Americas Cup Final: Oracle vs Team New Zealand, Races 1 & 2 Replay

Image Gilles Martin Raget. Finally we had an Epic first race & New Zealand confirmed the omens. With even teams in terms of design & crew plus time on the water it was ‘Game On’ all the way. The first race was just the epitome of a Sailing & Match Racing. That’s it , you can´t ask for more. Trying to get a 1 second gap it is not recognizing that one team can better than the other.

With Monohulls, as Gino Morrelli clearly explained, Match Racing in the Americas Cup was a results of slow boats. Of course you had smaller gaps and seemingly closer racing, the same will happen with a turtle race, really exiting small gaps , but dead slow racing.
With Multis you have a broader speed range that boats can achieve, so gaps can be greater. But as seen today, when the two boats are performing in a similar range you can also get close racing as Monos did in the past, with the little added ingredient of speed & acceleration.

We all saw (not blinded Multi haters though) that with the AC45s MR racing in cats was viable & great fun. On a new extreme foiling Class like the AC72s , you will have design difference thus a minor chance of seeing even races.

New Zealand was my favorite, but today they raised the level, beyond handling and stable rides they were faster plus they sailed another perfect day. Although they don´t have margin for errors.
Oracle has some handicap but showed they can be a menace.

The problem were never Cats per se, but how each team designs & performs by their own merit. Americas Cup will never be One Design, and again…you can´t blame Team New Zealand for being such a perfection combo of Man & Machine power.

Any further discussion and analysis on Multis is over for the ages.
The Cup will go to New Zealand and I hope Dalton and his team can think twice before leaving Multis. Downgrade a little, going back to monos would be biggest error ever, more after today’s exhibition.

Regarding hard headed naysayers like VSail taking back criticism… is hilarious, poor people, now the problem is that “we need more boats”… and we agree, AC72 are too much. Like I said, a 45-60 can do the same job.
The big problem with this kind of characters is that Multihull sailing is too much… for them.

Full video Replay below

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New Zealand had a good start today, they beat Argentine Pumas 28-13 at the Rugby Championships…
Logic result , NZ dominated but it was not that easy for the Kiwis, only a foolish Arg error gave away a too close 5 (18-13) point gap that could have taken the match either side.

Today it could be all about errors too. New Zealand is the favorite, more now with a 2-0 handicap in their favor even before starting.
But through all these past two campaigns Oracle have shown they are not easy quitters, remember when they broke their mast on USA17 Tri and came back with a full Wing to take the Cup from Alinghi.
Then they rose like Phoenix when a hard pitch literally destroyed AC72 #1. In the AC45 circuit Spithill team were the boat to beat and displayed an incredible patience to recover from impossible positions in fleet and Match races. 

Team New Zealand should keep aiming to perfection to win this Cup.
Oracle sailors have a total grasp and even more hours sailing multis than New Zealand, if their designed AC72 can keep Spithill & crew pace, we will see an amazing Match…The most anticipated and awaited sailing race Ever in Sailing history.