AC35: Day 1, Race 2 – SWE overtakes JPN for a convincing win

DEAN BARKER AND SOFTBANK TEAM JAPAN led early, but on the weather leg Nathan Outteridge's Artemis Team Racing – many pundits' pre-regatta favorite, at least among the challengers – sailed right through JPN to leeward. So close there was a windward-leeward protest by SWE that was green-flagged by the umpires. JPN was, however, forced to tack away and it was race over. SWE was considerably faster upwind than JPN. Considerably. SWE won by 13 seconds.

Unfortunately, NBCSN was in commercial when SWE made their big move. On-the-water reporter Joey Newton (USA, OTUSA) gave a nice explanation of the two sets of foils that each team has, one for heavy air and one for light, and speculated that today's 10-11 knot conditions are "right on the crossover." He speculated that SWE had their larger, light-air foils on, while JPN may have had their smaller heavy-air foils.