Land Rover BAR moves on to the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers in Bermuda in May and June 2017 with the two point bonus.

Photo/Ricardo Pinto ACEA 2016

Photo/Ricardo Pinto ACEA 2016

It was an exciting time in Fukuoka, Japan, especially Sunday, the last day of racing with double points for  winners. The top three contenders fought their way to the finish with light winds of five or six knots and where one puff made a difference. It was an afternoon filled with aggressive maneuvers directly against each other between Land Rover BAR, ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand. Land Rover BAR had secured the regatta by the end of Race 2,  but proceeded to sail a tight race to the end. Race 3 was a little more breezy and boats could get up on their foils.

ORACLE TEAM USA took second overall, giving them one bonus point going forward to the Qualifiers in 2017. ETNZ  came in third.

It was the most exciting day of racing in the World Series. The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series consisted of 40 races over nine events in eight countries.

Artemis had a great day Photo/Ricardo Pinto ACEA 2016

Artemis had a great day
Photo/Ricardo Pinto ACEA 2016

The overall results overshadowed Artemis Racing’s great day at sea with two first place wins, though there was no way mathematically that they could have moved to the top of the leader board. Artemis was the hottest team out there and they did move up to fourth place overall. They tied overall with Land Rover BAR, each with 75 points for the weekend in Fukuoka. ORACLE had 70, ETNZ 65, SoftBank Japan 61 and Groupama Team France 59 points.