{"id":130611,"date":"2021-03-17T06:17:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T06:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=130611"},"modified":"2021-03-17T08:32:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T08:32:45","slug":"americas-cup-new-zealand-win-a-fourth-americas-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/americas-cup\/americas-cup-new-zealand-win-a-fourth-americas-cup-130611","title":{"rendered":"America’s Cup: New Zealand win a fourth America’s Cup"},"content":"I\u2019m off to buy a gum shield tomorrow. It\u2019s bad enough grinding my teeth at night, but doing it for an entire afternoon while watching America's Cup<\/a> racing is starting to hurt.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/1_Xa62HWGoM\r\n\r\nToday was yet another extraordinary day. Just as we thought we were getting a handle on the finer aspects of each of these teams, we have to re-set what we thought we knew once again.\r\n\r\nJust as we thought that it wasn\u2019t possible to pass in light winds we had lead changes in both America's Cup races today.\r\n\r\nAnd just as we thought we might be here for a few more days we have had to accept that it might be all over tomorrow.\r\n\r\nBut as far as what happened today, Luna Rossa won both starts, led for the first few legs and then managed to lose both races. Now I write it like that, it sounds harsh, but that\u2019s what happened.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_130562\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Photo: ACE \/ Studio Borlenghi[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSuccess is defined by small margins at this level of competition, that and a sprinkling of luck.\r\n\r\nIn the first race of the day the turning point seemed to be when the Italians allowed the Kiwis to break away to the right-hand side of the course at the start of the second beat. The Kiwis had been looking seriously quick upwind, something else that was new to us.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n
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\r\n\r\nOnce they were through there was little holding them back.\r\n\r\nBut it was the second race that was the real roller coaster. There are few (if any) Cup races on record that see a deficit of 2km recovered and then reversed in a short five lap race. Few that see the time difference between the two boats change by more than 8 minutes in a race of just short of 39 minutes.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_130564\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Photo: ACE \/ Studio Borlenghi[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe main problem for the Italians, who as you know were leading at the top of leg 3 was that they stalled out their foil during a tack and dropped themselves back down into displacement mode. On the onboard comms you can hear Jimmy Spithill say, \u2018lots of cavitation in that one,\u2019 just as the spray rises up from the new leeward foil.\r\n\r\nOnce down there was no way back.\r\n\r\nAt this evening\u2019s America's Cup press conference, Peter Burling made no secret of the fact that they knew how fortunate they had been to get back into the race and while he acknowledged the Herculean effort his grinders had made to keep the boat on the boil his comment, \u201cBetter to be lucky than good,\u201d said it all.\r\n\r\nSpithill on the other hand is now in his \u2018Pitbull\u2019 element and was more animated this evening than we\u2019ve seen him for a while. If there\u2019s one person that can rally the troops it will be him.\r\n\r\nPlus, the fact is that while the Kiwis will be delighted that they have taken a two race march, the reality is that they were beaten twice in the start by a team that has a slippery boat.\r\n\r\nSo, the Cup is within grasp, but will it happen tomorrow? Who knows.\r\n\r\nThis morning (Monday) Tuesday was forecast to be the windiest of the week, now it\u2019s set to be a vacuum.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m making no predictions until I\u2019ve got something to protect my molars.\r\n\r\nYou can read more from Matthew Sheahan on his blog at planetsail.org.<\/a><\/strong><\/em>","excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emirates Team New Zealand have successfully defended the 36th America\u2019s Cup, giving the kiwis their second successful defence and fourth America\u2019s Cup win after victories in 1994, 2000, 2017 and now 2021. In a series that began much closer than many expected, \u2013 when the rumours of a much faster boat developed by Emirates Team New Zealand did not fully come to fruition \u2013 the New Zealanders really stretched away in the later part of the regatta, winning the last four races in a row and winning the event by 7 races to 3. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli put up an impressive fight early on in the event and had clearly developed a slick package that was able to match the New Zealand boat in some conditions. But in the end the Kiwis did have a slight speed advantage across the range of conditions. And as the event unfolded this slight advantage looked increasingly too much for the Italian team. It has been an incredibly interesting contest in this 36th America\u2019s Cup, with the first generation of the new AC75s delivering some interesting racing. The Cup match itself has seen two boats developed independently that behave in different ways. The Italians\u2019 boat could clearly point higher than the Kiwis and early in the regatta they could tack faster too, but this tacking advantage became less pronounced as the event continued and the Kiwis developed their tacking ability. Though their boat was not able to point as high, Emirates Team New Zealand always had a faster boat downwind and, given space to sail low and fast, were a click quicker upwind too. Final America’s Cup race Today (Wednesday 17th March) saw a small delay before the breeze properly came in and blew at around 10-12 knots. Starts have been critical in this match and that was the case again today if in a slightly different way. In the prestart you could hear both teams discussing the right hand side early and with Luna Rossa leading back to the startline, the Kiwis seemed more intent on getting the right hand side than necessarily having the control position off the startline. Sure enough, Luna Rossa got a strong start slightly ahead and tight to leeward of New Zealand. But in a clearly pre-planned move, the Kiwis tacked away immediately and by the first cross they were clear ahead. “We have been learning all week and there have been a lot of even starts,” explained New Zealand helm, Peter Burling. “On that start we wanted the right and we were willing to give up a bit to get there.\u00a0 “I think we have a strong package and when we are able to stretch our legs we can really show what it can do.” Luna Rossa put up a strong fight, and they did find some gains out to the left, making the next cross closer, but after that it was a case of the Kiwis stretching their legs and extending much of the way …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3349,"featured_media":130618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[687],"tags":[569,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130611"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130717,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130611\/revisions\/130717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130611"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=130611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}