First win for TeamOrigin

Ainslie, Percy et co come out on top at the Trapani Cento Cup match racing

TeamOrigin 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, Australian James Spithill and Italian Paolo Cian, TeamOrigin’s crew comprised Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Matt Cornwell and guest Gabriel Bruni.

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

“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.

“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."

Team Director Mike Sanderson concluded: “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.”