Peter Burling’s Emirates Team New Zealand squad has earned a rematch
against ORACLE TEAM USA for the 35th America’s Cup with a convincing
victory over Artemis Racing in the final match of the Louis Vuitton
America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs. It was a nerve-wracking afternoon for the New Zealand team and its
fans. With their team on match point, the first attempt at sailing race
seven was abandoned after the wind died with Emirates Team New Zealand
holding the lead. But in the second attempt at racing, Burling won the start over his
counterpart on Artemis Racing, Nathan Outteridge, and led into mark one
for the first time in the series.
From there, the Kiwis showed blazing speed, extending around the race
course for what appeared to be an easy race win, a 5-2 victory in the
series, and a date in the America’s Cup against ORACLE TEAM USA.
In 2013, in San Francisco, ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill
led his team to one of the greatest comebacks in sport, racing back
from a 1-8 deficit to win 9-8 over Emirates Team New Zealand. But Peter Burling wasn’t on that team. In fact, the only holdover on
the Kiwi starting crew is wing trimmer and skipper Glenn Ashby. The 2017
Emirates Team New Zealand doesn’t appear to be scarred from that
experience.
“I think the lessons we learned out of San Francisco has made us
stronger going forwards,” Ashby said at the post-race press conference.
“The team has been re-built from the ground up and what has been created
is a stronger unit than we’ve ever seen before. The motivation going
forwards is certainly there.”
“We feel like we’re in great shape to take on (ORACLE TEAM USA) now,”
Burling said from on board just after crossing the finishing line.
“Artemis Racing has been an amazing opponent. They’ve pushed us
incredibly hard… they've put us in good shape for the Cup.”
After racing, the inaugural Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger
Playoffs Trophy was presented to Emirates Team New Zealand by Grant
Gibbons, Bermuda’s Minister of Economic Development at a prize-giving
ceremony in the America’s Cup Village. The America’s Cup Match, presented by Louis Vuitton, starts on June 17.
Race Report -- Race Seven:
The re-sail of Race Seven started in a 6 to 8 knot southerly, and
the pre-start featured both boats heading to the line on timed runs.
Peter Burling’s Emirates Team New Zealand had a strong leeward position
off the starting line and held Nathan Outteridge up above the line to
mark one, to lead around for the first time in the series. With the
Kiwis extending on the short run to the bottom gate, Artemis Racing was
soon 19-seconds back, early in the race, facing a New Zealand team that
always appeared to be sailing faster. By the windward gate, the wind had shifted to the right, making
passing lanes hard to find. But by that stage, Artemis Racing was a full
35-seconds behind. At the end, the delta was nearly a minute.
Race Report -- Race Seven – ABANDONED – to be re-sailed:
The first attempt at sailing race seven was abandoned on the second run, when the time limit expired due to a dying breeze.
Quotes of the day:
Iain Percy, on who is going to win the America’s Cup:
“We don’t know. That’s the beauty of this competition. Honestly, when
we started today we didn’t know who was going to win it… It’s blown me
away, the racing, doing it. And part of that excitement is because you
never know who is going to win, even in the race. Anything can happen.
And because of that we can’t tell you who is going to win this thing.
But I can tell you it will be the most entertaining sporting contest of
2017.”
Iain Percy, Artemis Racing, on what advice he would give to ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand:
“You can’t assume anything. Anything can happen on the day. It will
come down to sailing. There won’t be enough speed difference for one
team to win without sailing well… Each individual’s performance on the
water will define the result ultimately. It’s so complex it’s about
detail and attention to detail.”
Nathan Outteridge, Artemis Racing, reflecting on having sailed his last race:
“We can be really proud of the way we raced. We’ve had some really
close matches and we left everything out there on the water, we pushed
hard in every race… We thoroughly enjoyed the competition. I’m very
proud of the team – they’ve put in so much effort over the years and it
was nice to reward them by getting to the final.
Peter Burling, Emirates Team New Zealand, on handling the pressure as the youngest helmsman in the fleet:
“I think it is full credit to our team. We have a great bunch of guys,
around, from management throughout to the coaches, who can guide us
through… We’re just really excited about the challenge ahead. We’ve been
pushed really hard in the past couple of weeks and we’ll take it easy
for a day but we’re a lot stronger for it heading into the Match.”
Glenn Ashby, Emirates Team New Zealand, on being battle-hardened through the competition against Artemis Racing:
“Having not done a lot of racing against any other AC50s, the battle we
had against Artemis Racing the past few days has certainly been very,
very valuable for us. Hats off to those guys for how they sailed. They
put together an amazing campaign and who ever made it through this was
going to be stronger because of that. They gave us a couple of good
sailing lessons and there’s no doubt we’re a stronger team because of
it.
(www.americascup.com)
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