The first team to win 7 races wins the Americas Cup and looking at the leaderboard Emirates Team New Zealand is wiping the floor with team Ineos Britannia. Four nil and just three races away from another victory Ineos Britannia cannot afford to make any mistakes.
60 years ago was the last time Great Britain was competing in the Americas Cup and many people have spent their entire careers trying to win this trophy. This could be part of the problem and the Emirates New Zealand team just looks far more polished and on top of their game.
Team Ineos Britannia had a great start today, but the New Zealand team over took the Ineos team on the first leg coming from behind to win the race fairly comfortably by 23 seconds. There is not much between the teams yet the results show that the New Zealanders are just that better at reading the course finding where the wind pressure is.
The reality is if Ineos Britannia do not find some extra speed then this Americas Cup could be over by Friday evening with 2 races scheduled on Wednesday day this week and two more on Friday. Sailing fans would like to see a closer race, but this could be over before it has really got going if New Zealand can win the next two races leaving them only one race away from lifting the trophy.
The problem with keeping a team together over 10 years trying to compete s that you may not have the strongest team. The boat has 6 cyclists on board which generate the wattage for the hydraulics and some of the crew are in their 30's. Whatever happens later this week the crew will change before we see the next Americas Cup in a few years time.
The British boat achieved the fastest speed today, but the overall highest average speed was comfortably won by the New Zealand team so he jibe maneuvers is what is slowing the British team down and that is when the legs are raised and dropped when tacking changing direction.
For those who have not watched any of the racing it is seriously interesting to experience what takes place and here is the link for Wednesday at 1pm UTC time.Americas Cup Live feed. I just enjoy sports and this is like Formula One on water except the engines are wind and human power.
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Many many congratulations.