Louis Vuitton grief continues for Origin

The grief continues for Ben Ainslie and his British America’s Cup challenger, Team Origin as they lost a second race in the Louis Vuitton Trophy series in La Maddalena, Sardinia.

Their boat snagged a lobster pot line and the race against Sweden’s Artemis, skippered by Paul Cayard with Terry Hutchinson on the helm, was lost before it had even begun

Said Ainslie: “A real anti-climax of a race today, it was a really busy start area with lots of spectator boats around, large and small. We were approaching from outside the start box area and it was pretty hard to manoeuvre around them.

“We managed to avoid one boat and moving away from another we unfortunately caught a lobster pot. Craig Satterthwaite had to jump over the side with a knife to cut it clear and by the time we got it sorted, Artemis had a good lead.

“The guys did a great job in keeping the race close and did a very nice manoeuvre around the second windward mark but the race was decided by that unfortunate incident before the start.”

In Langenargen, the semi-final line up for Match Race Germany saw an antipodean half with Australia’s Torvar Mirsky against New Zealand’s Adam Minoprio and a European pairing as France’s Mathieu Richard faced Denmark’s Jesper Radich, who beat Britain’s Ian Williams 3-2 in their quarter final.