Emirates Team New Zealand was around four minutes short of its third America's Cup triumph after 1995 and 2000 in the 13th race on Friday, with just one nautical mile separating a small nation from its big dream. The daily newspaper "New Zealand Herald" quickly calculated that this equates to the length of the famous Queens Street in Auckland.
The Kiwis had taken a dominant lead in the 13th race and manoeuvred the defender to the Cup abyss. But the biggest threat in the light winds did not come from their cancelled opponents Oracle Team USA, who were sailing hopelessly behind the "Aotearoa". The race was a battle against the clock for the Kiwis in extremely light conditions right from the start.
They had no more than 40 minutes to complete the course. That's the rules. But it was too slow. Skipper Dean Barker and his crew visibly and audibly fought for every metre, but it wasn't enough. When the finish line and the America's Cup were already within reach, the race organisers ruthlessly abandoned the race.
"A horror show for New Zealanders and a typical piece of gambling in sailing" was how one of the TV reporters put it at the end of the day, which did not get any better from the Kiwi point of view. They did win the start of race 13, which started all over again, with Dean Barker impressively escaping another aggressive hook attempt by James Spithill and in turn outpacing the Americans at the start line by five seconds. The reporter was delighted: "It shows that Dean Barker is worth his money."
But in the course of the race, the Kiwis made two costly mistakes from which they were unable to recover: In a turning duel heading for mark 3, Team New Zealand is awarded a penalty. The Americans helped the referees' decision with a so-called "Hollywood" manoeuvre at the tight crossing with an advantage for New Zealand, in which they blatantly luffed and thus demonstrated in an exaggerated manner that a collision would otherwise have occurred.
Mistake number two was made by the Barker team, who had performed almost flawlessly so far, when rounding mark three, when the pursuers wanted to realise the desired split at all costs and opted for the left of the two buoys because the Americans decided to go for the right at the last moment. The late manoeuvre took too much speed out of the "Aotearoa", which struggled around the buoy at a snail's pace of five knots, while Spithill's crew whipped their giant catamaran around the mark at 20 knots. The New Zealanders were then so far behind that they had no chance until the finish.
The weak downwind speed of the New Zealanders also played a part in the painful defeat on day ten: in what was now twelve to 15 knots of wind, the Kiwis only managed an average boat speed of 22 knots, while the Americans achieved 28 knots. As a result, they lost the race, finishing one minute and 24 seconds behind.
"It's disappointing to be so close and yet so far away," Dean Barker told the race. "Sometimes it's just not meant to be. But the team is in good spirits. We know we can win. We just need to pull it together on the decisive day."
Oracle helmsman James Spithill was well aware of his team's good fortune: "What can I do? Sometimes a few things just go your way. We're in a position where we like to take things like that. We believe we can win. It's as simple as that. At the start of the regatta I thought everything was going against us. Now I think the tide is turning."
The 34th America's Cup duel will continue on Saturday evening at 10.15pm German time with the score at 8:3 in favour of New Zealand. Emirates Team New Zealand has a further six match points, while Oracle Team USA must win six more times without interruption to defend the most important trophy in international sailing.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
