In another day of high tension in San Francisco, Oracle Team Not USA won the first race after causing Team NZ to incur a double penalty at the start, giving Oracle a massive jump which they didn’t surrender for the rest of the race. That result took the number of race wins to Oracle 9 and Team NZ 8, but the series score to Team NZ 8 Oracle 7 after deducting Oracles 2 race scoring penalty. Who would have thought a week ago when Team NZ’s lead was 8-1 that such a close finish was possible!
In Race 2 of the day, Team NZ had the favoured port entry at the start and did a great job to win the start and lead at the first 2 marks, but Oracle then fought back in a tactical battle, broke through and then took total control upwind and marched away for the most unlikely of wins when you recall where the series stood just a week ago.
So now after more than 2 weeks of head to racing, the official scoreboard stands at 8 points all, taking us to match point for both teams with the next race being the ultimate decider with the winner taking all in the 34th Americas Cup …. reminicent of that day 30 years ago (yesterday actually) when Australia II won in an ultimate decider to win the 1983 Americas’ Cup.
The two boats are evenly matched and while Oracle have all the momentum at the moment, Team NZ with Adam Beashel aboard have the speed to finish the job and they get another chance to make sailing history tomorrow. Send Adam and Team NZ your message of support by emailing Adam at adam.beashel@slmasc.org .
Smooth Sailing Adam and Team NZ ….. bring it on home!
Team SLMASC
