AC35: Day 2, Race 7 (of RR1) - huge upset as FRA pips SWE by three seconds

FRA WON THE START handily, but it looked like Nathan Outteridge and his Artemis Racing (SWE) were being very cautious and conservative on the expectation that FRA would suffer the same handling and speed problems we saw in their 0-2 performance yesterday. And, no surprise, at the first jibe FRA crashed off their foils while SWE jibed beautifully and took the lead. But on leg 3 upwind, FRA was plenty quick and sailed a smarter tactical leg, passed SWE and were 21 second in the lead at the gate. SWE chased FRA down Leg 4 run, but, lo and behold, SWE pooched a jibe. At the end of Leg 4 FRA still had a 150m or so lead. On Leg 5 upwind Artemis did not split, choosing instead to try to grind them down. It's definitely lighter than yesterday, and as we suggested in the weather report earlier this morning, that could lead to an upset or two. Is one in the making here?

Artemis is closing in at the top of leg 5. However, FRA executes another nice foiling tack, and maintains a slim lead into the gate, leading by 18 seconds. FRA had to pinch slightly to get around that mark slowing them way down, while SWE came in hot and closed after the gate. But FRA held on down the Leg 6 run, and managed to get through the last gate just 4 second ahead of SWE, and reached into the finish line to score a huge upset over SWE, winning by just three seconds.