The improvements this season on Artemis have been noticeable. With a new Judel Vrolijk design,  they opened with a second place in the first regatta in Alicante and second in Portugal, they are serious challengers for runner’s up this season. Paul Cayard joined the team as tactician in Cagliari, the third regatta of the season, where they finished third and were challengers to win until the final day, and then last month in Portimao Torbjorn Tornqvist’s crew finished second overall,

Cayard has confirmed he will sail again with the team next season in the TP52 Series on the Audi MedCup Circuit.

Audi MedCup: What’s your view on the season with Artemis?
Paul Cayard: "It has been fun to be involved with Artemis. By and large I have had a good term on the boat. I think we have had a very good season generally, but we had hoped to do a little better here. I was thinking we would be shooting to win here, building on the momentum we had from Cagliari and Portimao."

AM: What have been the effects of having to make small crew changes, it showed in Portimao and here, where starting has been less good?
PC: "It goes to show in some ways. I did not do the last race in Portimao and they had a bad race, it not a reflection at all on Hamish (Pepper), not at all, but just when you change the blend on the boat, it is amazing how much it affects it. The starts is a case when we are used to working with Torbjorn and to make that change is difficult. Here we don’t have Torbjorn, we don’t have Hamish whose wife had a baby and we have Tom Dodson who is the coach and he is on the boat too."

AM: Where have the key improvements been from your perspective and how have you achieved them?
PC: "With the normal crew, that is with Torbjorn steering, we have got much better at getting a decent start. There is a little strategy to all that: you can go for a winning start and fight it out with everyone at the favoured end of the line, or you can say right I am not going to go for the perfect position on the line, but I am going to make sure that I hit the line at full speed, wherever I hit the line and then I am going to deal with getting to the correct side of the course one quarter of the way up the beat. And that has been my philosophy a little more with Torbjorn we have gotten off the line pretty well and they had told me they had had a lot of problems with that before. So that is one thing. And then just trying to build the camaraderie and chemistry on the boat. When I got on the boat I felt a little outside, Russell was the guy on the boat normally, and it just took a little bit of time to gain their confidence and chemistry, to build a strong team and to believe in ourselves and each other. That is where we are with our normal team. But, here, it is a little contrary to what I have just said. It is hard to change three people in the afterguard, the helmsman, strategist and the guy on the runner."

AM: And how has the boat speed improved, and what would you look to improve on for next season?
PC: "I think we worked a little bit harder on our light airs speed. And in Cagliari a lot. We have partnered up with Matador a lot, and so when we go on the water we line up with them and that has been very valuable for us, and I hope for them. Those two boats and the Team New Zealand boat, are the fastest boats. That is no secret. The Team New Zealand boat is a very good heavy air boat. It suffers a little bit in light airs, especially if it is light airs, choppy and sloppy. But in saying that Team New Zealand is the most tight team. They never change positions, the whole crew is pretty much the same, same tactician, strategist and so on. And it shows. That is what it takes to compete on this level."

AM: What are the plans for next season, Artemis are doing the World Series as well?
PC: "Im doing the RC 44’s with Torbjorn’s partner’s boat, a Russian boat, the first regatta is in a couple of weeks, I am doing the Artemis TP52 next season, and then the Louis Vuitton."

"I think we just need to keep improving all the way around. I don’t think there was any one thing we were weak on. In Portimao before I went we got all top four places, the boat was going well, our starts were fine. The machine was demonstrating some consistency. And that is a very strong characteristic to have in this fleet. If you can have very strong top four places, you can be up there."

AM: And TeamOrigin joining the Circuit for next season, the standars, you would expect to keep going up?
PC: "We might get some teams drop out. I don’t know if Quantum Racing will do it again, but this fleet will always have some very tough, top teams."