NZL380s mission accomplished

Emirates Team New Zealand has won the final regatta in the Audi MedCup circuit and taken the 2009 series title.

Only one race was held on the last day at Cartagena, Spain. NZL380 finished second behind Synergy (Russia). NZL380 finished the regatta on 10 points, followed by Bigamist 7 (Portugal) on 23 and Quantum Racing (USA) on 27.

NZL380 won the season title convincingly. After winning four of the five regattas NZL380 was well clear on 128.5 points. Second-placed Quantum was 74 points behind on 202.5 points, with Artemis (Sweden) third on 208.5. Matador (Argentina), which won the first regatta at Alicante, finished fourth on 209.5 points.

Having accomplished a goal set more than a year ago, Emirates Team New Zealand now shifts its focus to the first Louis Vuitton World Series regatta at Nice, France, in November.

Skipper Dean Barker said they would enjoy the night. “We came here looking for a win. We finished the season feeling like we were sailing the best we had. Cartagena has been our best event. It couldn’t have gone better.

“We have really enjoyed this year’s Audi MedCup season and now we are going to do everything we can to come back next season. But now we have to switch our focus from fleet racing back to match racing and start preparing for Nice.”

For Grant Dalton, the most telling aspect of the season has been the team’s steady improvement race by race, regatta by regatta.

“We wanted to improve incrementally as the season progressed. That was the objective.

“We weren’t happy after the first regatta at Alicante. We should have done better. You could argue it was a blessing, but I don’t think so…. we race to win, not to get better by losing.

“At the debriefs we talked about making incremental gains rather than trying to cover it all. So after that we aimed to be consistent - cut out those really bad results, 9ths or 10ths.

“That was the key lesson from Alicante. We sailed well, then had a shocker, sailed well and then had a shocker. So we tried to lose the shockers.

“Reliability has always been a key issue for this team. Reliability is not hard to build into these boats, much easier than building it into an America’s Cup boat.

“We have made the boat faster as the season went on. A small amount here and there but certainly by this last regatta we never looked like losing overall. That’s a real credit to the guys and the way they go about their jobs.”

The MedCup communications people had this to say:

“After missing out on victory in Alicante because of one error on the final run of the last race, Emirates Team New Zealand set about ensuring they improved at every successive regatta.

“In Murcia this week they were a class apart, invincible in the big breeze and convincing in all other conditions.

“The Kiwi team had no gear or sail failures through all five regattas, never had to re-start and only once, in Marseille, took a penalty.

“The 2009 champions have at their core a number of sailors with MedCup and TP52 experience. Tactician Ray Davies won overall in 2006 with Mean Machine, Dean Barker, who has steered TP52s every year since the Circuit started in 2005, and navigator Kevin Hall were on second placed Warpath that year.”

Caja Mediterráneo Region of Murcia Trophy
Overall – Final

1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 1+1+3+2+1+2= 10 points
2. Bigamist 7 (POR), 6+4+2+1+4+6= 23 points
3. Quantum Racing (USA), 8+6+1+3+5+4= 27 points
4. Synergy (ESP), 9+7+8+4+3+1= 32 points
5. Artemis (SWE), 7+2+7+6+6+5= 33 points

Audi MedCup Circuit 2009
Overall - Final
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 38+27.5+28+25+10= 128.5 points
2. Quantum Racing (USA), 40+41.5+65+29+27= 202.5 points
3. Artemis (SWE), 37+62.5+49.5+26.5+33= 208.5 points
4. Matador (ARG), 36+47.5+42.5+44.5+39= 209.5 points
5. Bigamist (POR), 46+55.5+57+30.5+23= 212 points