Whoever wobbles first, loses. The America's Cup action in the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland can currently be summarised in this simple formula. The starts decide which team wins a race in the light and fickle winds that currently dominate. This was also the case early Saturday morning German time.
In front of a spectacular backdrop of a record fleet of around 1600 spectator boats and tens of thousands of fans on the water and in front of the big screens on land, once again neither defence team New Zealand nor the Italian "Challenger of Record" were able to make a breakthrough - each team won one race. In both cases, the duels were lost in the pre-start phase due to mistakes. At half-time in the 36th America's Cup match, the opponents are level at 3:3. The team needs seven wins if it wants to win the most important trophy in international sailing. There are many indications that the Kiwis and Azzurri are sailing towards a heart-stopping final.
The Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team opened the fifth race on Saturday morning with convincing start timing, while the New Zealanders fell off their shorter foils in flat conditions and were too slow to get their boat out of the water and underway again. The Azzurri then gave the Kiwis, who came on strong in the final phase, no chance to pass in unstable winds of around eight to nine knots. An 18-second lead at the finish was enough for the Italian victory.
In race six, however, New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling and his crew, who were demonstratively smiling despite their defeat in the break between races, were able to turn the tide again: While Luna Rossa went too slow in a light wind field in the pre-start phase, New Zealand's Te Rehutai pulled away and made the challengers look lame, finishing 1 minute and 41 seconds ahead. "That was a good end to another tight day," said New Zealand 49er Olympic champion and flight controller Blair Tuke at the halfway point. Jimmy Spithill, who sailed with the Australian "Boxing Kangaroo" printed on his grey Prada shirt, once again conjured up the scenario from his perspective: "We're sailing against the best team in the world. It was a bit of a minefield out there today. We learnt a lot. The next goal is always to win the next race."
Martin Fischer: "If you're too early, you have to slow down"
The Cup clash continues on Sunday at 4.15am German time and can be watched on Servus TV and in the original soundtrack via America's Cup Homepage live. On Sunday, even more spectator boats are expected around the Cup course, possibly more than 2,000. Martin Fischer, co-design coordinator, foil ace and rules expert in the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team, reported on Saturday: "It was like being on the motorway here today after the races: a real traffic jam as the many boats returned to the harbour."
Commenting on the races themselves, the 58-year-old German physicist, who was born in Celle and studied in Munich and Hamburg, said: "Yesterday I was a bit surprised at how fast the New Zealand boat is when it has free wind. You can't give them the space. One of the commentators correctly said today that everyone is waiting for one of the teams to make the first break, just like in tennis. We managed to do that today in the first race of the day - but the New Zealanders also managed to break back immediately afterwards. This is confirmed by the current lighter conditions: Whoever is ahead after the start stays ahead. Both teams made a similar mistake today. This happens because the teams are generally a little too early with their timing at the start. On the one hand, so as not to be too late at the line, and on the other, to keep their options open. But if you're too early, you have to brake." The result of this necessity was felt by New Zealand in race five and Italy in race six. With the familiar consequences.
On Saturday evening in Auckland, the models were not in agreement about the weather forecast for races 7 and 8 on Sunday. The forecasts varied between ten and up to 20 knots of wind. After only racing in light to just medium, maximum 13, 14 knots of wind so far, it would be an attractive change to see how the teams and their boats perform in more pressure.
Guests at the press conference at the end of the third day of racing were New Zealand's helmsman Peter Burling and his team-mate Josh Junior as well as "Luna Rossa's" co-steers Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni
If you want to watch both races again in full, you can watch this clip almost as if you were there live
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
