Luna Rossa advances with fourth win over Artemis

Italy's Luna Rossa beat Sweden's Artemis Saturday to book a showdown with powerhouse Team New Zealand in the America's Cup challenger series finals. Luna Rossa completed a sweep of the first four races in the best-of-seven Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals, ending Artemis Racing's bid to rebound from a deadly training accident in May and challenge for the venerable yachting trophy. The Swedish team missed all of the round-robin first round of the challenger series after the capsizing that destroyed their first AC72 catamaran and killed British crew member Andrew "Bart" Simpson. Their lack of experience in their new boat showed in their four races against Luna Rossa on San Francisco Bay, but skipper Iain Percy was full of praise for his team. "I'm hugely proud of our team, it's been a terrible period," Percy said. "First and foremost at this moment, my thoughts go to my teammates and to Bart and his family. He would've been so proud of us, considering this is something that none of us thought we'd be able to do two months ago when we lost him. "We've enjoyed every second because we knew what an achievement it was just to be out here." Luna Rossa won Saturday's fourth race by 2 minutes, 11 seconds as Artemis, was penalized three times. Artemis took the action to Luna Rossa in the pre-start and left Luna Rossa for dust. But after the Swedish boat led around the first reach mark the umpires penalized Artemis for a port-starboard incident in the pre-start in which it appeared that the Artemis Racing helmsman had the helm all the way over to port. Artemis' starboard bow touched Luna Rossa's port hull and earned the penalty. Artemis earned a second penalty on the first upwind leg when it crossed outside the course boundary, and it was clear sailing from then for Luna Rossa. Artemis trailed by 1:30 when it earned its third penalty of the race, for crossing outside the course boundary. Luna Rossa will now take on Emirates Team New Zealand in the challenger finals beginning next Saturday, August 17. Team New Zealand won all of their races against their Italian rivals in the round-robin phase to advance directly to the challenger finals. "We learned tons in this series, it's been invaluable for us," said Luna Rossa helmsman Chris Draper. "Our team was a little down, it was tough (after the round robins). Our upwind speed has improved a lot and our general handling has improved. "We had a bit of a shaky race today, we all were a bit nervous, but I still think we've improved tons in the racing against Artemis. I'm sure it'll be valuable for us going forward." The winner of the challenger series will race against defender Oracle Team USA in the America's Cup finals that start on September 7. Source: AFP