Louis Vuitton America’s Cup - Outteridge: "We are still shocked by what happened"

Day three of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers was a day in which the five challenging teams; Land Rover BAR, Artemis Racing, SoftBank Team Japan, Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand, had their chance to enhance their positions on the leaderboard and close the gap on Defenders of the ‘Auld Mug’ and table-toppers ORACLE TEAM USA who sat out of action, having raced three times on day two.

After claiming a maiden victory by beating Artemis Racing yesterday, Groupama Team France took another win in the opening race of the day by beating Land Rover BAR comfortably in race 13.

Despite a poor pre-start, which saw them fall 10 seconds behind the British team at mark 1, 
Franck Cammas’ team recovered brilliantly to stay in hot pursuit, closing the gap ahead of 
gate 3.

When Land Rover BAR suffered a poor turn at the gate, Groupama Team France were 
perfectly placed to pounce, seizing on the mistake and taking the lead.

It was a moment that would prove pivotal and costly for Sir Ben Ainslie’s team as they had 
no response in the remainder of the race.

With their new-found confidence, Groupama Team France, who kept up on their foils for 95% 
of the race, kept their cool, despite a slight nosedive at gate 5, and raced home to win 
with a 53 second advantage over the Brits.

“It was another very good result for us and to beat the British is always good for the French,” j
oked Groupama Team France helmsman Franck Cammas, whose team suffered a defeat in 
second race of the day against SoftBank Team Japan.

“We were quick, particularly upwind and to finish with a good gap to the other team is very 
pleasing.

“We made a number of mistakes in the second race and we made it hard for ourselves to be 
able to recover.

“However, compared to the start of the beginning of the week we are all very happy.”

Meanwhile, for Land Rover BAR, the defeat sees them continue to struggle for form having 
lost to ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand on day two.

“It was a very frustrating race but credit to France, they had better speed than us and took the 
win,” said British helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie.

“We will have to go away in the coming days and make some big improvements.

“Everyone knows the America’s Cup is all about development and we will be pushing 
to improve our performance in specific areas.

“We are all working hard and are reasonably happy but we have to keep improving and focus 
on getting up to speed.”

There was high drama in race 14 as the duel between Artemis Racing and Emirates Team 
New Zealand proved the most exciting, and most contentious contest of the 35th America’s Cup 
so far.

Having put themselves ahead at the start, the Swedish team were forced to drop two-boat 
lengths behind their rivals after being handed a penalty for crossing the start fractionally early.

They managed to catch up with the Kiwis and then swapped the lead with them multiple 
times throughout the race, but at the final mark there was a dramatic penalty called against t
he Swedes for not leaving the Kiwis enough room. Artemis Racing continued towards the finish
 line, but had to take their penalty, allowing Emirates Team New Zealand to take the win at the 
line.

Outteridge, Iain Percy and their crew looked devastated at the end of the race and finished 
day three on two points, equal with Groupama Team France and SoftBank Team Japan.

“We are still shocked by what happened,” said Nathan Outteridge. 

(www.americascup.com)