Emirates Team New Zealand win the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup
by Mark Jardine 19 Oct 2024 06:31 PDT
18 October 2024
Emirates Team New Zealand win the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup Barcelona © America's Cup
Saturday had a feel of being a 'final', with fans expecting a result after the dominance shown by Emirates Team New Zealand on Friday.
After a 40 minute delay waiting for the wind to come in, it was crunch time.
Race 9: Emirates Team New Zealand vs. INEOS Britannia
In the pre-start both teams headed towards the right boundary, with INEOS Britannia gybing inside Emirates Team New Zealand, leading to both taking a pair of tacks, then mirroring each other's moves to start near the committee boat end, with the Brits slightly to leeward and holding a slight early advantage.
The Kiwis tacked away, and at the first cross INEOS Britannia had to duck Emirates Team New Zealand as they headed to the right hand side of the course area.
Both teams seemed relatively even on starboard, but when the Kiwis tacked across they cleared by 100 metres, and seemed to find all the shifts while also sailing considerably faster.
At the first windward gate Emirates Team New Zealand led by 19 seconds.
Even the commentators sounded subdued on the first downwind leg as the Kiwis extended continually, gliding at 36 knots in just 8 knots of wind.
By the first leeward gate the lead extended to 22 seconds.
INEOS Britannia made nice gains on the second upwind leg, using the stronger pressure on the right hand side, with Emirates Team New Zealand forced to tack directly on top of the Brits, forcing them into a tack to the right boundary, and at the next boundary the Kiwis had to tack just to leeward.
The gap was down to just 14 metres, with both boats above the lay line for the second windward gate. At the rounding there was nothing to separate them, with the Kiwis choosing the left buoy and the Brits choosing the right.
Emirates Team New Zealand though flew downwind, pulling out a 200 metre lead in more pressure early on, which translated to a 12 second lead at the second leeward gate. The boats chose different buoys to round with the Brits once again coming back into the game.
As Emirates Team New Zealand coach Ray Davies said, "They're not letting us get away with this easily here. It's all on."
This time the Kiwis chose to keep a cover on the Brits, with any complacency wiped away on the second upwind leg. At the final windward gate the lead was 17 seconds.
The final downwind leg was a formality, with the calm pairing of Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge extending to over 500 metres and becoming the first team in modern history to lift the America's Cup three times in a row.
Peter Burling said after the finish, "Amazing feeling, it's been a tough event all week, but amazing scoreline and really proud of the way the team kept battling today. This team has obviously got a few bad memories from before my time sitting on match point, so to get it done today, what an awesome day. Barcelona's been absolutely amazing, what an amazing feeling."
Nathan Outteridge added, "It's pretty special. With this group of people, and being involved in this team has been a huge journey, and I've loved every minute of it. It was great to close it out today. It's been a big dream for a long time, and it's so awesome to be here with everyone and achieve it. Looking forward to the celebrations tonight!"
Ben Ainslie said "Firstly I've got to say a huge well done to Emirates Team New Zealand. What an amazing campaign and team, and in my view I think they're the best team ever in the America's Cup, and that's quite some achievement. To our team I can't say enough thanks, for all the effort they've put in over the years to get us this far. It's been a hell of a road through this event to get to this finals, and we had our moments in the finals, but at the end of the day the better team won."
Dylan Fletcher added, "It's been absolutely incredible and the team have been amazing. I want to say a massive thank you to everyone in the team and all the supporters we've had out here, it's really been amazing seeing everyone willing us on, and it's certainly been making a difference. It's disappointing right now, but still a very successful campaign, and as Ben said, we'll come back stronger."