Solid Kiwi Win, Adieu Marseille

Emirates Team Zealand win their first Audi MedCup Circuit Regatta.

Emerging with a sixth from a scrappy, difficult final race which was contested in conflicting breezes Emirates Team New Zealand clinched the Marseille Trophy by 14 points, the biggest regatta winning margin on the Audi MedCup Circuit since Mean Machine won in Portimao in 2007.

Winning four races and never finishing worse than sixth in the ten races here, the Kiwi team skippered by Dean Barker (NZL) with past MedCup winner Ray Davies (NZL) as tactician move 16 points clear at the head of the Audi MedCup TP52 Series standings ahead of defending Circuit champions Quantum Racing (USA).

“It feels better here than losing in Alicante.” Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton deadpanned, “And regattas always feel better a couple of days later, and winning is always just a relief that you did not lose. It is really is nothing more than that.”

With the breeze taking it easy on the sunday and the 11th race cancelled ETNZ has a comfortable margin going to Cagliari, 4 weeks from now.

Final results Marseille:

1 ETNZ 1 3 1 2 1 2 4.5 6 1 6 27.5
2 Quantum 8 5 2 6 3 1 1.5 3 8 4 41.5
3 Matador 2 6 4 1 2 5 16.5 4 4 3 47.5
4 Bigamist 7 5 4 6 3 10 4 10.5 2 10 1 55.5
5 Bribon 6 1 5 10 4 8 7.5 5 11 5 62.5
6 Artemis 7 2 8 5 5 3 13.5 7 3 9 62.5
7 Synergy 3 9 9 7 6 10 6 1 2 10 63
8 Valars 10 11 3 4 7 6 3 12 6 7 69
9 Pisco Sour 11 7 7 9 11 9 9 8 5 2 78
10 Audi Q8 4 8 10 8 8 11 12 9 7 11 88
11 Cristabella 9 10 11 11 9 7 15 10 9 8 99

 

2009 AUDI MedCup after 2 events:

1 EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND   38   27.5   65.5
2 QUANTUM RACING                          40   41.5   81.5
3 MATADOR                                          36   47.5   83.5