The Kiwi team dominated the final stage of the 35th America’s Cup, winning eight races to ORACLE TEAM USA’s one race win, giving the New Zealanders a final winning scoreline of 7-1.
They won eight races but the score line of 7-1 reflects the defender’s rule change to make the challengers start with -1.
P.S.
Peter Burling is only 26 – the youngest helmsman to win the America’s Cup.
Day four of the America’s Cup Match, presented by Louis Vuitton, belonged firmly to Peter Burling and the New Zealand team who comfortably won the two scheduled races of the day, races seven and eight of the final stage of the 35th America’s Cup.
Burling and his crew have already won eight races but the rules, set by the defender, meant the challenger started at -1. This gives Team NZ a moral victory already. But rules are rules and they require one more win to take the cup.
Having won race six on Saturday, ORACLE TEAM USA went into the second Sunday of the America’s Cup Match, presented by Louis Vuitton, looking to gain more ground on their Kiwi rivals, but the New Zealand juggernaut had found its pace again and was unbeatable in similar weather conditions to day three, . .
We can’t forget what happened in San Francisco when Team NZ went from match point to loss, but we didn’t have the Bermulanders on our side then.
Whoever, wins the cup, I’m giving the advertising prize to Toyota for these social media slides:
My parents might not have met had my father not been a sailor.
He capsized his yacht one day and was picked up by a man whose wife was a nurse who arranged a blind date for the rescued yachtie and a nursing friend who became my mother.
My brothers inherited Dad’s love of sailing but my love of the sea is for swimming in rather than sailing on.
Not being a sailor hasn’t stopped me marvelling at the design and performance of the Americas Cup yachts and the skill of the crews.
Though my excitement over the strong start Team NZ made was tempered with the memory of the way an apparently unassailable lead turned into a loss in the last challenge.
Today’s results – one win to NZ, one to the USA, adds to the tension.
But last time we didn’t have the Bermulanders on our side.
A proper one, with one set of rules for everyone and genuine competition. Not some heavily-rigged pretence at sport which is actually a play for power and money. That’s what Oracle Team USA served up with their protocol for the 35th America’s Cup this week.
This is a jack-up so obvious it should be called the Jack Cup. This went beyond the usual America’s Cup defender giving themselves an advantage. This is the US Army, armed with nukes, drones and heat-seeking missiles versus Spongebob Squarepants waving a sharp teaspoon. This is ensuring retention of the Cup under the banner of taking sailing to the masses and making it more commercial. Translation: more of everything for Oracle. . . .
A new event would be cheaper, fairer and more accessible. It could be staged in Australia or New Zealand, or even both, and would eventually grow to be its own event, maybe even overshadowing the Cup which could stand proudly in the Golden Gate Yacht Club trophy cabinet – forgotten and uncontested. . . .
Let’s have a yacht race that has clear rules which gives everyone the same chance and is decided on the water by the skill of the crews.
The final score was 9-8 – though they won two more races before they got on the scoreboard.
But let’s not go into national mourning.
Emirates Team New Zealand sailed well, with a New Zealand crew, New Zealand boat design, New Zealand technology and New Zealand expertise.
Oracle Team New Zealand sailed better, with an international crew which included New Zealanders, New Zealand boat design, New Zealand expertise.
They also had a New Zealand manager – Russell Coutts – who hasn’t lost an America’s Cup.
They also had more money and the lack of challengers showed that was a significant factor.
This was an amazing spectacle and one of the great sporting comebacks.
But it was only sport.
So let’s keep positive, congratulate the victors, thank Dean Barker and the team for the effort they put in and the entertainment they provided us, get on with our lives and smile – it’s contagious.
The weather won yesterday, forcing the postponement of racing.
All fingers and toes crossed for fair winds and a fantastic result in today’s races for the America’s Cup – with or without the help of the Kiwi Ninjas:
The Kiwis behind the dawn flag-bombing stunt at one of Larry Ellison’s San Francisco properties today said the operation took hours in the researching and planning.
A video posted online this morning of a trio, calling themselves the Kiwi ninjas, decorating Ellison’s garage with New Zealand flags has fast gone viral. The idea was dreamt up by a group of fervent Team New Zealand supporters over a few beers earlier this week.
One of the ninjas who donned the full lycra body suit, Cathy Odgers, said everything down to the type of duct tape they used to attach the flags to the garage door was thoroughly researched
“I think it would have taken five billable hours of planning the whole exercise,” joked Odgers, a lawyer by trade, “but the result was priceless.” . . .
Team New Zealand has won the Luis Vuitton series against Luna Rossa, earning the right to contest the America’s Cup against Oracle.
. . .They clinched the Louis Vuitton finals for the third time in the 30 year history of the event, their only defeat coming after a gear failure in race two of the finals.
With the much anticipated showdown with Oracle less than a fortnight away, Team NZ will spend the next 13 days fine-tuning crew work and seeking further boat speed from their AC72 catamaran. . .
The first of 17 races for the Cup is on September 8.
This contest is often criticised for being not so much sport as a game for the wealthy and a triumph of engineering and technology rather than prowess.
There is an element of truth in that but no-one watching the races could deny the skill and strength of the crews.
And just as athletes who could never make it to the Olympics are inspired by champions, the many thousands of New Zealanders who mess around in boats, and many who don’t, get a thrill, and inspiration, from watching elite sportsmen compete, and triumph, in yachting.
There could also be a boost for business with the recognition for our boat builders.
It’s the third fourth * win New Zealander Russell Coutts has been associated with.
He skippered New Zealand yachts to two wins and is now CEO of the Oracle team.
Coutts could have skippered a record three wins but in a gesture of sportsmanship handed the helm to Dean Barker for the final race. He was praised for that but then received a lot of criticism when he left New Zealand to sail for foreign teams.
I didn’t blame him for doing that. He’s a professional yachty, he’d done his best for New Zealand and had the right to earn more money elsewhere when he had the opportunity to do so.
* Ian left a comment pointing out Coutts also won with Alinghi.
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