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New Zealand Bests Oracle in First Race of America's Cup Finals
SAN FRANCISCO | Sat Sep 7, 2013 (Reuters) -
Emirates Team New Zealand beat billionaire Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA in the first race in the final series of the 34th America's Cup sailing regatta on Saturday on San Francisco Bay.
In the first of two races on Saturday, which kicked off a best-of-17 final series to win the Cup, the two teams' catamarans nearly collided on several occasions as they crisscrossed the bay. New Zealand was slightly ahead at the start and was passed by Oracle for a short time before regaining its lead and winning the race.
It was the first neck-and-neck race in the regatta after two months of relatively tame qualifying matches easily dominated by the Kiwis.
The final series of matches is culmination of a regatta plagued by controversies including cheating by Oracle, dangerous catamarans, a fatal accident and accusations of mismanagement.
The latest setback came on Tuesday, when an international jury docked Oracle two points and kicked three team members out of the event for adding illegal weight to boats used in a previous preparatory Cup competition.
The penalties, unprecedented in the history of the 162-year-old event, are a big boost for New Zealand, which demolished other would-be challengers in qualifying races in July and August.
Bookmakers see the Kiwis as favorites to take the America's Cup from Oracle although, in a twist of fate, they are now up against one of their country's most accomplished sailors.
Due to the penalty, Oracle needs to win 11 races to retain the Cup, while New Zealand only needs to win a total of nine. Oracle is also sailing without a key crew member, Dirk de Ridder, a 40-year-old Dutchman who was banished from the event for his role in the weight scandal.
The debacle first came to light in July, when 45-foot Oracle catamarans that had been used for a regatta known as the America's Cup World Series of Racing - and were raced again last week in a youth competition - were found to have illegal bags of lead and resin wedged into their frames. Adding weight can help improve the yachts' stability.
In most countries, sailboat racing is a niche sport, and this year's America's Cup so far has done little to change that. Ellison, who won the cup in 2010, and with it the right to set the rules for this year's races, hoped to make the competition more accessible to everyday sports fans with super-fast, high-tech 72-foot boats called AC72s sailing close to shore on the picturesque Bay.
But the regatta stumbled from the start, with high costs scaring off many challengers and a fatal training accident in May throwing the four-team competition into chaos. Mounting a serious challenge in the America's Cup costs $100 million or more, a pricey entry fee even for billionaires.
Sailing is not a big draw for US sports fans and the turnout in viewing areas set up along the Bay to watch the races has fallen short of expectations, with few local residents showing interest in the regatta let alone rooting for Oracle.
But the sport is a major passtime in New Zealand. That country first won the Cup in 1995 and then successfully defended the Cup in 2000 under the leadership of Wellington-born skipper Russell Coutts.
Coutts was lured away by Swiss biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli to take the helm of Alinghi. He took the Cup from New Zealand in 2003, then switched to Oracle and helped that team win the Cup in 2010. He has won the America's Cup four times and never lost.
On the water on Saturday, Oracle's catamaran was skippered by Australian James Spithill, who also skippered Oracle's boat in its 2010 Cup victory.
At the helm of Emirates Team New Zealand's AC72 was Dean Barker, whose good start against Oracle was foreshadowed by his aggressive positioning against Italy's Luna Rossa in qualifying races leading up to the finals.
UPDATE From SKYs SPORT:
2013 America's Cup: Team New Zealand take a 2-0 lead over Team Oracle USA
Last Updated: 8 September , 2013
Team New Zealand won both of the opening races against Team Oracle USA on Saturday
Emirates Team New Zealand skimmed above the waves of San Francisco Bay faster and better than defending champion Oracle Team USA to win the first two races of the 34th America's Cup on Saturday.
With low-key skipper Dean Barker at the wheel of the high-performance catamaran, the Kiwis lost and then regained the lead to win the opening race by 36 seconds.
Team New Zealand, showing better speed and crew work, led the whole way in the second race to win by 52 seconds on a hot, gorgeous day on San Francisco Bay.
This was the first America's Cup contested inshore, and the first in foiling catamarans, which lift onto hydrofoils when they reach a certain speed.
The Kiwis, representing the hopes of small, sailing-mad country, took it to the American powerhouse. There were two lead changes in the first race, but Barker dominated the second race.
Aggressive
Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill was aggressive and came close to touching the Kiwi boat with his starboard hull in the prestart of the second race but no penalty was called. The boats were slow off the line before Team New Zealand accelerated and lifted onto its foils and beat the Americans across the reach to the first mark.
The Kiwis simply covered the American syndicate the rest of the way. New Zealand had a seven-second lead rounding the second mark, but Oracle crashed its starboard bow into the waves rounding the mark and lost speed.
When Barker and the Kiwis ripped around mark three and began foiling, they led by 46 seconds.
In the first race, Barker had a slight lead crossing the starting line just inside of the Golden Gate Bridge and beat Spithill to the first mark.
Barker kept the lead sailing downwind and was four seconds ahead at the second mark, but slowed down a bit shortly after turning onto the windward leg. The first time the catamarans crossed, Spithill had sailed Oracle into the lead.
Advantage
But Spithill let the Kiwis get the starboard tack advantage and they protected the favoured left side of the course sailing past the city front. In the second lead change on the leg, Barker sailed ahead and built a safe advantage.
Oracle appeared to have some kind of damage on its wing sail after the first race. The wing sail looks and performs like an airplane wing, including a front element and flaps.
The Kiwis need seven more wins to claim the oldest trophy in international sports for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which held the Auld Mug from 1995-2003.
Oracle Team USA, owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison, must win 11 races to retain the cup. An international jury docked the team two points in the biggest cheating scandal in the competition'
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Racing Postponed for the Day with Kiwis on Match Point
September 17, 2013
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UPDATE: 1425 hours
Race 12 of the 34th America’s Cup has been postponed to 18 September because the wind was exceeding the 20-knot limit during the pre-start. UPDATE: 1417 hours
A lively pre-start saw Emirates Team New Zealand looking for a windward start, but ORACLE TEAM USA had leeward position, looking to luff the Kiwis. Four seconds after the start the race was postponed because the wind exceeded the 20-knot limit. The race has been rescheduled to start at 1432. UPDATE: 1350 hours
Race 12 of the 34th America’s Cup is scheduled to start at 1415. Emirates Team New Zealand needs one more victory to win the Cup for a third time (1995, 2000). The Kiwis have replaced Grant Dalton with Winston MacFarlane on Pedestal 3. The wind limit for this race is 20 knots, accounting for a 3-knot ebb tide, and the wind is presently down to 13 knots from 240-245 degrees.
Emirates Team New Zealand Crew List
Skipper/helmsman: Dean Barker (14), Tactician: Ray Davies (10), Wing Trimmer: Glenn Ashby (3), Trimmer: James Dagg (9), Bow: Adam Beashel (2), Pit: Jeremy Lomas (8), Pedestal 1: Chris Ward (7), Pedestal 2: Rob Waddell (11), Pedestal 3: Winston MacFarlane (4), Pedestal 4: Chris McAsey (5), Float/Grinder: Derek Saward (12)
ORACLE TEAM USA Crew List
Skipper: Jimmy Spithill (9), Tactician: Ben Ainslie (12), Strategist: Tom Slingsby (10), Wing trimmer: Kyle Langford (8), Jib trimmer: Joe Newton (5), Off-side trimmer: Rome Kirby (4), Grinders: Shannon Falcone (1), Joe Spooner (2), Jono MacBeth (3), Gillo Nobili (6), Simeon Tienpont (7)
UPDATE: 1346 hours
Emirates Team New Zealand has moved to match point in the 34th America’s Cup after a 15-second win in Race 11.
The Kiwis gained the lead off the start line and held it throughout the race, despite repeated attacks from ORACLE TEAM USA. The defender closed up to the challenger’s stern at the final turning mark, but the Kiwis were able to get around the mark on starboard jibe while ORACLE TEAM USA had to put in two maneuvers to round the mark.
Emirates Team New Zealand leads the series 8-1 and needs one more victory to win the America’s Cup, while ORACLE TEAM USA needs to win eight consecutive races to retain the Cup. Race 12 is scheduled to start at 2:15 pm PT.
34th America’s Cup Standings (first to 9 points wins)
Windspeed: Average – 15.4 knots, Peak – 18.0 knots
Number of Tacks/Jibes: ETNZ – 10/6, OTUSA – 10/8
UPDATE: 1332 hours
Emirates Team New Zealand leads by 17 seconds at the windward gate. The Kiwis kept their lead all the way up the beat, even though ORACLE TEAM USA closed up at one point to within 2 boat lengths.
UPDATE: 1321 hours
Emirates Team New Zealand maintained its advantage on the run and extended its lead to 6 seconds at the leeward gate. The Kiwis did three jibes on the run and ORACLE TEAM USA four, the last jibe to round the right-hand gate and gain a split beginning the upwind leg.
UPDATE: 1316 hours
Emirates Team New Zealand wins the start of Race 11, although both are late to line. The Kiwis had leeward position at the pin end with ORACLE TEAM USA on their windward quarter. The Kiwis eventually gained a position directly ahead of the defender and led at the first mark by 3 seconds.
UPDATE: 1310 hours
About 5 minutes from the start of Race 11, the wind has built slightly to 16-18 knots and the direction has backed to 235-240 degrees.
UPDATE: 1255 hours
With about 20 minutes to the start of Race 11, the wind is blowing 15 knots from 250-255 degrees. Emirates Team New Zealand will have port tack in the pre-start, and ORACLE TEAM USA will have it in Race 12.
UPDATE: 1200 hours
At noontime the wind on the racecourse was blowing 15 knots from 255 degrees.
UPDATE: 1100 hours
Regatta Director Iain Murray expressed confidence at his morning briefing that the conditions would be suitable for racing today, despite another day of strong ebb (outgoing) tide.
“Our intel tells us around 15 knots for first race and 16-17, maybe 18 for the second race,” said Murray. “Once again, a strong ebb tide today increasing as day goes on: -2 for the first race so a 21-knot limit, and -3 for the second race, so a 20-knot limit. Once again we have a convergence of wind and current, but the forecast looks ok and we feel confident.”
Today is an important day for both teams. ORACLE TEAM USA needs to win the two races to extend the series. Two wins by Emirates Team New Zealand and they win the America’s Cup. A split would extend the series, but serve Team New Zealand better.
“From an event point of view it would be great if the American team had a couple of wins,” said ACEA CEO Stephen Barclay. “Last week I called Thursday moving day and Team New Zealand did all the moving. I think today is D-day. If ORACLE TEAM USA doesn’t sweep the day, don’t get two wins, I think it will be extremely difficult for it to come back. New Zealand could wrap it up, Oracle could win a couple; it could be all on.”
Race 11 is scheduled to start at 1315 and Race 12 at 1415 PT. In the U.S., the America’s Cup Finals will be broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network. Replays will be available on the America’s Cup YouTube channel.
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re: VIDEOs- SAILING - America's Cup -Updates & Results
BBC Sport, 20 September 2013
Last updated at 23:21 GMT
America's Cup: Oracle Team USA Narrow Gap on Team New Zealand
34th America's Cup
Venue: San Francisco
Coverage: Highlights on BBC Two, Red Button, BBC Sport website, BBC Sport app and Connected TV
Defending champions Oracle Team USA narrowed the gap on Team New Zealand to keep the America's Cup alive after the Kiwis were denied victory on Friday.
The American team won the day's second race to trail 8-3, with the first to nine points clinching the trophy.
Friday's first race in light wind was abandoned for exceeding the 40-minute time limit with New Zealand minutes from the line with a commanding lead.
Strong winds postponed four races earlier this week in San Francisco.
Oracle won the rescheduled race 13 by one minute 24 seconds after Team New Zealand incurred a right-of-way penalty on the first downwind leg and were further hampered by a slow mark-rounding.
Team New Zealand outsailed the American team in uncharacteristic light airs in the day's first race, but the slow pace of the boats meant the clock was against them and the permitted time elapsed with the Kiwis within two minutes of the line.
America's Cup 2013 Results
Race 13: Oracle Team USA win by 84 secs
Race 12: Oracle Team USA win by 31 secs
Race 11: Team New Zealand win by 15s
Race 10: Team New Zealand win by 17s
Race 9: Oracle Team USA win by 47 secs
Race 8: Oracle Team USA win by 52 secs
Race 7: Team New Zealand win by 66 secs
Race 6: Team New Zealand win by 47 secs
Race 5: Team New Zealand win by 65 secs
Race 4: Oracle Team USA win by 8 secs
Race 3: Team New Zealand win by 28 secs
Race 2: Team New Zealand win by 52 secs
Race 1: Team New Zealand win by 36 secs
*Oracle penalised two points pre-regatta
"It's a very frustrating day, to be honest," said Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker.
The defending champions, bankrolled by software billionaire Larry Ellison, devised the revolutionary 72ft catamarans - which can reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour - but were penalised two points in the run-up to the America's Cup after being found guilty of illegal modifications to their boat in a global warm-up series.
Oracle lost six of the first seven races, but the introduction of warm-up skipper Sir Ben Ainslie, a four-time Olympic champion, and improvements to the boat and handling have seen the holders edge back into the regatta with four wins in the last six races.
Nevertheless, New Zealand reached 7-1 on Sunday and could have wrapped up the Cup on Tuesday - with Monday set aside as a rest day - before both races were scrapped because the wind-strength limit had been reached.
The Kiwis edged to match point in Wednesday's first race, but more strong winds against an outgoing tide forced the second race to be postponed. Oracle grabbed another win in the only race possible on Thursday to leave Team New Zealand still one short of victory.
The upper wind limits were introduced as part of a safety review after British Olympian Andrew Simpson was killed-(Click to Read Report) ---(***See Video Below***), when his Artemis yacht capsized in a training accident in May.
Two more races are scheduled for Saturday.
The winners of the America's Cup get to choose the format and venue of the 35th edition of the 162-year-old event.
Oracle beat holders Alinghi in a one-off encounter in Valencia, Spain in 2010 to claim the Cup after the Swiss outfit defeated holders Team New Zealand in 2003 and retained the Cup against the Kiwis in 2007.
re: VIDEOs- SAILING -Brit Wins America's Cup for USA
BBC Sport, 23 September 2013
America's Cup: Oracle Team USA close on New Zealand lead
34th America's Cup
Venue: San Francisco
Oracle Team USA clinched their fifth straight win to close the gap to 8-6 on Team New Zealand in the America's Cup.
The defending champions beat the Kiwis by 33 seconds in Monday's only race to keep the Cup alive with New Zealand needing one win for victory.
The challengers have been within one race of victory since Wednesday, but have been hit by a series of postponed races and Oracle's resurgence.
The US boat needs three more wins to retain the trophy in San Francisco.
"We've got a huge wave of momentum now, the guys have been working very, very hard," said Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill.
America's Cup 2013 results
Race 16: Oracle Team USA win by 33 secs
Race 15: Oracle Team USA win by 37 secs
Race 14: Oracle Team USA win by 23 secs
Race 13: Oracle Team USA win by 84 secs
Race 12: Oracle Team USA win by 31 secs
Race 11: Team New Zealand win by 15s
Race 10: Team New Zealand win by 17s
Race 9: Oracle Team USA win by 47 secs
Race 8: Oracle Team USA win by 52 secs
Race 7: Team New Zealand win by 66 secs
Race 6: Team New Zealand win by 47 secs
Race 5: Team New Zealand win by 65 secs
Race 4: Oracle Team USA win by 8 secs
Race 3: Team New Zealand win by 28 secs
Race 2: Team New Zealand win by 52 secs
Race 1: Team New Zealand win by 36 secs
*Oracle penalised two points pre-regatta
Team New Zealand edged the start in light winds but Oracle was first to rise onto its hydrofoils and rounded the first mark in the lead, which it never relinquished.
The light airs that delayed the start to race 16 meant Monday's second race was postponed. Two more races are scheduled for Tuesday, taking the 162-year-old competition into an unprecedented 17th day of racing.
Oracle have won eight races in all but were penalised two points before the regatta for illegal modifications to their smaller 45ft catamaran in the warm-up series.
Team New Zealand dominated the early stages of the 34th America's Cup, surging to a lead of six wins to one with a faster boat upwind and slicker crew work.
After race five, the holders made changes to their 72ft catamaran and called up Britain's four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie from the training crew to the position of tactician.
The Kiwis won the next two races, but with further modifications and improved crew work Oracle hit back with seven wins in the next nine races to put Team New Zealand's celebrations on hold.
A number of race postponements because of strong winds also delayed the event, while New Zealand were within two minutes of victory on Friday before organisers abandoned the race because light winds meant the 40-minute time limit had elapsed.
The winners of the event get to decide the format and venue of the 35th America's Cup, the oldest trophy in sport.
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Re: VIDEOs- SAILING -Brit Wins America's Cup for USA
EXCLUSIVE: Now I Want to do it For Britain....But We'll Need £25m ($36) to Get the Job Done, says Ainslie after America's Cup Triumph
Sir Ben Ainslie has set his heart on finally winning the America’s Cup for Great Britain — but needs £25million a year to bankroll the dream. No sooner had Ainslie started celebrating Oracle Team USA’s victory in the winner-takes-all final race than he started plotting victory for his country.
JONATHAN MCEVOY: It was the stuff of Hollywood fiction. Yet it was the most predictable thing in the world. Briton Sir Ben Ainslie beat insurmountable odds.
Triumph of a Born Leader! You could have Bet Your Life on Ainslie Pulling off Comeback
By Daily Mail UK, 27 September 2013
It was the stuff of Hollywood fiction. Yet it was the most predictable thing in the world. Sir Ben Ainslie beat insurmountable odds. But you could have put your mortgage on him.
Top team: Oracle Team tactician Australian Tom Slingsby, skipper Australian Jimmy Spithill, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and helmsman British Sir Ben Ainslie stand with the America's Cup trophy
Those were the conflicting certainties that fizzed through the mind of every person who knew our great sailor and his golden body of work as we watched what, for us, was his inevitable America’s Cup victory on the sparkling waters of San Francisco Bay.
If there is one sportsman on whose performance you would gamble your life, it is Ainslie. He is also the first with whom you would share a drink.
VIDEOs: Scroll down to watch The greatest comeback in history: Sir Ben Ainslie
Victory: Sir Ben Ainslie holds up the America's Cup trophy with his Oracle Team USA team-mates
You could say that Ainslie was just one member of Oracle Team USA and that to single him out is a British peculiarity.
But lest we forget, the US team were down and out before Ainslie was drafted in as tactician to replace John Kostecki. They fell 8-1 behind in the first-to-nine before the great rally. That is a mark of Ainslie’s contribution.
You could ask whether the revival was down to the technical boys refining the state-of-the-art boat. Undoubtedly so to a degree. And a fast boat is a tactician’s best friend, covering up any of his bad calls.
Yet any Ainslie observer knows that he is at his best when his back is against the wall. Most famously, but hardly uniquely, he fought back from the abyss (with a back so injured that it later required surgery) to win Olympic gold at London 2012 after telling his rival Jonas Hogh-Christensen:
‘You don’t want to make me angry.’
He is calm under pressure, able to discern the critical elements of what the tide is doing, where the boundary is, where the wind is blowing. That is what he did in San Francisco, along with strategist Tom Silinsby.
THE GREATEST COMEBACK IN HISTORY: Sir Ben Ainslie
Champagne spray: Simeon Tienpont (left) sprays Ainslie as Australian skipper James Spithill (right) looks away
Playing chess while doing press-ups and with salt water being thrown is an apt description of the tactician’s role. But never has that adage been more true than in this America’s Cup, with Ainslie taking on the physically demanding work of grinding as well. We could hear from television that his voice remained calm, the instructions clear, his mind liberated.
What was interesting was that as the key moments arrived, he — rather than the skipper Jimmy Spithill — gave the final pep talk. ‘This is it, this is it, work your a**** off,’ he told the crew. Again, his voice was matter of fact.
Old sea dogs who remember his previous forays into the America’s Cup say that the younger Ainslie could be overawed and his personality pushed into the margins by senior team-mates. They wondered whether Ainslie, shy in his youth and still reserved in an English sort of way now — and with the obsessive qualities and attention to detail required of the Olympic sailor — could be a leader capable of inspiring his men to go over the top for him.
Incidentally, barely any of the America’s Cup rivals who belittled his Olympic achievements could ever have matched him in that environment.
Home hero: Ainslie won gold in the Finn class at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Now, at 36, he seems fully equipped for the responsibilities of team leadership and has spoken of revelling in the group atmosphere.
That comes as no surprise to me, having visited him at various regattas and taken part with him in the Round the Island Race, off the Isle of Wight.
In passing, it was from the Isle of Wight that Queen Victoria is reputed to have watched the first America’s Cup, dominated by the New York Yacht Club schooner America, from which the competition took its name.
‘Which is second?’ she asked. She was told: ‘Your Majesty, there is no second.’ As a nation we have not won the world’s oldest international sports event from that day in 1851 to this.
Shipshape: Sportsmail's Jonathan McEvoy crews for Ainslie in the Round the Island race in 2011
Righting that omission is now Ainslie’s stated mission and he will look to leverage his achievements to raise the financial backing he needs to accomplish the feat.
So what has most gone into the making of Ainslie, the remorseless competitor and the most reliable of men. One factor was the bullying he received as a boy.
He suffered from a photo- sensitivity of the skin that manifested itself in rashes and blistering. Aged eight, at Treliske School in Truro, Cornwall, the marks would appear on his face.
‘Unfortunately, it began at my first day at school and continued through to the main school as I stuck with the same pupils over a seven-year period and they never really gave me a break,’ he recalled in his autobiography Close to the Wind.
‘Like all things, the teasing came and went, but I guess it did have a profound effect on how I developed. It made me ferociously determined to be good at something, to prove to myself that I could be a success and that there was more to life than school and being picked upon.
‘Sadly, it also meant that I found it hard to trust people, was very defensive and found it very hard to open up to people emotionally.’
Younger days: Ainslie celebrates his gold medal success at Sydney 2000 with his parents Roddy and Sue
Another formative influence was a loving middle-class home shared with his father Roddy, himself a former sailor of distinction, his mother Sue and elder sister Fleur. Young Ben found solace in the Swallows and Amazons life on Restronguet Creek, near Falmouth — ‘a world of childhood fantasy’, as he described it later.
He was bought his first dinghy, a second-hand Optimist, when he was eight. Wearing a duffel coat, he sailed it to the pub where his parents were waiting for him over Christmas lunch.
Selected as a teenager for the Atlanta Games of 1996, he made the only important mistake of his Olympic career: he merely took silver. He was then hell-bent on beating his conqueror of that day, Robert Scheidt, in Sydney four years later. He, legally, blocked the Brazilian out of the final race.
Crowned: Ainslie with his gold medal for winning the Finn class at Athens 2004
‘That’s racing,’ said Ainslie, a fair but pathological winner. Four gold medals make him the most successful sailor in Olympic history and tellingly in two classes: Laser and Finn.
I have asked him more than once which drives him more: the dread of losing or the joy of winning. He finds it hard to know the answer but I marginally suspect the former.
This patriot’s richly deserved knighthood has undoubtedly bolstered his self-esteem. Winning the America’s Cup in the blue, red and white of home — rather than of America — is the impossible dream I would happily bet my life he will achieve.
It was a very close call and the US would not have beaten New Zealand without Sir Ben Ainslie, and being allowed to change the rules mid competition..
America's Cup 2013: New Zealand Skipper; Defeat is 'Very Hard to Swallow':
This is for Bart! Ainslie Tribute to Tragic Friend after Incredible America's Cup Win:
***Sir Ben Ainslie’s America's Cup success has come under a flag of convenience. One raised in the name of 'Corporate America'.
The competition has even more to do with capital wealth than canny seamanship.
Happy man: Oracle CEO Billionaire Larry Ellison sits alongside Ainslie after their victory
As for the good ship Oracle, it was manned not so much by native Americans as by a consortium of high-powered mercenaries bought in by large chunks of New Yorker Larry Ellison’s vast fortune.
Never mind Ainslie, even the skipper was Australian.
Although Britannia ruled at least one of the waves, this motley crew jigged to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner.
Mr Ellison is a billionaire computer software magnate who spared no expense in constructing a boat conceived of a virtual reality fantasy.
When his Oracle trailed its New Zealand challenger 8-1 with just eight races to go, he hired British Ben to engineer what is being acclaimed as the most phenomenal come-back of all sporting times.
America, rejoice.
Britain, eat our hearts out.
This event was born in Britain's Isle of Wight in 1851 yet has never been won by a British yacht.
This year’s regulations, as imposed by the Americans, demanded a vessel of such exorbitant cost that only three countries could raise the ante.
Then, even though they had rigged everything in their favour, Team Oracle sought additional advantage by cheating a little in preparation and were docked two points before the first race.
In the event, that served only to set up Ainslie’s outrageous comeback.
Out of chicanery, history.
It would not have happened had Ellison not been allowed, in mid-competition, to sink yet more money into hiring Ainslie andmodifying the Oracle.
Unwavering loyalty: Lord Admiral Nelson would not have sailed under any flag other than the English
Expect the New York Yacht Club, as holders, to adjust the terms of engagement still more heavily in their favour four years from now.
Can, by then, this sea-faring nation of ours raise the finance to mount a challenge?
The publicity for Ainslie’s latest exploit is exciting that notion but it is an enterprise which will require massive backing, probably from a conglomerate of British corporations.
For Ainslie’s sake let us hope it can be done... before he sails off into the sunset for the last time.
If not, expect us to find ourselves once more in the humiliating position of cheering as an Englishman brings home the beacon for America.
As America danced on the deck of the Oracle, it did not pause to consider that the Kiwi boat it had out-manouevred was manned entirely by New Zealanders.
Oracle Team = Tactician Australian Tom Slingsby, Skipper Australian Jimmy Spithill, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Helmsman British Sir Ben Ainslie
At the onset of his finest, and final, hour, Nelson exhorted his fleet:
Quote:
‘England expects this day that every man will do his duty.’
Had he been in San Francisco harbour this week, rather than the Bay of Trafalgar more than two centuries earlier, he might have added:
Quote:
‘For England, pray, not some foreign realm.’
The romantic tinge to Ainslie’s achievement has distracted from the coarse commercial reality which has submerged the gentlemanly origins of sport’s oldest trophy.
Ainslie would much have preferred to be at the helm of a British boat this past fortnight in San Francisco.
The repetitive changing of the America’s Cup rules, as permitted by the holders, put that dream beyond price. As it has since the last UK challenge 30 years ago.
At sea: Oracle Team USA and Team New Zealand sail by Alcatraz Island near San Francisco
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VIDEOs- SAILING -Brit Wins America's Cup for USA
PUTIN TRUMP & Netanyahu Will Meet in HELL
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America's Cup 11 & 12 Postponed/Resumed
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