Artemis Racing blew away the competition during this week’s America’s Cup practice racing on the Great Sound.

The Swedish challenger was unflappable in steady and heavy air conditions as Artemis piled up an unblemished 9-0 record in their AC50 foiling catamaran, four of the victories coming against American defender, Oracle Team USA.

“We’ve had a really good race period here in Bermuda, all five teams on the island have been racing hard,” Nathan Outteridge, the Artemis skipper and 2012 Olympic gold medallist for Australia, said. “We’ve had some really close battles, really close starting and tacking duels around the course forcing umpires to make decisions, it’s everything we expect it’s going to be come May and June.

“It’s going to be close and we’re just working on getting better and better each day.”

Artemis also produced a solid showing during the first practice racing period late last month, posting a 7-3 record to finish second behind top boat Oracle. They are now 16-3 overall.

Iain Percy, the Artemis team manager and tactician, said the practice races against cup rivals Oracle, SoftBank Team Japan, Groupama Team France and Land Rover BAR have proven “very useful”.

“Six weeks to go now until the beginning of the competition, and we’re now at the business end of our campaign,” Percy, the Olympic gold medallist in 2000 and 2008 for Great Britain, said. “These race weeks continue to prove very useful. We’ve come away again with lots of lessons, lots of things we need to improve.”

None of the AC Class 50s raced on the Great Sound yesterday as the wind built into the upper limits allowed for the America’s Cup events in May.

The boats were out on the sound but the first race that actually started between Oracle and Team Japan was cancelled because the downwind leeward marks were not set up.

On Tuesday, the second day of racing in the third practice session allowed in Bermuda, Groupama Team France team manager Bruno Dubois told The Royal Gazette that although he was pleased with the straight-line speed of his young team, he said they really needed more time to practice and come up to speed.

“We were late coming into the game,” he said.

He felt that given another six months the team would be competitively even with the others. “Oracle and Artemis Racing have been training in Bermuda the longest and they are clearly on top.”

Dubois said that Artemis clearly has got speed.

“They are very smooth at foiling through tacks and gybes,” he said. Oracle are neck-and-neck with them overall, but the smoothness of Artemis boat handling is the difference.

In the first race on Tuesday, Oracle started ahead with Artemis to leeward.

The Cup defender lost their lead after going off-foil for a splashdown allowing Artemis through to leeward.

Oracle stopped racing on the second leg, because of reported daggerboard issues. As they go through this very important training period, most teams are experiencing situations that require adjustment.

Artemis defeated France by almost a leg. And in their race with BAR they copped a penalty at the start but were able to comeback for the win in a close race.

The next practice race period is April 24-28.

Emirates Team New Zealand should be ready to join the fray bringing all six teams together for the first time.