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Three weeks ago in Cagliari, Sardinia, Quantum Racing won the Audi Region of Sardinia Regatta with an impressive performance that included four first places. The American boat also seized the lead in the circuit standings. In Mallorca, her first race on the Bay of Palma was also her worst of the week, an 11th place that Hutchinson and his crew salvaged from a next-to-last 14th place at the last weather mark. After that, Hutchinson rallied his crew and they notched two second place finishes to round out the first day of racing third overall.

In the first race on day two, the green and black boat finished eighth but then went on to duplicate her day one performance with two more second place finishes to remain in third place overall for the week.

Day three was the coastal race, a 33-mile course back and forth and around the Bay of Palma. Sailed in two stages, separated by a scoring gate, the race counts for double points. Quantum Racing’s previous best this season was two fourth places. This time, her two firsts lifted her to the top of the leaderboard for the regatta and boosted her points lead for the circuit championship. The American boat prevailed on the first leg in shifty conditions and led around the first weather mark but later swapped the lead several times with the German boat Platoon.

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“It was great to win the coastal race,” said Ian Moore, the boat’s navigator. “It was our first coastal race victory of the series. We had a little bit of luck but at the same time, Morgan Larson, our tactician made some really decisive calls on the first beat that got us out of a lot of trouble and got us right back into the race. It was fantastic to pip the Germans by a couple of seconds at the first scoring gate by timing our jibe better than theirs.

“We know our boat and sails are good but in high-level competition like the MedCup success also rests on crew performance. That’s something that Terry has been emphasizing to all of us. It was an all-round solid week. I felt that as a team we had a really good regatta. Everyone was firing at the right level and doing their jobs well. Everything was jelling.”

Day four brought a continuation of light sea breeze conditions and after a good start Quantum Racing led the first race of the day at the first weather mark, followed by the Argentinean boat Matador. The American boat continued to lead for the next two legs as the breeze freshened but Matador slipped into the lead at the last weather mark and held on to win. Quantum Racing was second. The second race in a breeze that built to 16 knots was hard-fought but Hutchinson and his crew led narrowly all the way to score another first.

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Hutchinson was cautiously optimistic about his team’s performance. “All the teams here are very, very good and our biggest mistake would be to think that we actually sailed as well as the score card reflects,” he said. “We won three races, of which two comprised the coastal. But in other races we led around the top mark but failed to capitalize on those advantages. There are still things we are still leaving on the table so we have to push ourselves to do better. Our biggest mistake would be to believe that we can’t get better.”

Two events remain on the Audi MedCup Regatta Circuit. The Region of Murcia Trophy Regatta will be sailed in Carthagena, Spain, August 25-30. The season finale will be the Portugal Trophy Regatta in Portimao, Portugal, September 15-20.

Results:
14th Breitling Regatta, Puerto Portals, Mallorca
Regatta standings after nine races.
1. Quantum Racing, USA, 11-2-2-8-2-2-1-1-2-1, 32
2. Matador, ARG, 3-1-3- 9- 7- 1-9-9-1-3, 46
3. Platoon powered by Team Germany, GER, 7-4-6-7-6-6-2-2-7-5, 52
4. Artemis, SWE, 4-11-5-5-10-3-3-3-8-2, 54
5. Mean Machine, MON, 1-5-1- 2-1-7-15-14-14-6, 66
6. Mutua Madrileña, ESP, 2-12-8- 4-5-5-7-5-10-10, 68
7. Bribon, ESP, 5-10-4-1-11-12-12-6-9-4, 74
8. Audi Q8, ITA, 15-7-15-3-8-4-13-10-3-13, 91
9. Rusal Synergy, RUS, 12-3-13-13-14-9-5-4-12-7, 92
10. El Desafio, ESP, 14-13-14-6-3-14-6-11-4-9, 94

Audi MedCup Circuit 2008
Standings after 34 races in Alicante, Marseille, Cagliari and Mallorca
1. Quantum Racing, USA, 161
2. Artemis, SWE, 191
3. Bribon, ESP, 209.2
4. Mean Machine, MON, 224
5. Matador, ARG, 238
6. Platoon by Team Germany, GER, 242
7. Mutua Madrileña, ESP, 268.4
8. El Desafio, ESP, 301
9. CxG Corporacion Caixa Galicia, ESP, 328.6
10. Audi Q8, ITA, 357

-Keith Taylor, Press Officer, Quantum Racing

July 27, 2008

Dealing with the Embat

Day four, Friday, we raced twice. In the first race we stayed with our approach of starting the race in the front group and sticking to the plan we put together in the leadup to the starting sequence. This is always a crucial element to any sailboat race – balancing flexibility with trying to stick to the plan. Thanks to our starts we have been doing a really good job of sticking to the plan!

For me personally this was the most challenging race of the day as one of my responsibilities as the sail trimmer is to make sail decisions. Decisions such as which sails we actually have on board for the race (not enough and we may not cover all the potential wind scenarios – too many and we slow the boat down by having too much weight aboard), which sails to hoist for the start of the race and then which sail for the next leg of the race.

The first race was tough for me as the Embat as the local sea breeze is known was bringing very changeable wind speeds. In this race in particular we were caught up in a very close battle with two other boats on the second leg. Sometimes, changing sails can be like pulling into the pits to change tires….if you do this before your competitor you may just lose the few inches to need to cross the other guy and lead into the next leg. Of course all this time you must be looking upwind and trying to get a feel for what is going to happen on the next leg….wind is invisible but studying the surface of the ocean gives you many clues as to how much breeze is flowing over it. I chose to stick with the sail that we had used on the first upwind leg and keep the lead. As it played out by the end of leg three three, the wind had built enough that the sail we chose was too powerful and was part of the reason Matador was able to cut the corner on us at the top mark and lead into the last leg of the race to take the gun. We were second.

These are the sorts of mini-dramas are going on in all the different areas of the boats and it is the team that is best able to put all the little pieces together that will end up at the front.

We had another great race in the second race of the day and were able to sail into the lead and win the race. Sometimes you have a good day and feel like you may have had more than your share of good fortune. But today was one of our first days where it felt like we really earned it. The whole team was doing a great job and it just felt like fun which is probably how it should be!

With one day and two races remaining tomorrow, Quantum Racing is now in first place in the regatta with a 14-point cushion on second-placed Matador. Our overall Audi MedCup Circuit lead over Artemis is 30 points.

– Morgan Trubovitch, trimmer, Quantum Racing

July 26, 2008

Gimmie Back My Bullets

The Coastal Race is an important part of every MedCup regatta. It is sailed on Day 3 and covers around 30 to 35 miles, mostly around fixed marks. There is always a scoring gate somewhere around the halfway mark, so the race counts for double points. Boats with a handy lead at the scoring gate can generally count on extending their winning streak to the second half of the race.

That’s what Quantum Racing accomplished today on a long 34-mile course that zigged and zagged back and forth across the Bay of Palma. At the start, like most of the fleet we liked the look of the left. However Morgan Larson, our tactician was keen to go left from mid-line as the pressure looked a little better. We had a great start from the middle and forced off all the guys to our right, but then got nailed ourselves by a big left shift and were forced right. We sailed two big shifts and found ourselves right back in the game to lead around the windward mark. The run went really well and we extended.

Next beat we tried to sail with the upwind zero and got a little caught out and the Germans on Platoon just managed to pip us to the second wind ward mark. From that point on everything we discussed in our morning meeting re the wind and the weather and the geography of the bay happened exactly as we forecast, and I think we made the most of it. We knew it would be light at the scoring gate and we knew we wanted to approach from offshore and that worked perfectly with Morgan calling the jibe in just the right spot to cut the Germans off by half a length to claim our first win of the day. We battled across the next eight-mile reach, the longest of the race, to keep them behind us as they seemed to have small edge at the higher angles with the Code Zero. Anyway it just worked and although they had threatened to roll us a couple of times on the reach we maintained a one length lead into the jibe mark. The boys on the sharp end of the boat really shone and we pulled off a perfect jibe peel to a downwind zero which set up us beautifully for the next leg. From this point on we extended on every leg to the finish.

There is no doubt that we got a little lucky on the first beat but to be honest we had a little bit of bad luck on some of the previous long races so maybe it was just our turn.

Our double bullets have pulled us up to first place overall with 29 points. Platoon is second, with 40, and Matador third, with 42. Best of all our performance this week has strengthened our hand in the summer-long competition for the the Audi MedCup Championship. We now have 158 points to Artemis with 181.

– Ian Moore, navigator, Quantum Racing

July 25, 2008

Another Third at Puerto Portals

Here in Puerto Portals the local sea breeze, called the Embat, is real tricky to read. Yesterday we really struggled in the first race of the regatta but managed to claw our way back to 11th. It was not an auspicious beginning. After that we got on a roll with two seconds to take third place overall.

Wouldn’t you know, the scenario repeated itself today, again in sea breeze conditions and flat water. Our score for the day this time was 8-2-2. Our start in the first race was good but not good enough to get away from a top notch fleet fighting for clear air. We struggled with our tactics throughout this race, but team work and good boatspeed kept us alive and we finished eighth. At least that was three places better than yesterday.

We came back strong in the second race with a nice start, getting off the line in about 12-14 knots of air, together with Dirk de Ridder’s Mean Machine. The Monaco boat led around the top mark and we rounded fourth but pulled up to second place at the leeward gate with some solid strategy as the breeze freshened to 15 knots. We kept the pressure on Mean Machine but she won and we were second.

The last race of the day we had a nice jump off the line and made some modest gains to lead around every mark of the course. We had a handy lead at the last weather mark but couldn’t prevent Matador from gaining on us on the last run. The speed difference was so great we believed we might have a caught a garbage bag on the keel. There are enough of them out there, that’s for sure. On the other hand the guys on Matador sailed a great last leg to pass us just at the finish.

Mean Machine and Matador, the two boats that pushed us the hardest today, are now first and second on points for the week. Mean Machine has 17 points. Matador has 24 and we are on 27.

– Morgan Larson, tactician , Quantum Racing

July 24, 2008

Clawing Back

The 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit has moved on to the highly fashionable watering hole of Puerto Portals, just on the outskirts of Palma on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca. We’re now into hot, hazy, and humid summer days, hoping that the sea breeze, known here as the Embat, will come in with sufficient strength for each of the next five days.

|| |—| | Ian Roman/AUDI MEDCUP| |Quantum Racing and Audi Quattro during the Breitling Regatta in Mallorca, Spain.| All of us on Quantum Racing have experienced just how tricky it can be competing on the bay here, and it was borne out again today. We had ourselves set up for a really nice start in the first race. In typical Palma fashion, a light spot materialized in front of us as we went for the speed build. The guys to windward of us sheered off in a nice little patch of pressure. At ten seconds, our start had been looking pretty darn good, but it ended up average at best.

That put Morgan Larson, our tactician, and all the guys, in a tough spot. We had to do a lot of tacking up the first beat. As soon as you start tacking in this fleet you’re just taking steps back down the ladder.

Halfway up the first beat we were really deep. Morgan Trubovitch made the comment that this was the race that would decide the outcome of the regatta for us, meaning that every place we managed to claw back would be vital to success at week’s end. We did really nice work in the last half of the last run to get past four boats coming into the finish. We literally picked up two boats right before the finish line to secure 11th place.

Before the second start we regrouped, looked at where we could have done better, and worked on our strategy for the rest of the day. From there, things looked up and we finished in second place to Matador in Race 2 and second to Mean Machine in Race 3. That left us in third place for the regatta, but we actually managed to pile on a few more points for the Audi MedCup Championship in which we now lead the Spanish boat Bribon by 10.2 points.

– Terry Hutchinson, skipper, Quantum Racing

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Stop 3: Sardinia

July 5, 2008

Quantum Racing wins Sardinia Trophy

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The TP52 Quantum Racing skippered by Terry Hutchinson won the Audi Region Sardinia Trophy today with a strong week-long performance that included four first place finishes in a world-class fleet. The new TP52, designed by Botin Carkeek now also leads on overall points at the half-way mark of Audi MedCup competition, comprised of six regattas throughout the summer.

Quantum Racing siezed the MedCup circuit lead with two first places on the second day of racing in Cagliari and took over the regatta lead the next day after the coastal race.

The green and black American boat opened the last day of racing with another first place finish in mistral winds of 18-20 knots. In more moderate but puffy and shifty conditions, it finished sixth in the second race of the day. Then, in sixth place at the last mark of the last race, Quantum Racing was tied on points for the week with Peter de Ridder’s Monaco-based TP52, Mean Machine. On the exciting final leg, the Americans overtook El Desafio, sailed by the Spanish America’s Cup team and the Argentinian boat Matador, to preserve a two-point lead over Mean Machine.

Hutchinson paid tribute to his team and to Quantum. “Everything that we worked on prior to the regatta has been better here,” he said. “Our starting was better and our boat was going faster. We are slowly improving our equipment and our sails to a point where they are very nice. The faster you get the easier it gets, however, I think we have to keep working hard at getting more out of our boat.

“This week has been a really good test, but we still leave stuff on the table, and so the good news is that we can still get better. Everyone on the team can enjoy this win for what it’s worth for a day or two, but there are still 30 races to go and we are only half way there.”

This is the first season for the new Botin Carkeek-designed TP52. The boat’s owners, Fred Howe and Doug DeVos have, in the past, each raced boats in the MedCup, but this year they chose to make their new boat a factory entry under the colors of the Quantum Sail Design Group (QSDG).

“A lot of credit has to go to our technology team. They are the invisible force behind the scenes,” said Ed Reynolds, who is president of QSDG, and program manager and coach for Quantum Racing. “They have done a great job of interacting with the sailing team, and giving them the tools they need on the race course. Leading at this point of the series is better than the alternative, but the real excitement for me is watching the process of continual improvement get executed as planned”

Launched in Valencia, Spain, by her builders Longitude Zero just over two months ago, Quantum Racing finished the opening MedCup regatta in Alicante, Spain, in third place overall. In Marseille, France, two weeks later, she was fifth for the week but moved up to second overall for the season’s championship.

Competing on the Bay of Cagliari, Quantum Racing moved up in the standings every day, never finishing worse than sixth in the ten-race series. Sailing on flat water in moderate and stable sea breezes, the green and black American boat posted finishes of 3-1-6 on day one of racing. In similar conditions the next day, Hutchinson and his afterguard of tactician Morgan Larson, strategist Mark Mendelblatt, and navigator Ian Moore won their starts and led from start to finish in back-to-back races.

On day three, with lighter conditions for the coastal race, Quantum Racing finished 5-4 in the two sections, in one of the few position changes of what proved to be a procession from start to finish. Hutchinson and his crew earned their fourth place in a spirited downwind battle in the fading sea breeze, to beat the Swedish boat Artemis steered by American John Kostecki.

Day four of competition brought the Mediterranean’s notorious mistral blowing into the high twenties with gusts over 30 knots. Hutchinson sailed a conservative race, keeping his boat on its feet without gear failure, while some boats profited with huge planing runs but others broached or blew out spinnakers. Quantum Racing finished fifth, but ahead of Mean Machine and Bribon, their rivals for the points lead.

Reynolds predicted further successes for his factory team boat. “We have completely changed our product and our technology at QSDG and of course we want to win this series,” he said. “But our aim was to come here with the new technology and validate it. This program is also a fantastic platform for us to take brand new information and transfer it to our core customer base. Other sailmakers try out their new technology and sail concepts on their customers. We’re ironing out the wrinkles on our own boat before taking it to the customers.”

The next event on the MedCup circuit is the Breitling Regatta, July 21-26 at Puerto Portals, on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

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– Keith Taylor, Press Officer

Independence Day

Thierry Martinez/Sea&See/Audi MedCup
With three sails flying and another two ready to be deployed, the Quantum Racing TP 52 crosses the finish line of the distance race in the 2008 Audi Trophy of Sardinia Regatta, the third stop on the 2008 Audi MedCup.

After Thursday’s grand tour of the Gulf of Angels, _Quantum Racing _is points leader for the summer-long six-event Audi MedCup Championship. Our new Botin Carkeek TP52 is also in front for the week-long Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy. But only just! It was a hard day at the office.

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When we crossed the finish line in fourth place just off the Cagliari harbor breakwater, we led Bribon by a scant two tenths of a point. But we had built a two-point margin on Mean Machine for the top silverware of the week.

These coastal races around fixed marks are hard and demanding, requiring multiple sail changes. Today, over 35 hard-fought miles there was little or no opportunity to pick up places in the procession.

The course was something like a flat M-shape, out and back. Tough to describe, but set out in detail in the Heaven or Hell story on the Audi MedCup web site. It was harder than normal because the committee gave us a three-mile first beat when in general we sail 1.8 or two miles. The breeze was light and the conditions were completely different from the preceding days. It shifted about 20 degrees right leading up to the start and many in the fleet were suckered into going right. Our afterguard consisting of tactician Morgan Larson, strategist Mark Mendelblatt and navigator Ian Moore, did a really good job in keeping us to the left side of the fleet. We sailed a conservative first leg and as it turned out, the foremost left boats were 1-2-3-4 at the top mark. The order was Mutua Madrileña, Bribon, _Caixa Galicia _and us.

From there the race pretty much became a parade. We slipped up going up the five-mile beat to the first scoring gate and Artemis sneaked by us to make us fifth for the first section of the race. But we were able to get her back before the finish to score fourth in that section.

You come off the water after one of these races and you feel that you haven’t sailed well because there is so much gear and stuff on the boat. We carry a lot of extra sails that we normally don’t carry. Consider this – we went across the finish line in a dying breeze with the upwind code zero plugged in, the genoa staysail up, the downwind code zero up and a nylon spinnaker plugged in. We were working with five sails, two flying and three on the foredeck ready to go. When you finish the race your initial thought is “Thank God that’s over!”

That said, for us it was a really good day. We put points on Mean Machine and we’re still ahead of Bribon. We have four more races left over the next two days to see how this regatta goes.

– Terry Hutchinson, skipper/helmsman

July 3, 2008

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Double Bullets

Dominating the day with two first-place finishes is a rare record in the distinguished company we keep on the Audi MedCup circuit but that’s what Terry Hutchinson and the boys pulled off on Wednesday. As we prepare to start Thursday’s 33-mile coastal race, Quantum Racing is now the points-leader in the contest for the summer-long Audi MedCup Championship with its elaborate glass sculpted trophy.

Quantum Racing is 5.2 points ahead of the Spanish TP52 Bribon, campaigned by Juan Carlos, King of Spain, and steered by Dean Barker, Terry’s old skipper at Team New Zealand. In the contest for the Audi Region of Sardinia Trophy for top dog in this week’s racing, we are trailing Dirk de Ridder’s Mean Machine by a one point margin. The Monaco boat’s finishes this week have been 1-4-1-2-3. We’ve had three first place finishes but our 3-1-6-1-1 record is not quite as good as theirs.

We have been working on our starts and on stringing together all the little pieces that add up to a top flight performance and they all came together on Wednesday. The course here is right-hand favored and Terry did a great job of getting us off the line with speed near the committee in both starts. We started the first race at the weather end and then tacked early onto port. In the second start we were down the line three or four lengths but bow-out on everybody.

All the boats here are very close on performance and other teams pushed us hard but, with clear air and the ability to pick the shifts we led at every mark. Covering upwind is pretty straightforward but it gets interesting downwind as the fleet spreads out behind you. Trying to stay in control is much more difficult, but we did a good job and stayed on top of everyone to win the day

– Ian Moore, navigator,

July 2, 2008

Reunion Was a Long Time Coming For Old Friends, and Rivals

|| |—| | Thierry Martinez/Sea&See/Audi MedCup| |Terry Hutchinson (standing) and tactician Morgan Larson have been sailing with and against each other for more than two decades.| It has been a long haul since college sailing days but after years of sailing against each other, or with each other, Terry Hutchinson, Mark Mendelblatt, and myself are only now sailing together on the same boat for the first time. Mark just joined Quantum Racing in Sardinia where he is filling in as main caddy and strategician, but already the magic is starting to work as we weld ourselves into an effective tactical unit.

It’s easy to spot the consistent performers on the MedCup circuit. They have core crews, sometimes complete crews, who have been sailing together for years. Boats like Bribon and Mean Machine enjoy the depth of talent, the trust, and the confidence that comes from long relationships to make the right split-second calls. We have talent, trust, and interlocking relationships too but we haven’t had the time to develop the rapport of some of our competition.

I first sailed against Terry when he was a senior at Old Dominion and I was a freshman at College of Charleston. We raced quite a bit in youth competition and he was always the older guy and I was the kid. Then a few years later I had a similar experience with Mark in youth and college sailing, except that I was the older sailor.

More recently Mark and I sailed together on the OneWorld America’s Cup campaign. I was tactician and he was main caddy and strategician. Now we’re enjoying the same roles on Quantum Racing And of course Mark raced with Terry on Emirates Team New Zealand in the last Louis Vuitton Cup, as did our navigator Ian Moore. There’s a good feel about this crew. It’s coming together.

We all have different sailing styles, but we use that to advantage. Terry is pretty intense and technical, while Mark and I are a little more intuitive and seat of the pants. Mark has a got a great eye and a great feel for what the wind is doing. Terry is good at tracking the fleet and dealing with the boat-on-boat stuff. Blending all that information together to improve boat performance is really the key. It takes time to settle into a cohesive group but we’re making great strides.

– Morgan Larson, tactician

July 1, 2008

Long Beach, Italian Style

American sailors who’ve raced off Long Beach, Calif., will have a good feel for the conditions we’re experiencing this week in Cagliari, capital of Sardinia. Seems like it’s going to be a pretty nice race track for the Region of Sardigna Trophy event which is the third regatta in the summer-long MedCup circuit for the TP52 Class. OK, the air is a bit more humid and Mediterranean in feel but otherwise think Long Beach. The sea breeze starts in the morning from the left-hand side and generally moves slowly to the right. It is flat water and can be windy but we’re expecting moderate conditions. The course might be a little one-sided and so it will be interesting to see how the race committee deals with that during the week, maybe favoring the pin end of the start line. That said, the boat that won the practice race on Monday came off the weather end. We know, because aboard the TP52 Quantum Racing we were second.

Quantum Sail Design Group has made a bold move and elected to campaign a boat under the Quantum name, colors and logo. Think Formula One auto racing. We’re Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, but we tossed the cigarettes overboard! Are we starting a trend? I don’t know. I do know that we’re the only boat on the circuit powered by Quantum. It’s us versus a bunch of North lofts and sailmakers and so far we’re doing pretty nicely. The mantra aboard the black and green boat is choosing our battles with an eye to winning the war. That’s especially important in a series where there are no drop races and the distance race is actually scored as two races. We came away third overall from the opening regatta in Alicante, Spain, for the City of Alicante Trophy. It was a light air affair. In Marseille, France we competed all week for the Marseille Trophy in gusty Mistral winds, almost always over 20 knots, except for the last day when it blew so hard we stayed ashore. We stayed third overall but moved up the points table to be equal on points to the second-placer. Here in Cagliari we posted a 3-1-6 on the opening day of racing in moderate conditions to be second in the regatta and outright second on points for the Audi championship. We’ll see what the next four days bring. To check out the scene here in Cagliari and what went before, take a look at Quantum WebTV.

Expert opinion says we’ll see consistent sea breezes and flat water all week. That’s going to make for tight competition in a circuit that that’s second only to the America’s Cup in technology and talent. With the Cup in hiatus, every boat out there has top Cup names or Olympic-level sailors. For the first day of racing I was swapping tacks with my old Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. Dean is on the helm of the Spanish boat _Bribon _which is skippered by Juan Carlos, King of Spain. After three races here, they are one point behind us in third place. But for the overall championship, they are first while we are second, and trailing currently by 10.5 points. It’s shaping up to be an interesting summer.

– Terry Hutchinson, skipper

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