Saturday morning Italians lead Swedes 3-0 in best of seven

America's Cup, LVC Semifinals: Sweden had to win today's race and 3 more in a row but alas, Luna Rossa's fourth win today has ended Artemis' challenge.

..as many of you already know, it didn't happen this time. The Artemis team came in a little over two minutes behind Italy's Luna Rossa in today's race. After the Swedish team's valiant comeback we now have to look to the Swedish youth team's races first week of September, captained by Charlie Ekberg.
Special to Nordstjernan from The America’s Cup
Friday, August 9th was a good day for sailing: cool temperature, faster winds, and a flood tide. For the first time in these semifinals, Luna Rossa crossed the start first. They trapped Artemis at the start and never lost the lead, crossing the finish line in 47:36 minutes, beating the Swedes by 1:18.
Sweden’s Skipper Iain Percy summed up the day: “We upped our game hugely today, but the bad news for Artemis Racing was so did Luna Rossa. They sailed excellently from start to finish.” He added, “Now it’s sudden death tomorrow and we like that, we look forward to that pressure.”    
Artemis Racing sailed today with a new daggerboard in the port hull. Percy said that the board coupled with new winglets on the rudders helped the team get foiling.   Earlier report, from Day Two of racing: Americas Cup: Italy scores second point in LVC Semifinal #2
Friday’s Race (Aug. 9)
There was nothing dramatic, apart from the start, but Draper and his team were consistent and executed most of their foiling jibes effortlessly. They also were tactically adept blocking Outteridge’s crew with wing wash. Unfortunately Artemis was not as consistent in their foiling. Obviously this is attributable to the difference between their team’s 8 days on the water vs 80 for their competitor. It was only Artemis’ third start and highly unusual for them. The win showed that Italy learned by racing continuously.
Saturday, Aug. 10 is a make or break day for Artemis. The skipper says his boys are ready for this. We hope so, that they may compete for many more days.
Oracle Disqualification
The other significant item of the day occurred with the stunning news on Wednesday that Oracle’s AC45 boats used last year and this in America’s Cup World Series competitions were unfairly weighted in races leading up to this defense of the Cup. This topic dominated the morning’s press briefing.
This Monday Regatta Director Iain Murray learned the news. The same day he both informed ACEA CEO Stephen Barclay and lodged an official protest against Oracle with ISEF, the world sailing authority.
The discrepancy was only uncovered last weekend when the America’s Cup official measurement teams — charged with inspecting all last year’s AC45s, before they are rebranded for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup competition — discovered that Oracle’s boats weighed 2 kilograms more than allowed in the bow. Without minimizing the severity of the issue, Murray put this in perspective by stating that this is less than one-tenth of one percent of the total two-ton weight of those boats. He could not comprehend why this was done: every team may burden their stern with 100 kilograms but they don’t weight their bow. Nevertheless it was illegal.
When Oracle Team USA learned of this, CEO Coutts immediately disqualified the team’s previous race records. Claiming ignorance of the incident, OTUSA is investigating this as well as the ISEF. Both teams are trying to learn who did this, when, and why these alterations were made. Barclay asked all to suspend judgment until the ISEF Jury of impartial experts can determine the facts and decide on the appropriate consequences.
The outraged calls to disqualify Ellison and the team are premature. Obviously, if this action had been taken by the team to gain an advantage, then the incriminating evidence would have been removed long ago. Since all teams knew that the AC45s — which are identical boats — would be inspected to assure equality, no culpable person would have left such evidence, especially for half a year without being detected.
The real significance of this ripple is to show the passions involved in the America’s Cup. With national pride and hundreds of millions of dollars invested, measurements are made to the millimeter and the milligram. We will have more to say about this tomorrow.
The America’s Cup races continue. The Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals will conclude this week or next; the finals will be held during the latter half of August. The Red Bull races for international teams of young sailors are the first week of September, followed the next two weeks by the defense of the Cup. The drama continues to mount.
The Vuitton crowds
Win or lose Artemis’ fans were there to welcome their team before the race and after the race. Once again blonde/blue-eyed families waving their native blue and yellow colors greeted the crew and photogenically posed among all the visitors. The crowds on the balcony of Artemis’ hospitality suite, unfurled their Swedish and team flags, honking and clamoring to encourage their team. If Sweden can pull off a win tomorrow, let alone for the next four straight, these fans will test the tolerances of the building by jumping up and down. The boat is ready, the crew is determined, and the fans are believe in miracles.
Ted Olsson
San Francisco