Swedish challenger Artemis have dominated the latest round of practise races ahead of next month's America's Cup.
Artemis, skippered by Australian Nathan Outteridge, won all nine of their match-ups in an incident-packed four days on the Great Sound. With their unbeaten run following a consistent showing in the earlier practiseracing window, Artemis have emerged as Emirates Team New Zealand's key rival in the challenger series.
The next best performers were defender Oracle Team USA, who won five of their nine outings.
"All five teams on the island have been racing hard. We've had some really close battles, really close starting, and tacking duels around the course forcing umpires to make decisions; it's everything we expect for May and June. It's going to be close and we're just working on getting better and better each day," said Outteridge.
While the results are a handy gauge of early performance, they are by no means a definitive form guide, with some teams still developing and finetuning their America's Cup Class catamarans.
Artemis team manager Iain Percy believes there are still many areas in which his outfit can improve as well.
"Six weeks to go now until the beginning of the competition, and we're now at the business end of our campaign. These race weeks continue to prove very useful. We've come away again with lots of lessons, lots of things we need to improve."
The next race week is scheduled for April 24-28. Team New Zealand, who arrived in Bermuda earlier this week, are still undecided whether they will take part in the final organised racing window.
