Emirates Team New Zealand: Starting with a win in Oman

Emirates Team New Zealand: Starting with a win in Oman

The signs were good for Glenn Ashby and crew in Oman winning the first race of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event of 2016, despite early indications the wind so light racing was doubtful.

It was a strong start off the line by Emirates Team New Zealand in the first race, after a handful of the fleet were over the line, that set the foundation for a clean race around the track and emphatic beginning to the year.

Coincidentally the finishing results of the first race mirrored the overall standings of the world series, all teams gaining a point on each following team.

Skipper Glenn Ashby was pleased with the start, “We had a great race in the first race, got off the line well and just sailed a good clean race. It certainly wasn’t easy, but it never is.”

However it was the following two races which proved just how tricky the conditions were for racing amongst the America’s Cup fleet.

With breeze holding between six and eight knots boat handling was about flying hulls rather than foiling the AC45’s and staying out of trouble.

“The breeze kept things tight,” said Ashby. “There was a lot of gas and wind shadows to contend with, unfortunately we got bounced around a bit in the third race, but the teams that kept their nose clean were the ones who came out on top and at the end of the day Land Rover BAR did the best job of it for sure.”

The British team won both the second and third races, with the fleet mixing up the finishing order behind them.

Despite the challenges Ashby remained optimistic, “As with all of these world series events, with the Sunday double points races, the regatta basically starts from scratch again tomorrow. So we will take many of the lessons we learned today and be ready to go for tomorrow.”

“We are always learning, the whole year is about learning for us and while we conceded about three points overall, the main positive to take from today is we are still on top of the overall leader board, and that’s where we want to be by the end of the day tomorrow.”

PHOTO GALLERY HERE

ENDS

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