America's Cup World Series - Super Sunday - A roll of the dice

by Land Rover Bar America's Cup on 9 May 2016 The spectators got the action they wanted from Super Sunday, but Land Rover BAR didn’t get the result that they hoped for as the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series New York produced some extraordinary fluky racing on the Hudson River.

The combination of strong tide and a wind curling and darting around the Manhattan skyline was always going to make it difficult, but no one expected the result to be determined in quite the fashion that it was; a boat being catapulted from dead last (after hooking up the starting mark) to a final race win by a series of implausible wind changes. It was a race win that gave Emirates Team New Zealand their second event victory and allowed them to maintain their overall series lead.

Land Rover BAR had to settle for fifth in that final race and fifth in the event – a disappointing result after a succession of brilliant starts demonstrated how the team has worked on the single area of weakness during their event win in Oman.

Thoughts on the day:

Ben Ainslie, Skipper and Team Principal: “It’s hard to describe racing in those conditions. It was fantastic to see so many people out supporting the event. It’s such a great city. The last two races, the guy in last place at the penultimate mark, won the race on the penultimate leg.

“So as competitors that’s tough to deal with, but that’s the game. We knew it would be like that going into this event, and you roll the dice and see which side of it you come out. Unfortunately it didn’t go well for us today, so the guys are frustrated. I think we sailed the boat really well, and did everything just about as good as we could, but it just didn’t fall our way.”

Ed Powys, Bow: “It was a tricky sailing day, it felt like we sailed the boat well, and we were in a good position on the last downwind which is what you need to do on those kind of days, but it didn’t quite come off for us. The Kiwis rounded in last and got a great gust and ended up winning the regatta. Over a short series like this in crazy conditions that can happen, but we’re trying to be philosophical about it. We feel like we sailed well and we’ll move onto the next one.

“This was my first ACWS and it was great fun out there, brilliant racing, tricky racing on that course, but it was great to be part of the team and we were in with a chance to win the regatta before the last race. Unfortunately, it didn’t come off this time, but we don’t feel like we let ourselves down with how we sailed, it was just how it panned out in the end.”

Overall results - Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series New York

1. Emirates Team New Zealand 52
2. Oracle Team USA 50
3. Groupama Team France 44
4. SoftBank Team Japan 42
5. Land Rover BAR 42

Overall Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series after five events

1. Emirates Team New Zealand 244
2. Oracle Team USA 236
3. Land Rover BAR 42227
4. SoftBank Team Japan 203
5. Artemis Racing 201
6. Groupama Team France 194