Artemis Racing

Artemis Racing
During the America's Cup World Series, San Francisco Round (2012).
Career
Yacht club	Royal Swedish Yacht Club
Nation	Sweden
Notable sailors	Iain Percy Nathan Outteridge Loïck Peyron Chris Brittle
Yachts
Sail no.	Boat name

Artemis Racing is a professional sailing team founded in 2006 by successful businessman and sailor, Torbjörn Törnqvist.

"Artemis is an ancient Greek goddess. She carries a bow and is a hunter - a competitor - but also a protector of nature, both virtues I admire. This is why I named my first racing boat after her and eventually my team Artemis Racing." Torbjörn Törnqvist, Team Principal.

History

In 2007, the Team won the MedCup circuit, then called Breitling Medcup, and the TP52 World Championship. In 2008, Artemis Racing entered the RC44 Championship, winning the fleet racing element in 2009 and the World title in 2011.

Artemis Racing also competed in the Louis Vuitton Trophy match racing regattas against the world’s best professional sailing teams before announcing the Swedish team’s challenge for the America’s Cup in November 2010, representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club. Artemis Racing was accepted as a Challenger for the 34th America’s Cup on 1 November 2010 by the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

Artemis Oman

While preparing for their America’s Cup challenge, the team competed in the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series Championship, as well as in the D35 circuit in 2011 and 2012.

America's Cup 2013

In July 2012, the Team established its base in Alameda, USA, to prepare for the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup, the America’s Cup Challenger Series.

In the 2011-2012 America’s Cup World Series, Artemis Racing won the Match Racing title in both the Naples & Venice Regattas which set the Team up to win the Overall Match Racing title at the end of the season. Following on from its success in the inaugural season, the Team went on to win the Match Racing titles in the first two regattas of the three-part 2012-2013 season.

On May 9, 2013 the team tragically lost crew member, and British Olympic Champion, Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson when its AC72 capsized during a training session on San Francisco Bay. The accident was a shock not only for the Team and the America’s Cup family, but also for the entire international sailing community.

Following the event, the America’s Cup Race Management introduced stricter safety rules.

In spite of these dramatic circumstances, the Team gathered around team leader Iain Percy and, after working countless hours, Big Blue, Artemis Racing’s second AC72, was launched on July 24, 2013 and taken out for her first training session. With mixed emotions, the Team saw its incredible efforts come to fruition, Big Blue foiled on that day. It was “a massive tribute to all the guys who have been working so hard to get us back out there,” said helmsman Nathan Outteridge of that occasion.

The Team were foiling on day 1 and on August 5, 2013, after just seven days of training, they executed their first foiling gybe.

Proving extraordinary determination and resilience ("to race that was a win"), on August 6, 2013, Big Blue was on the start line at the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final, facing Italian challenger Luna Rossa.

At the press conference following the conclusion of the LVC Semi-Final Team Principal Torbjörn Törnqvist stated that the 34th America’s Cup was Artemis Racing’s first challenge, but not the last.

AC72 crash

On May 9, 2013, about 1 p.m., the first of the two AC72 catamarans the team was testing capsized and turtled in strong winds, resulting in the death of crewmember Andrew "Bart" Simpson, an Olympic-gold-medal winning British sailor.^[1][2][3] It has been reported that Simpson was the second sailor to die during training for an America's Cup in its over 100-year history.^[1] This was the second major accident involving the current AC72, following the capsizing of defending Cup champion Oracle Team USA on October 16, 2012.^[4][5][6]

Preliminary reports indicate the Artemis boat didn't capsize because the sailors were pushing too hard or made a mistake, as was the case with Oracle Team USA's AC72. The problem was with the boat itself, either faulty engineering or faulty construction. The boat simply broke apart under sail, folded, then flipped. The Artemis boat had a history of problems with cracking of the carbon fiber in the twin "beams" — "the two girders that lash the two narrow hulls together". The boat had been in and out of the team's shop in an attempt to correct the problems. The forward beam — the girder in front of the sail — gave way during the practice run. The two hulls, no longer securely connected, began veering in slightly different directions. This caused one hull to snap just forward of the aft beam, and the mast, no longer held up by the high-tension rigging connected to the front of one hull, simply fell over.^[7] The boat began to cartwheel, Simpson became trapped underneath the boat, and died despite doctors' attempts to revive him.^[8]

Simpson, who won Olympic gold in 2008 and silver in 2012 in the keelboat Star class, was trapped under the Artemis Racing boat for about ten minutes, according to a statement on the America's Cup Web site. A second crewmember was also injured.^[9]

References

External links

• Official Website