Cupdate: New Zealand Takes Early Lead
It’s starting to look a little familiar: Team Emirates New Zealand is walking away from Oracle Team USA, and seems to be in a league of its own, taking a 3-0 lead after winning the first four races handily (remember that the Kiwis started with a negative 1. We don’t get it either).
But while the 2013 Cup in San Francisco saw Team New Zealand pounce all over the Americans early in the regatta, something looks different this year in Bermuda. New Zealand looks untouchable. We’re not making any predictions, and only a fool would say that Oracle, the comeback kids, are out of it. We’re just saying that the Kiwis are looking very, very fast.
Race 1 on Saturday saw some of the lightest conditions of the regatta. Oracle took a penalty for being over early and never really recovered. Race 2 saw Team New Zealand take a huge lead but run into some light air on one of the middle legs. Before even the announcers knew what was going on, Oracle came back from a 400-meter deficit and was right behind the Kiwis at a windward gate.
Following Team New Zealand, Oracle went to jibe, and absolutely parked their boat, losing every bit of speed and taking almost 10 seconds to get back onto their foils, while the Kiwis were at full speed. Race over.
On Sunday, Race 3 saw Team USA get a slightly better start but slowly fade, fade away through the course of the race. In the pre-start of Race 4, New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling stalled the boat as Jimmy Spithill was at full speed and seemed to be going in for the kill.
Commentators Nathan Outterridge (skipper of Artemis Racing) and Chris Draper (Team Japan) assumed Spithill would go for a ‘hook’, or get to leeward of Burling, luff him up, and push him away from the line. But Oracle took a more neutral position, was more or less even with the Kiwis at the start, and once again faded throughout the race, losing by over a minute.
Racing resumes next weekend, giving Oracle a chance to tweak their boat and find a way to claw their way back into the regatta.
Meanwhile, the J Class Regatta started with a bang. Ron Young of the St. Francis Yacht Club was sailing aboard Tom Siebel’s recently launched Svea, when he called in with this report:
"Great start, we were on starboard headed to second weather mark, a quarter mile away, when the top of the headstay broke at the mast. We dropped the sails and are heading in now."
We wish the J a speedy recovery and hope she’s back on the course soon.