In a sailing spectical not seen since Australia II’s victory in 1983, Oracle ‘Team Not USA’ has just completed the greatest comeback in sailing, and possibly sporting history, to win the final race and take the 34th America’s Cup.

Team NZ took the fight to Oracle with a small lead at the first 2 marks, but again Oracles newly found upwind speed was the deciding factor and allowed Oracle to take the lead and control of the rest of the race. Oracle went on to win comfortably and take a 9 to 8 point win in the final of the 34th Americas Cup.

The turn around in this regatta has been nothing short of stunning, and no doubt there will be plenty of analysis after the event as the reasons for this. Perhaps it was best summed up by Jimmy Spitall after the race when he said “on your own your nothing, but with a team like this around you, you can look great” … it really was a great team effort. Credit has to go to Oracle (including all the Aussies aboard …. no Americans?) who came back from the brink, but spare a thought for the massive dissapointment that is being felt by Adam Beashel, Team NZ, and Kiwi’s everywhere. They should be very proud of their acheivements however, especially given that they had races called off when they were clearly in the lead earlier in the series … how different things could have been but for the ‘IF’s’ of sailing. So near yet so far.

Well done Adam …. an awesome effort.

As we said in an email to Adam at the start of the series, he and Team NZ were already winners and Team SLMASC is very proud of your acheivements.

Enjoy the after party regardless. You deserve it as a series like that was only possible with 2 awesome competitors. We look forward to seeing you fit some foils to your yacht for Friday twilights when you come home 😉

Smooth Sailing and have a safe trip back.

Team SLMASC

The waters of San Francisco may be at boiling point this week, but the heat will be on in Sunshine bay too this Saturday with the start of our own ‘Little Americas Cup’ series.

Just a reminder that the first of the joint SLMASC / MPASC double header yacht race days will be held this SATURDAY at SLMASC. This will see 2 back to back short races using the course and the club yellow inflatable marks as outlined in Appendix A of the SLMASC Sailing Instructions (so make sure you have the latest SLMACS SI’s with you, and even more importantly, make sure that you have read them ;-). The first race is designed to be about half the length of the second race to minimise the delay between races while all boats finish.

Note that both of these races are Water Based Scratch starts, with the warning signal for the first race to be given at approximately 1410 hours (for a 1415 hours start). All yachts will start at the same time as one division using the SLMASC club flag (blue and yellow) as the division flag and the second race will follow shortly after the finish of the last boat in race 1. The postponement flag will be flown briefly between the races and will then be removed (with a sound signal) to draw attention to the imminent Warning signal for the second race which will follow 1 minute after the postponement flag is removed.

TCF’s for SLMASC yachts have been posted on the Yacht page of the cliub website, and results will be calculated back at the club straight after the conclusion of race 2. All crews are welcome to come back to the club straight after racing for a drink and to review the results of both races before they are published online.

As more boats are getting cleaned up and back in the water ready for action, we hope to see a good roll up for this new format of racing at SLMASC which is guaranteed to get the pulse racing …… so chase up your crew and join in our own ‘Little Americas Cup’ on Sunshine Bay this coming SATURDAY.

If you have any questions about Saturdays’ racing you can email racing@slmasc.org …. but please don’t leave it until the day of the race to email if you need a reply before the race. The club start boat will also be contactable by radio before, during, and after the race on the day.

We may yet still need 1 more volunteer to assist with running this Saturday’s race, so if you aren’t sailing, you have a boat licence (not absolutely essential), and you wish to assist and learn how to conduct yacht races, please email us ASAP at   racing@slmasc.org   or you can call 0438 724599.

Bring it on …. it should be a great day so we hope to see you there!

Smooth Sailing

Team SLMASC

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