With Vince Brun as tactician Artemis have been making the most of extra time on the water to perfect their game, looking to improve their starting and keep gaining more speed from their boat.

On the eve of the fifth regatta of the Audi MedCup Circuit 2008 Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis (SWE) need to start gaining points on the Circuit leaders Quantum Racing (USA) if the Swedish owner and his crew are to retain the MedCup title they clinched last year in Hyeres, France when Russell Coutts (NZL) was skipper.

Extra practise is one of the strategies the Artemis team have employed in the build up to this week’s Region of Murcia Trophy and the crew spent a long afternoon on the water Saturday lining up off Carthagena to check and improve their speeds, before spending time polishing their starting.

Owner-helm Tornqvist said in Puerto Portals that they are largely happy with their performance to date this season, but they are moving up their game for the final two regattas. In Carthagena they will not have regular tactician John Kostecki (USA), but instead it is Vince Brun (USA) who will be calling tactics for 2007 champion helm Tornqvist.

“We have had great practice today, just checking in and lining up against other boats and we are pretty happy with what we achieved.” said Tornqvist, “We had some really high quality practice and it was good to get to know sailing with Vince. We did some starting manoeuvres and I feel more confident as we go into the regatta. We had probably 15 knots and so it was just great conditions and we are really looking forward to it.”

“We had a bit of a slow start to the season, first of all we had some issues getting used to the boat. It is a little more complex to sail, and also we have not been so good within the starting sequence, not performing as we should, and so we have been working hard at that. But now we know the boat well and we have a couple of new sails we have been looking at, we need to practice and practice as much as we can. But I am confident now with the boat, and we really have a great quality crew.”

“As for here we don’t really know what to expect weather-wise. It is very hard to tell. We would be quite happy with 15-16 knots like today because we know that we are good in that, but to be honest we don’t mind.”

“I have not really thought about how hard it would be to catch Quantum. I don’t even think about it or really know how many points they are ahead. I just know we want to and are aiming to have two very good final regattas, looking at ourselves and what we can do to our performance.”

“Working with Vince is great. He is a fantastic sailor and has plenty of experience of the TP52 and will add things on our boat. It has been remarkably natural to have him join in the team.”

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 August 2008 )