America's Cup - Defender wins their first race in 35th Match

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com/nz on 24 Jun 2017 Oracle Team USA got on the scoreboard for their Defence of the America's Cup taking their first win in six races, by an 11-second margin over the Challenger Emirates Team New Zealand in the second race of the day.

It was the narrowest margin of the series to date.

The wind confounded the official forecast clocking in at over 11kts average before the start of the first race and gusting to over 12kts.

On the water, it was a funky breeze with distinct and obvious puffs and substantial increases in pressure moving down the course. The pressure increase in the puffs was not apparent on TV, but could be account for in the marked disparity in boatspeed between the boats at times particularly upwind.

Neither team applied a cover on their opponent, preferring to use the full width of the course and chase windshifts and pressure.

Oracle Team USA came off their foils twice in Race 5 with the AC50 coming to a near stop - which in foiling wingsailed catamaran-speak a speed of about 9kts on one and 7kts on two occasions.

Oracle were over the line at the start and were penalised, dropping back behind Emirates Team NZ at Mark 1, and then picked up a penalty for a port and starboard infringement during a dial-down on the next leg. A call that Oracle Team USA skipper, Jimmy Spithill thought was unfair, and just one of a number of soft decisions which he felt always had gone the New Zealander's way over this series.

OTUSA dropped 22 seconds on the leg and then watched as the Kiwis just extended for the remainder of the race, going on to win by over two minutes, a margin flattered by the two bad gybes from OTUSA.

Oracle Team USA wins Race 6
The second race was a complete antithesis of the first, with Jimmy Spithill winning his first of the six races sailed with Emirates Team New Zealand trailing by five seconds around the bottom mark for the first time.

Oracle Team USA showed their upwind prowess for the first time to lead by 12 seconds at the top mark for the first time, coming out of the top left hand corner.

However the New Zealanders were able to turn the tables on the closing stage of the run, picking up a favourable shift and increase in pressure to roll over the top of the Defender - and also sailing lower to compound the gain.

Oracle looked soggy in the gybe for the Mark 4, almost touching down twice and suffered a speed drop as the Kiwis roared through to weather in a puff, at almost 30kts rounding the mark with a 6 second advantage.

On the next upwind, for the first time in the regatta, Oracle Team USA took it to the New Zealanders taking time out of them, and rounding the windward mark near even in terms of time, but with Oracle had a clear advantage in boatspeed as the Kiwis slowed to 18kts to get around the mark.

The Kiwis gave Oracle an easy ride up the beat by not putting a tighter cover on them and using their cycle power advantage to wear down Oracle's grinders, as they had done with Artemis Racing, in similar situations, in the Challenger Final.

The Kiwis compounded their woes by taking a long time to get back to target speed as they sailed through the softer breeze in the right hand corner of the course. Officially the margin was given to Oracle by just 1 second, but Oracle quickly stretched the margin to 200 metres, soon after rounding the mark.

On the final downwind leg Oracle Team USA punished the Kiwis, or if you listen to the New Zealanders - they punished themselves -dropping 19 seconds on the leg, most of it at the rounding of Mark 5. The margin at Mark 6 was reduced to 11 seconds at the finish.

This was the strongest wind day of the three days sailed in the Match to date, with the wind peaking at 12.9kts, when on the previous two days the wind had been mostly in single figures.

'We had some really good tight battles today,' said Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Glenn Ashby. 'As far as the sailing side went it was fantastic racing.'

'Oracle sailed a good race in the second and we sailed a good one in the first.'

'It was a really puffy and shifty breeze, we were a bit unlucky not to get the shift and slip away at the to mark for the final rounding and get the point.'

Ashby said it was a close call at the top mark for the final time. Emirates Team NZ knew that it was going to be close, but felt they were going to get penalised if they tried to cross in front of Oracle.

'Unfortunately the breeze wasn't quite with us at the top end of the course today.'

'It was a heads out of the boat type of yachting today. It's a puffy tricky venue - sometimes it goes with you and sometimes against.'

'It was pleasing day all round. We got a few wobbly ones that didn't quite go our way. If you are not dialed in and are just on the wrong side of it you can cough up a lot of distance', he added.

Questioned as to whether he thought Oracle were sailing faster, Ashby said he didn't think they were. 'It is hard to tell, I didn't think they were sailing all that well last weekend, but their boat was going just fine. Today they were sailing better. To be honest I don't think their performance was better from Day 1, they just sailed better today.'

Peter Burling said they were very happy with the foil package they had in Emirates Team New Zealand today. He echoed Ashby's sentiments that he felt Oracle Team USA were sailing slower last week than they should be.

'We made a lot of mistakes today. We can't hide that. We are really happy we battled the way we did in the first race to take a win there. It was a bit of a shame to throw away the last one halfway up the last beat. They gave us a pretty good opportunity.'

'It just shows that in this breeze these boats are hard to sail really well and it is also hard to get all the decisions correct. We have definitely got plenty to tidy up overnight', Burling added.

The changes in Oracle Team USA appeared to be aimed at getting weight out of the boat - with the 'BMX' being removed from behind skipper Jimmy Spithill. The trade-off for the shift away from the so-called 'hybrid' grinding system is that there is likely to be less 'oil' or hydraulic pressure, which could account for Oracle Team USA's two 'boat-stopping' gybes in Race 5, and the near touch-downs in Race 6 - where the boat-speed dropped and allowed Emirates Team NZ through.

The weight tolerance in the AC50's is only 100kg, so at best all Oracle could do is move from the upper end of the allowed range to the lower end.

Where the Kiwis sailed badly was in not positioning themselves to get the shift and pressure that was in the top left hand corner of the course in Race 6.

There were two dial-downs on Leg 5 of Race 6, where the two boats came together on port and starboard intersections. Under the match racing interpretations the right of way starboard boat is allowed to alter course to come down to just above a reach (ie less than 90 degrees to the wind), which Burling did when he came through on starboard. Spithill claimed he was continuing to alter his course to 'hunt' the port tack yacht but the umpires didn't agree. Spithill returned the favour when it was his turn to come back on starboard.

The difference was that Spithill judged his line better going into Mark 5, rounding with speed, while Burling had to jam his boat to make the other gate, dropping speed back to 18kts and then sailing into an area of less pressure, leaving Spithill to race away to a very defensible lead, and win the race.

Two races are expected to be sailed tomorrow, Sunday, in similar conditions to those experienced today.

Although Emirates Team New Zealand have won five of the six races sailed the official score sits at 4-1 in favour of the Challenger.

(Winning margins to date - Race 1, ETNZ by 30 secs; Race 2, ETNZ by 87 secs; Race 3 - ETNZ by 48 secs; Race 4 ETNZ by 71 secs; Race 5 ETNZ by 124 secs; Race 6 OTUSA by 11 secs).