Artemis loses to Emirates Team New Zealand

“We definitely like to keep it interesting, that’s all,” said Nathan Outteridge, Artemis helmsman, adding: “I think we can be really proud of the way we raced.”

“We’ve had some really close racing with Emirates Team New Zealand and we left everything out there on the water,” Outteridge continued. “We pushed hard in every race and even today, right up to the last minute, we were pushing to try to make something happen.

“That first race today that got abandoned, you know it was all on and we were smoking downwind side by side. We thoroughly enjoyed the competition and I can feel really proud of the whole sailing team and the whole team as a wider group.

“We put in a lot of effort over the last few years and it was nice to reward them by making it to the final.”

Iain Percy, Artemis Team Manger and Tactician, added: We have mixed emotions because, personally, I’m a competitor and, as a team we consider ourselves fierce competitors and we just lost the contest, so clearly hugely disappointed.

“We felt we could go all the way this time, and we haven’t, so ultimately that’s why we started this campaign.” Percy added.

“At the same time we did start this campaign three years ago as ultimately, a new team in the makeup of the design team and the shore team and elements of us, the sailing team only remaining together, right up there with the best in this great sport of sailing.

“We do take pride in that, so it’s hard for me to describe how those two emotions can marry themselves today, but, with a little time and reflection, I think every member of Artemis Ocean Racing will be very proud of the last few years.”

Asked what each would be doing now, Outteridge replied promptly: “I’m looking forward to a bit of sleep and a couple of days days off, to be honest”

He carried on: “It’s been a pretty strong battle and I don’t even do any of the physical work.

“Short term, I think we’ll take a bit of time off and watch the racing closely. I think it’s going to be an incredible match. Team New Zealand sailed very well against us and Oracle have been sailing very well and I think it’s going to be a super interesting race to watch and, like all sailing fans around the world, we’ll be throwing our two cents in every time they make mistakes just like all you guys (the journalists) do to us every day.”

Percy added: “When we started this we didn’t know who was going to win it and there aren’t many sports like that.

“I think one thing has become undeniable and that between us, the community, the media here, have a product on its hands – and I call it a product because I know people watch and enjoy our sport so much and it’s blown me away; the racing – doing it and part of that excitement is you never know who’s going to win in the race when you’re in the race, let alone when you ask us two weeks before the end of it!

Percy went on: “Because anything can happen and one of the reasons anything can happen is because it’s so darned hard to do – I can assure you pulling off foiling gybes in light airs like today takes the coordination of six people to get things absolutely spot on and, because of that, we can’t tell you who’s going to win the race – it’s genuinely going to come down to the wire.”