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Jimmy Spithill acknowledges that everyone is chasing the New Zealand team standard right now, and on the final day of the America’s Cup World Series in Auckland he put an exclamation point on that theory.
After a chaotic 70 minute delay, caused by the fleet of spectators who parked on the field and took an age to change, Peter Burling’s Emirates Team New Zealand firmly seized the trophy, and the first place in the standings for the Christmas Cup on Sunday. with a revenge on the American Magic of the New York Yacht Club in the second race of the day.
It had been tight in the first two stages, in light conditions on Course C in the Hauraki Gulf, with Dean Barker’s Patriot boat exploding out the gate at a lead, by 12 seconds at the first upwind mark and just 3 seconds. at the second door.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
The New Zealand team snatched him after American Magic made a mistake on Day 3 of the America’s Cup world series in Auckland.
Remember, the Americans had inflicted the New Zealand team’s only defeat in this race on Thursday when they defeated the Kiwis by 12 seconds in a brilliant race victory.
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But Saturday’s second matchup turned around in the third half upwind when Burling elbowed Te Rehutai’s nose in the front halfway, then ran away when American Magic made a real mess coming in through the middle. third door and they met, in a heartbeat, 54 seconds ago.
That was pretty much what thereafter, as Burling handled their AC75 foiling monocoque excellently up front as they held their lead comfortably through the remaining three stages, winning by a final margin of 1 minute 19 seconds.
The victory improved the NZ team to 4-1 for the competition and dropped the Americans back to 3-2, the same mark as Luna Rossa, who achieved a landslide victory over the British in the opening race of the day.
TVNZ
Luna Rossa sails to a major victory against a crisis-stricken British boat in the delayed opening race of the America’s Cup World Series on Saturday.
Spithill, the two-time Copa América winner and co-helmsman in the Italian inning, put the ball firmly in the defender’s court on Friday night when he declared: “The Kiwis are a big step ahead of the rivals. Whoever comes out of this challenging group has a huge gap to bridge right now and we are seeing it in the water. “
And the final day of Saturday of this world series did little to dispel that vision, with Team NZ maintaining clear speed advantages both upwind and downhill over Barker’s boat, and achieving a top speed of 38.64 knots in comparison. with 37.05 for Americans.
In the opening race of the day, Sir Ben Ainslie’s troubles with INEOS Team UK continued as they were quickly spit on the rear of a one-sided showdown with Luna Rossa that ended the Italians in a competition of their own.
The British fell more than 200 meters behind in the first of the five stages, but experienced serious problems in the second, upwind as they slowed down and found themselves 2min 19sec behind the fugitive Italians at the second gate.
Things went from bad to worse thereafter as the UK team struggled to stay on their foils in the light conditions (between 8-10 knots) and Luna Rossa’s lead was extended to a full stretch of the travel.
Results of the last day of the Copa América world series:
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli bt INEOS Team UK DNF
Emirates Team NZ bt New York YC American Magic for 1 minute 19 seconds
