Top 5 moments from America’s Cup World Series Toulon

The eighth leg of the America’s Cup World Series drew to close in Toulon yesterday (September 11), with the French event having a major impact on the overall standings.

The overall winner was Artemis Racing, led by skipper Nathan Outteridge. The Swedish team won the first two races as well as Race Four and this, coupled with two third place finishes, clinched first place in the overall standings for Toulon.

“We had a very good day on Saturday but to back it up with another strong performance on Sunday is obviously very pleasing,” Outteridge said afterwards. “It was pretty obvious that we weren’t really up to it at the start of the series, but it feels like we’re on the right way up.”

After a triumphant performance in Portsmouth, Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR had to settle for third place in Toulon, but this was enough to give the British team a substantial buffer at the top of the leaderboard.

Oracle Team USA, without injured skipper Jimmy Spithill, finished sixth out of six teams, meaning that Land Rover BAR now has a 13 point cushion heading into November’s World Series event in Fukuoka.

Dean Barker’s SoftBank Team Japan started the weekend in terrible form, finishing no higher than fourth in the first three races, but a dramatic improvement on the second day of racing saw the team surge up the table.

By winning race six, the Japanese team catapulted themselves above Land Rover BAR to finish second overall — its best result in the World Series so far, bettering a third place finish in Chicago.

The big news for August was that Jimmy Spithill underwent elbow surgery to repair a ligament problem, putting his participation in the America’s Cup World Series Toulon in doubt.

And although the American team didn’t have a great weekend in his absence, the injury did provide tactician Tom Slingsby with a chance to get some experience helming the AC45 foiling catamaran.

Speaking on Saturday evening he said: “It was very tricky, a game of snakes and ladders. I think we probably sailed better than our results would indicate, and I don’t say that lightly.”

Large crowds turned out to cheer on home team Groupama Team France, and after a disappointing last place finish on Saturday, the French team rallied on Sunday.

A second place finish in Race Five and a third place finish in the final race of the weekend was not enough to steal a podium position from Land Rover BAR, but nonetheless skipper Franck Cammas was satisfied with his weekend’s work:

“It was amazing this weekend,” he said. “To find out that many people wanted to come and support us was something special and we will use that as extra motivation to keep pushing everyone in Groupama Team France.”