Artemis Racing put on a strong performance against Oracle Team USA as practice racing continued on the Great Sound.

Yesterday marked the first day of the second practice session, now allowed under the amended America’s Cup protocol. Oracle, with Jimmy Spithill at the helm, took the start and led around the centre course turning mark and to the downwind gate.

As the two AC Class 50s headed back upwind, Artemis, with Nathan Outteridge driving, passed Oracle on a wind shift that hurt the American defender as they headed off to the southeast of Spanish Point into the eastern reaches of the Great Sound. Artemis barely led into the leeward gate mark the first time downwind and then opened up their lead upwind and down around the course to the finish on the second lap.

The practice race win yesterday was the second win by the Swedish challenger over the America’s Cup defender.

Oracle had led Artemis in an earlier race when the Swedish boat dropped out and headed back to their base. Apparently they had some technical problems which took about an hour to correct in order to allow them to return for the second match with Oracle. All of the boats had some technical issues to deal with in these early stages of sailing these complex AC Class cats.

Oracle also matched up against Groupama Team France. France were late at the start and followed Oracle all the way. Skipper Franck Cammas and crew had good speed around the course and had Team France foiling well through most manoeuvres. They did come off their foils at the upwind rounding the first time around. Certainly, they are just getting used to the first set of new foils that they will have available to use in the actual America’s Cup Qualifying races, starting May 26.

SoftBank Team Japan did not race yesterday, although they were sailing on their own tuning up the boat. They did match-up with Oracle once on a long first reach into Little Sound. They looked fast. An Artemis spokesman said: “It felt really good once we got everything calibrated. We look forward to racing Monday and seeing how we go.”

Land Rover BAR did not race either, but were also out testing improvements promised after the first training session at the end of March.

The course that the racers sailed yesterday had the wind coming from the south-southwest at 12-15kts. That is close to the prevailing wind they will have in the “real” racing come late May and June. The wind was shifty and variable, somewhat typical of the summer conditions on the Great Sound.

For America’s Cup news or updates, Talbot Wilson can be reached at 595-5881 or 278-0143