Team Origin wins Trapani Cento Cup

[Source: TeamOrigin] TEAMORIGIN, Britain’s Challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup, competed at the Trapani Cento Cup, a Grade One ISAF Match Race Regatta in Trapani, Sicily, at the weekend and won.

Against a star-studded line-up of skippers from the last America’s Cup, including the two Danish helmsmen Jes Gram Hansen and Jesper Raddich, the Australian James Spithill and the Italian Paolo Cian, TEAMORIGIN’s Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Matt Cornwell and guest Gabriele Bruni competed in and won the 2007 Trapani Cento Cup. Trapani, on the extreme western tip of the Italian island of Sicily, was the site of Acts 8 & 9, a pair of build-up regattas for the last America’s Cup sailed in full size America’s Cup Class yachts in October 2005.

“This was our first international competition sailing together, our team worked well together and developed well as we went through the regatta. Sailing with Iain worked really well from a tactical point of view and this result is an important step forward for us” commented skipper Ben Ainslie.

Ben Ainslie racing at the finals of the Cento Cup. Trapani, 7 October 2007. Photo copyright Cento Cup

“The conditions were pretty straight forward for the Round Robin series starting last Thursday, we sailed outside the harbour on open water. For the semis and finals at the weekend however we raced inside Trapani Harbour, which made it very shifty and really called for ‘heads-out-of-the-boat sailing’ to spot the wind,” Ainslie continued.

“Our team seemed to work well together and we won our semi final against Jes Gram Hansen (DEN) and the finals against Paolo Cian (ITA) who had beaten James Spithill (AUS) in their semi final, both 2-0.”

“I am particularly pleased with this regatta not only because the team won, which is great, but because Ben and Iain worked really well together tactically. This is an important signal for TEAMORIGIN’s future. We are a new team with experienced people coming from different backgrounds. This first test of getting this small but important part of the team working together has gone well,” concluded Team Director Mike Sanderson.