Emirates Team New Zealand sails away with Cascais victory

Abu Dhabi, May 18, 2010 (WAM)- 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 yesterday 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.
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.
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.
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. – Emirates News Agency, WAM