An amazing Day 10 of the Americas Cup final has just wrapped up with Mother Nature deciding she hadn’t seen enough racing action yet.
The first race of the day was sailed in the lightest conditions of the final series, with Oracle winning the start and taking a lead into mark 1. Team NZ made the better of the conditions downwind however and established a commanding lead looking dominant and certain to take out the final race they needed to wrap up the 34th Americas Cup. With Team NZ heading into the final reaching leg to the finish line the 40 minute race time limit expired, giving Oracle the chance to fight on.
Race 2 was sailed in slightly stronger breeze, and saw a total reversal of race 1. This time Team NZ took the lead only only to have Oracle Team Australia (sorry … Team USA) take control and go on to finish the race and win comfortably in an amzing come back for the day. Gotta love light air racing …. it’s never over until it’s over and Mother Nature really is the boss!
The series score now stands at Team NZ 8 wins to Oracle’s 5 wins, meaning Team NZ still just need 1 more win to wrap up the 34th Americas Cup. Due to their 2 point penalty Oracle still need to win another 6 races for an unlikely come from behind victory, but with the 2 boats and crews so evenly matched, anything is possible.
So it was a frustrating day at the office for Adam Beashel and Team NZ, but for most of us sailing fans it just means that the awesome Americas cup spectical goes on for another day. Spare a thought for Adam though after having a seemingly certain win and America’s Cup victory snatched away (just temporarily we hope) by the clock.
Tomorrow’s another day though, so don’t miss any of the action on Foxtel or You Tube from 6am.
Send your message of support to Adam by emailing him directly at adam.beashel@slmasc.org and make sure that you’re watching tomorrow as he and Team NZ seek to make Sailing history.
Smoother sailing tomorrow Adam,
Team SLMASC
