US secures 1st win of America’s Cup, trails NZ 1-4
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DEFENDING champion Oracle Team USA clawed its way back into the America’s Cup on Saturday with a much-needed win over Emirates Team New Zealand to reduce its deficit to 1-4 in the first-to-seven final.
The US win in the second race of the day gave the team backed by billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison hope of another comeback against New Zealand.
Oracle Team USA won the cup in 2013 in San Francisco after staging one of the most astonishing sporting comebacks against New Zealand, winning 9-8 after having been 1-8 down.
The US team has spent the week working on making improvements to its 15-meter foiling catamaran in an effort to match the speed of its Kiwi rival, which is using a revolutionary cycling system with which its sailors provide the power needed to control the boat.
“That was exactly what the boys needed— we’ve had a good improvement on our boat speed today and I think another step tomorrow would be great,” a pumped-up Jimmy Spithill, the US skipper, said from onboard his boat after the race.
The arch-rivals were due to resume battle on Bermuda’s Great Sound yesterday, with another two races scheduled. The US win means the racing will now go into today or beyond.
“It was great to see those boys actually sailing a little bit better — these guys just sailed well and we’re just excited about the battle ahead,” New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling said following the rare defeat.
After five days with no racing, both crews have been working to improve the performance of their space-age catamarans, with the pressure on the US crew and their extensive design and technical team to pull something out of the hat.
Things started badly for the US as it was a fraction of a second over the line at the start of the first race, picking up a penalty which left it trailing.
But although the New Zealanders got away, the US champions recovered well and fought their way back into the race, finding the speed which had evaded them in previous encounters.
But in the second race there were no such errors and Spithill, who was wearing a bandage on his wrist after injuring it during training, got away at the start.
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