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New Zealand Takes New York

A bird’s-eye view of Team France, racing on Sunday in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series.

© 2016 Ricardo Pinto / ACEA

New York offered up a little bit of everything for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series over the weekend. Breeze reportedly ranged from nothing to 20 knots and shifted in a wide arc between west and north; the tricky, powerful, south-flowing Hudson River current was a game changer. "It was one of those series where everyone had good luck and bad luck, but we got our good luck at the end of the regatta," said Emirates Team New Zealand’s Aussie skipper Glenn Ashby. "It was exciting and crazy at the same time."

The current overpowered the breeze on Saturday, and the only race completed was a late ‘substitute race’, the score of which would only count if Sunday’s conditions prevented racing. (Team SoftBank Japan, skippered by Kiwi Dean Barker, won.) As it turned out, Sunday was the better day and the substitute race wasn’t needed.

Having hooked the startline buoy’s anchor rode, the ETNZ crew was literally dead in the water at the start of Race 3 on Sunday. Trimmer Blair Tuke jumped into the water to unhook the line from the AC45F’s rudder. The buoy punctured the cat’s port hull, and water was leaking in throughout the race. "We saw the buoy coming at us with about 20 seconds to go," said Ashby. "It wasn’t ideal, but we were lucky in the end."

The Kiwi team rounded the last windward mark fifth out of six teams, about 42 seconds behind leading SoftBank Team Japan. But as all the crews began the downwind leg they sailed into a patch of no wind that engulfed the course. The leg was perpendicular to the current, and Land Rover BAR, Groupama Team France and SoftBank Team Japan were penalized when they were swept over the course boundary. The Kiwis, farther back, held in the middle of the course; when the wind filled in they took off foiling at 16-20 knots of boatspeed, leaving the rest of the fleet gasping in disbelief.

The victorious Kiwis celebrate their victory in NYC. They top the ACWS leaderboard, eight points ahead of second-place Oracle Team USA.

© Sam Greenfield / Oracle Team USA

As one might expect from the biggest city in the country, crowds turned out in massive numbers, reaching an estimated 100,000 on Sunday. "The crowd was insane," said Jimmy Spithill, skipper of second-place Oracle Team USA. "Today was great for the fans."

This is not your father’s Manhattan skyline.

© Sam Greenfield / Oracle Team USA

See www.americascup.com for much more, and if you missed seeing the action this weekend, you watch the highlights on NBC at 11 a.m. PDT on Saturday, May 21.

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