Editorial- Emirates Team NZ's magnificent exorcism

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 24 May 2007 Welcome to Sail-World.Com’s America’s Cup newsletter for Day 7 of the Semi-Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup

Today was the freshest day of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Well, on which racing has been staged, anyway.

For fans at home it was a day of nervous anticipation. The first pictures from Valencia prompted Peter Montgomery to quip that there were 'plenty of sheep in the paddock' in response to the proliferation of whitecaps off Valencia.

The scene bought back the dark memories of Race 4 in the 31st America’s Cup, where NZL-82 dropped her rig; and also Race 1, when the infamous blue bucket took centre stage.

For nervous Kiwi fans, it was a case of 'Oh ye of little faith' as NZL-92 charged through the pre-start, trapping Desafio Espanol, who looked more than a little uncomfortable in the 20knot breeze. Eventually, Dean Barker broke off and streaked for the startline jumping to a 14 second or 60metre advantage.

From there the home fans, dressed in pyjamas, rather than wet-weather gear, rode every wave with NZL-92. And as the race progressed, the nervous contemplation eased to one of admiration, for a crew that had obviously put in the hard work on the Hauraki Gulf and the European circuits.

The Spanish struggled to cope with the conditions, and could not settle into their work. Her cockpit half-flooded, ESP-97 staggered for much of the first leg, only settling down close to the first mark. By that stage the Whitbread experience aboard Emirates Team New Zealand was on full display, as the Kiwis played a safe conservative game under very difficult conditions.

In the last half of the race, the wind dropped back to 14-15 knots reducing the sea state and the Spanish looked to be more under control. However the Semi-Final at that stage was only Emirates Team New Zealand’s to lose. They finally cleaned out the Ghosts of 2003, when the red spinnaker of NZL-92, crossed the finish line just under 500metres in front.

The proud record of New Zealand participation in the America's Cup was maintained - having made the Louis Vuitton Final, or sailed in the match itself, for every America's Cup in the past 20 years.

This race was also the second time in the Semi-Finals when Emirates Team New Zealand has bounced back hard from a defeat, begging the question as to whether they do have a fifth gear, or are a different proposition when they feel they have their backs to the wall.

Today's race also put to bed the claims from Spanish coach Eddie Warden-Owen that ESP-97 was performing better up the wind range while NZL-92 had gone to the light.

Time will tell, as to whether Emirates Team New Zealand do have something special in the bag. As we mentioned before, their performance in both bounce-back races was consummate. Clearly they are a team who can perform when they have to. The comments from Terry Hutchinson quoted in Andy Rice’s story below on www.sailjuice.com are very telling.

Looking to the Finals, it will be interesting to see whether Emirates Team New Zealand have suffered through not having as much time as Luna Rossa, to check and re-mode; or, whether the close race and second loss to Desafio Espanol plus the heavy air work out yesterday, will prove more beneficial.

With now eight days left to the Finals, one would have thought that hard racing against strong competition would have been the better choice.

How the class act of Emirates Team New Zealand fares against the tactical brilliance of Luna Rossa is the great questions of sailing at present.

We’ll know the answer in about ten days time.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

PS This America’s Cup newsletter will be the last until the start of the Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup on the first day of June in Valencia.

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