Match Racing Championship:
Regatta Day 5 - First Seeding Day

Artemis doubled-down on Wednesday, jumping to the top of the standings with two first place finishes.
Photo:©2011 ACEA/Ricardo Pinto

Sept 14:
First scheduled start 2:10pm Plymouth/8:10AM ET. Weather: NW 15-20 knots, becoming WSW 8-12 around schedule start (ACM).  W 11-12 knots (WindFinder). W 9 knots with gusts to 20 knots (UK Met Service).

Wednesday sees the start of the Match Race Championship.  The first two days consist of fleet racing to seed brackets for Friday and Saturday matches.  The first race of the day will be 40-minute format, the second and third race will be 20-minute format.  The race program was modified earlier this week. 
Read more about Plymouth Format

Race 3:
Energy, Artemis, and China leading early, and still the top three in a close pack with a 30-second gap the 4th as the 4th mark comes up.  Artemis keeps going aggressive and gets the shifts right, but ETNZ stays close.

Artemis wins Race 3, putting them squarely on top of the leaderboard for Wednesday.  ETNZ 2nd by :04, Korea 3rd, Energy 4th, Coutts 5th, Spithill 6th, GreenComm 7th, China 8th, Aleph 9th.

"We are in a building phase as a team so it’s great to have good days, they make the not so good days feel better,” said Terry Hutchinson, Skipper, Artemis.  “I have heaps of respect for our Tactician Iain (Percy).  Having someone as good as Iain onboard is a good settler as it brings confidence to the way we can sail and allows me to focus more on the boat handling."
 

 

 Despite not finishing first, Energy led often, and looked very strong on Wednesday fleet races.  The French took second place in Race 1 behind only Artemis.  Photo:©2011 ACEA/Ricardo Pinto

Race 2:
Start at 20 minutes past the hour.  ETNZ, Energy and Artemis in the lead at the first mark.  Artemis gets into second at the third mark, ETNZ still leading, Energy 3rd, Korea 4th.  ETNZ and Korea leapfrog into 1st and 2nd, the boats split at the bottom mark, ETNZ taking the left gate, with the right side of the course looking better and ETNZ soon onto starboard, too, maintaining a loose cover.  Korea gets the wind right at the bottom mark, takes the lead, look ready to win with the last very short leg coming, but gets a badly timed boundary penalty!  ETNZ nearly back into the lead, but Korea shoots past them at the Kiwis lose speed trying to get inside position at mark 6.  It's a drag race to the finish and....Korea wins!

Korea 1st, ETNZ 2nd, Oracle 5 3rd, Artemis 4th, Oracle 4 5th, Aleph 6th, Energy 7th, China 8th, GreenComm 9th.

Race 1:
 And they're off!  Oracle4, Energy, and ETNZ off to an early lead.  At Mark 4, Energy takes the lead, turning left, while ETNZ and Oracle4 split right.  It's close at Mark 5 but Energy still leads, Artemis has crept into 3rd ahead of Spithill. And then Artemis reels in ETNZ and is breathing down Energy's neck as they the last leg approaches.  Energy splits at the mark, at first it looks doubtful, but the French find wind.  Artemis stayed close, and is now leading by just seconds, ETNZ has dropped back into fourth behind Spithill.

Artemis wins it, Energy 2nd, Spithill 3rd, ETNZ 4th, Coutts 5th, Korea 6th, Aleph 7th, China 9th.  GreenComm DSQ for not taking penalty. 
See Results Table

Wednesday Outlook:
With the start of a four-day series, today should being some more sober outings on the water compared to last Sunday's catamaran gymnastics.  The opening weekend showed that the Big Three (Oracle, Artemis, and ETNZ) are consistently finishing at the front of the pack, and the biggest story line will be whether another team can break into the top spots, or maybe forge a big four.  Aleph and Energy were the only others to notch a 4th place in the first four races, and China has at least been consistent at the middle of the pack and not the lower third.

GreenComm is coming back to racing today on the heels of discovering yesterday that they need to replace a part on their boat.  A part called the hull.  It was apparently cracked in their capsize recovery on Sunday, and they have been able to fit a spare