America's Cup - Peter Lester blames the Big Fella for ETNZ Pitchpole
by John Curnow on 7 Jun 2017
Emirates Team New Zealand sailing on Bermuda's Great Sound in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs Semi-Finals
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) vs. Land Rover BAR (GBR) Race 4
Copyright: Richard Hodder / Emirates Team New Zealand Richard Hodder/Emirates Team New Zealand
Kiwi Peter Lester has virtually stated that the ETNZ pitchpole was an Oracle conspiracy. Yet the in a piece on newshub by Jacob Brown does not take into account that the teams had agreed to race in up to 24 knots, and Race Director, Iain Murray (known in his native Australia as The Big Fella), did exactly what they asked for. There is no blame, it was a racing incident. The Land Rover BAR move was clever, and somewhat courageous after their own earlier mishaps.
Sir Ben Ainslie pushed ETNZ high enough to make the bear away very difficult, and you can see in the earlier videos how quickly they took off and opened up a gap immediately, which is crucial to winning at these speeds. To read the interview with Peter Lester, please go
here
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