NZL 92 from behind to beat SUI 100- America's Cup

by Warren Douglas on 25 Jun 2007
NZL 92 came from behind today to snatch the lead on a thrilling race two of the America’s Cup match.

Alinghi had led almost from the start. But Dean Barker and the crew held their nerve, minimised their losses and waited for their moment.

It was an impressive performance. Grant Dalton: 'We held our nerve. We waited. We had to be patient. The boys sailed smart … and it paid off. Alinghi made one mistake and we capitalised on it.'

'We took 28 seconds out of them on the second beat. We were 13 seconds adrift at the leeward mark and we were 15 seconds ahead at the second windward mark. That doesn’t happen often in the America’s Cup.'

In fact the on-course commentators reminded their listeners that the last time there had not been a clean sweep in the America’s Cup match was in 1992.

The race today, started in conditions similar to the day before. Wind shifts and small increases in pressure were in control. Get the shift, or sail into an extra knot of breeze, would make all the difference.

Dean Barker aggressively controlled the start. NZL 92 had port entry but wanted the right on the course. Barker went deep into the starting box and crossed in front of SUI 100’s bow, wiping the disadvantage of the left.

He fought to keep the right and crossed the line 3 seconds ahead of the Swiss, starting a drag race on starboard tack and there was nothing in it for the first five minutes. When the shift came it was in the left, and SUI 100 surged ahead, and at the first cross was about three boat lengths ahead.

SUI 100 continued to the right, NZL 92 in the left. NZL 92 attacked time and again and closed the gap top less than a boat length at times. NZL 92 trailed SUI 100 by 19 seconds at the mark.

On the first run NZL 92 managed to hang on to SUI 100 and went on the offensive. The passing lane didn’t appear but NZL 92 closed he margin at the second mark to 13 seconds.

Alinghi chose the leeward gate, NZL 92 went round the windward mark. Initially NZL 92 made some further gains and at the first cross Alinghi was still ahead.

As the boats converged 2/3 of the way up the beat, Alinghi tacked on top of NZL 92, expecting NZL 92 to tack away. But tactician Terry Hutchinson called for NZL 92, sailing high, to hold her course and metre by metre the Kiwis climbed over Alinghi as the yachts approached the right-hand lay line and took the lead.

With both yachts over the lay line, NZL were able to lead all the way to the top mark and rounded with a 15-second margin.

On the run to the finish NZL 92 extended further when Alinghi gybed away. SUI 100 gybed back but the race was lost, NZL 92 crossing the line 28 second ahead.

Tony Rae, runner, said after the finish: 'We just had to be patient. The guys in the back did a great job of keeping it close and looking for opportunities on the second beat.

'Alinghi tacked underneath us and maybe they thought we weren’t going to live there. The guys trimming did a nice job of building speed coming into that one and we manage to climb off them and live there long enough to get over to the lay line.

'As you can see there’s not a lot between the boats, upwind or downwind. Most of the speed differences come in either pressure or shifts. They made a huge gain at one point downwind yesterday.

'But no boat goes that much quicker in that shorter time, otherwise we wouldn’t have a race. It’s all about shifts and pressure and who makes the best job of them.'

TODAY’S SAILING TEAM
Skipper - Dean Barker
Tactician - Terry Hutchinson
Navigator - Kevin Hall
Strategist - Ray Davies
Traveller – Adam Beashel
Mainsail trimmer - Don Cowie
Trimmer upwind - Grant Loretz
Trimmer downwind – James Dagg
Main grinder - Chris Ward
Grinder – Rob Waddell
Grinder - Jono Macbeth
Pit - Barry McKay
Runner/pit - Tony Rae
Mast - Matt Mason
Floater - Grant Dalton
Mid-Bow – Richard Meacham
Bow - Jeremy Lomas

QUOTES:

Tactician Terry Hutchinson

In the pre-start Dean did really nice work and we got exactly the start that we wanted. But as we saw yesterday after the start, the wind stayed in the left a bit longer than we would have hoped and they were ahead at the first cross.

So after that we just kept the race close, sailed some shifts and tried to take advantage of everything Alinghi gave us.

On the first run we picked some nice places to gybe and they didn’t really get away from us. On the run into the bottom, we gybed in a tough position for Alinghi and then they gave us the right gate when we had the left gate favoured by about 10 degrees.

Further up the leg we were coming at them on port. They tacked about a length to leeward of our sailing line and we were able to pin them there out to the layline.

The boat was going well but we did not lose concentration at any point in the race.

We know the chances are that the boat in the lead at the first cross will win. Yesterday we sailed a really good race, but we didn’t win because the breaks went Alinghi’s way. Today one came to us and we took advantage of it.

Ray Davies

It’s been huge for the team to get a win on the board in the America’s Cup. It has been a long time coming for Emirates Team New Zealand.

It’s huge for the confidence of the team to come from behind. There’s nothing worse than to go into a day off on a loss because the best way to recover from a loss is to get back out there and redeem yourself.

It was a pretty tricky day out there today. It wasn’t one of those days where the right just got stronger and stronger. There were some big shifts with gains on both sides. It was more about staying in phase.

It was good for us that it was so shifty. The turning point was when we got the biggest left hand shift we’d seen all day and it was right when we needed it.

We were more than happy with where we started. Dean did a good job of starting with pace and heaps of separation. Normally you’d be able to last a long time with that sort of range. We were a bit surprised that we were spat off there and that Alinghi made more of a gain on the left.

Trimmer Don Cowie

As we said yesterday there are two very even boats out there. We didn’t learn a whole lot more today.

It’s like racing a one-design. We thought we were competitive yesterday and we proved it today. We know it’s going to be a tight boat race.