Artemis skipper ready for an awesome experience
The America’s Cup World Series gets back under way in Gothenburg this weekend, with Artemis Racing looking to put on a show for their home crowd.
The Swedish team are competing in their own waters for the first time and Nathan Outteridge, the Artemis skipper, is looking forward to an “awesome experience”.
“We’re very excited to get there [Gothenburg] and pay back the support we have in Sweden,” said Outteridge.
“The race course is going to be very tight and compact, which is great for racing and for the spetators to watch it.”
Representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, the fifth-oldest in the world, Artemis have a crew that collectively have competed in 23 Olympics, winning 11 medals, seven of which were gold.
Russell Coutts, the America’s Cup Event Authority chief executive, believes the home side have the talent to do far better than the last place they managed in Portsmouth last month.
“In the first event last month in Portsmouth, Ben Ainslie was clearly better than the rest and deserved to win,” Coutts said.
“However, I’m sure the others will be looking to improve, none more so than Artemis which has a boat stacked with Olympic champions.
“They definitely have the talent and they will certainly want to put on a better performance in front of their home crowd.”
Iain Percy, the Artemis team manager, said that it would be “an incredibly proud moment” when the boat takes to the water for the first race on Saturday.
For those not fortunate enough to be in Sweden for Saturday’s and Sunday’s races the action will be shown live on ZFB.
Coverage starts at 8am both mornings.
Land Rover BAR 19pts
Emirates Team New Zealand 18
ORACLE TEAM USA 16
Groupama Team France 13
Softbank Team Japan 13
Artemis Racing 11