"It's going to be extremely tough to compete with those guys who have done over 70 days sailing on their 72. We haven't done any sailing on a foiling 72. We have done 35 days on the foiling 45 and 35 days on our first 72." - Nathan Outteridge.


understanding how the boat is going. Hopefully day two is the day we start ripping into some proper training and getting it foiling."  Understandably, Outteridge said that the first few days of sailing after the accident had been difficult for him. "I started by sailing in the Moths and the 49ers that I know really well and that got my confidence back straight away. Then we moved into the foiling AC45."  The team have made impressive progress in this area as Outteridge explained: "In the last couple of weeks we have been out there doing 35 knots just like Team New Zealand were today. Now we just need to translate everything we have learned from the 45 on to the 72."  That sounds easy when you say it quickly, but can Artemis realistically expect to climb the mountain which the other teams set off to scale months if not years ago? Outteridge said he believed it could be done. "To be honest, it's going to be extremely tough to compete with those guys who have done over 70 days sailing on their 72. We haven't done any sailing on a foiling 72. We have done 35 days on the foiling 45 and 35 days on our first 72. There is a lot that we have learned and can implement and the more days we get sailing, the closer we can get to catching those guys. They are at the point of refining what they are doing, while we have a lot to learn."  Outteridge said the team's immediate goals were to make it to the starting line and complete a race. "From there we will be able to keep progressing and every race we can get better," he said.  Getting to the start and hoping to complete a race is one thing but surely the Swedish team could not realistically expect to take points off the other challengers with their boat such an unknown quantity?  "Every indication is that our boat will be fast" Outteridge told us. "Do we have time to learn how to sail it to its potential - it's going to be tough, that's for sure.  Having initially pursued a non-foiling strategy, in April Artemis were forced on to the back foot when they lined up against Oracle Team USA's first foiling boat way back in April and received what can only be described as a drubbing. This prompted a major rethink and redesign of their second boat which was already in production at that point.  Other than Outteridge - a past Moth world champion who had previously told us how he taught himself how to sail a foiling Moth by a combination of experimentation and watching the then experts on You Tube - who in the Artemis team would provide the necessary foiling expertise, we asked?  "We have got quite a few guys who have foiling experience," he answered. "One of the main guys is Adam May who helped a lot with the foiling package on the 45. The guys in our design team have had a lot of experience in foiling."  Outteridge also cited the contribution of his friend and Olympic gold medal winning 49er crew from the London 2012 Olympics, Iain Jensen. "He has sailed `moths like I have for the last two or three years. At the last event he beat me - so now he would like to think he is a little bit better than me at the moment. It's great to have a guy like that sitting next to you.  Strong though the foiling pedigree of Jensen, may and others within the Artemis might be, the fact remains that the bulk of the team have no foiling background. Outteridge agreed that a rapid skills transfer to those sailors would be vital. "


July 2013 30


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