A frustrating day saw the British team string together a disappointing set of results
Light puffy conditions for day three of the GC32 Villasimius Cup, resulted in a delayed start before the wind filled in to 10-12 knots and five competitive races were completed.
INEOS TEAM UK entered the race course sharing the regatta lead with Franck Cammas and his French team NORAUTO. However, a frustrating day saw the British team string together a disappointing set of results (3, 4, 6, 4 & 5) dropping down to fourth place overall with one day of racing remaining.
Helmsman and skipper, Ben Ainslie summarised the team’s performance. “It was just one of those days! We’ve had great starts over the last few days but today we were not able to execute and coupled with making bad tactical calls around the course led to points dropped.
“It’s disappointing to give away so many points when we made such a solid start to the regatta, but that’s the nature of this type of racing. This is why we signed up (to the GC32 Racing Tour 2018), you have seven top competitive teams racing hard in tight races, if you don’t get it right you pay the price.”
The conditions on the race course were light and puffy with an added choppy sea state it was tough for the teams to get the boat moding right when sailing downwind.
Ainslie added “The conditions were tricky, but at the end of the day it’s the same for all the teams. We will go away, debrief and come out firing. We need to have a really strong finish to the regatta”.
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INEOS TEAM UK GC32 Race Squad:
Ben Ainslie, Helm
Iain Jensen, Mainsail
Joey Newton, Jib Trim
Neil Hunter, Bow
Luke Parkinson, Float
Support team:
Jono Macbeth, Sailing Team Manager
Rob Wilson, Coach
Matty Adams, Senior Shore Support
Aston Campion, Shore Support
Ben Williams, Head of Human Performance
2018 GC32 Racing Tour:
GC32 World Championships 23-27 May - Lake Garda, Italy (INEOS TEAM UK DID NOT COMPETE)
GC32 Lagos Cup, 27 June – 1 July - Lagos, Portugal
GC32 37th Copa Del Rey MAPFRE, 31 July – 4 August - Palma de Mallorca, Spain
GC32 Villasimius Cup, 12 – 16 September - Villasímius, Sardinia, Italy
GC32 TPM Med Cup, 10 –14 October - Toulon, France