Race day 2 | GC32 Racing Tour, Villasimius

Tough calls on the race course

After yesterday’s stormy conditions race day two at the GC23 Villasimius Cup brought calm to the Capo Carbonara race course.

The light winds led to the race committee delaying the first race as the teams had to wait patiently for the breeze to fill in. Eventually four hard fought races were completed with INEOS TEAM UK taking a race win in the first quickly followed by a second with the British team finished fourth in both of the final two races after hard-fought battles with Frank Cammas and his French team ‘NORAUTO’.

A penalty in the penultimate race dropped the team from second to fourth. Helmsman and skipper, Ben Ainslie played out the day. “We had a good start to the day winning the first race, we then got caught up in some tight racing with Franck Cammas.

A couple of the umpire decisions went against us, in particular when Franck luffed us at the windward gate and we got a penalty, even though there was no collison, which was disappointing as it cost us a few places. But, this is just racing you accept it and we quickly moved on.

“There are a few mistakes to iron out, but we head out for the penultimate race day in a strong position on the leaderboard with everything to play for”.

After six races across the two days, the Brits and Frank Cammas’ NORAUTO are both on 16 points fighting for the top of the leaderboard. Racing is set to continue tomorrow (Saturday) with a first warning signal scheduled for 12:00UK.

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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