Cup Spy America's Cup Match: Day 6 Kiwis win the Battle of ...

Cup Spy - America's Cup Match: Day 6 - Kiwis win the Battle of Barcelona

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 20 Oct 01:54 AEDT 19 October 2024

Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has successfully defended the America's Cup in the 37th Match sailed off Barcelona.

They defeated the Challenger, INEOS Britannia representing the Royal Yacht Squadron, after leading around all marks.

Earlier in the day racing was thought to be unlikely and the start was delayed waiting for the wind to settle in strength and fill in from the south.

After a delay in the start-time of 30minutes the race got underway in an 8.3kt breeze.

INEOS Britannia did the best of the start, getting away towards the port boundary, while the Kiwis tacked towards the starboard boundary, where they picked up a favourable shift and an increase in pressure. INEOS Britannia had to duck the Kiwis at the first cross, continuing out to the the starboard boundary, where they initially made good gains over the Kiwis with a virtual lead of 30 metres. However when they came back hit a 10° header, and in just over 30secs their 30 metre lead reversed out to a 100 metre deficit.

INEOS sailed right into the port boundary, with the confident kiwis letting them go without event the pretense of a cover, and the virtual lead ballooned out to over 260metres after just minutes of sailing in in the 7-8kt breeze.

Towards the end of the first leg, the Brits did make a small recovery, but by then ETNZ were just positioning themselves for the mark rounding, while INEOS was on a lift behind them. Emirates Team NZ rounded Mark 1 about 200 metres ahead, and normally that would have been the end of the race.

About halfway up leg 3 it appeared that the procession had started, but the Brits latched onto a nice almost 10° shift sailing towards the starboard layline - which the Kiwis missed even though they were on the same tack, but upwind.

A short tacking duel ensued and the Brits seemed to have got ETNZ out of phase with the shifting breeze, and got their virtual lead down to less than a couple of boat-lengths. That reduced to near nothing at Mark 3, but the Kiwis had the pick of the sides for Leg 4 and the Port side got them back to 100 metres or so in front, upwind and with the faster point of sailing downwind, Emirates Team NZ ran out to a 400 metres lead, and went on to successfully defend the America's Cup for the third time or a three-peat. It was the fifth win for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and a three-peat of Cup Defences.

What proved to be the final race in the 37th America's Cup was one of the best of the series, and it was good to see INEOS Britannia go out on a high note, having so close to effecting a lead change mid-race.

The cycle for setting up the next Cup is expected to have already started. with the usual procedure with a Letter of Challenge being handed over to a representative of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at the moment the final race in the current Match finishes. The Royal Yacht Squadron confirmed after today's race that they had given the RNZYS a Challenge and it that it had been accepted. Sir Jim Ratcliffe confirmed that he was keen to back INEOS Challenge again. In an interview he said he was pleased with the teams performance in winning the Louis Vuitton Cup, and several other historic achievements along the way.

Details of the Protocol and timing of the 38th America's Cup will be announced after the name of the next Challenger of Record. Under the existing Protocol, the signatory teams were required to give an undertaking to continue with the AC75, although some changes are expected to be made.

Speaking after the racing concluded INEOS Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie said the 10yr old team would continue. He made no commitment as to whether the 48yr old would remain in a sailing capacity, or switch to a role similar to Grant Dalton with Emirates Team NZ.

Discussions will obviously take place as to the venue of the next America's Cup Defence, with the pressure expected to go onto the team for a home Defence.

Full Replay America's Cup Day 6, Races 9

Full Replay America's Cup Prizegiving

Race Summaries and Mark Roundings:

Race 9: INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Port Startbox entry) vs Emirates Team New Zealand (Starboard Startbox Entry) vs Start: 14:10hrs CET

INEOS Britannia won the start. Both had M1 mains and J1 jibs.

Start: GBR won the start. NZL immediately tacked for the starboard boundary, and got two shifts to work out to a 200mtre lead Mark 1: 04m 54sec NZL led GBR margin 19secs - NZL out to 375metre lead on Leg 2 Mark 2: 09m 09sec NZL led GBR margin 22secs GBR went to starboard boundary. Margin 240metres.Brits got two good shifts and cut margin to 130metres on the cross. Brits tacked back to right. Live wind 11.4kts. Tacking duel. ETNZ forced to tack underneath GBR. Lead down to 20, metres Mark 3: 14m 59sec dead heat at Mark. GBR took starboard side, NZL port. Lead out to 170metres and got some more pressure. Margin down to 100 metres Mark 4: 18m 27sec NZL led GBR margin 12secs NZL took starboard side. Covered GBR and forced back to Port side. NZL covered and GBR tacked back onto Port. NZL 180m ahed as both came into Mark 5 on port. Mark 5: 23m 30sec NZL led GBR margin 17secs ran out to a margin of 400metres on final leg. NZL had better VMG Finish: 24m 49sec NZL led GBR margin 37secs

Boat Performance Data To be added

Race 9 - Boat speed To be added

Race 9: Wind Speed To be added

Virtual Eye

After the racing you can replay the key points, or the whole race using Virtual Eye from ARL This is the tool that Inside Tack are using to demonstrate various points - using the actual tracks of the AC75s.

You can go directly to the Virtual Eye America's Cup coverage by clicking here and click on "Watch Previous" then select the race you wish to view. Virtual Eye is a 3D viewer so you can zoom in, out, around and up and down just like you could in a helicopter.

INEOS Britannia Dockwalk To be added

Crew Lists To be added

Onboard video To be added

Race 9: To be added

Inside Tack: To be added

Additional Images: To be added