Régate: America's Cup : victoire pour les Men in Black

They have done it again: New Zealand wins the America's Cup for the fourth time, after 1995, 2000 and 2017. The Kiwis are able to defend it for the second time, with 30-year-old helmsman Peter Burling and his crew winning twice in a row. The Italian team Luna Rossa also came away empty-handed in its fifth attempt, losing 5:0 to the New Zealanders on the same waters 20 years ago, but this time they put up a respectable performance with a 7:3. And it will probably go on for the Italians.

Five million New Zealanders will celebrate that night, having proved that their small country can at least beat the whole world in sailing. 60 million Italians, on the other hand, will be crying, or perhaps just a large proportion of them. In any case, another great opportunity to bring the oldest continuously organised sporting event in the world to the old continent has passed. An old rule of the Cup has been proven true: the fastest boat wins.

The New Zealanders had the faster boat. In light wind conditions of between eight and twelve knots, they were around two knots faster than the Italians on all courses; at speeds of between 30 and 40 knots, that's five to seven and a half per cent.

Nevertheless, at the start of the Cup final it looked as if the Italians could hold their own. Particularly at the start, the helmsman duo Francesco Bruni/Jimmy Spithill initially proved to be cooler and more aggressive, gaining the advantage time and again. This was also helped by the fact that the Italians had previously had to go through a sometimes tough elimination of the challengers, so they were well practised in duel mode with these 75-foot racing machines. The New Zealanders, on the other hand, trained alone until the start of the Cup final.

Although this gave them more time to work on their speed potential, they had no experience on the race course under racing conditions. As a result, they were sometimes unable to convert their speed advantage into victories in the first races. Once the Italians were in front, which they only managed with good starts, there were hardly any overtaking opportunities for the New Zealanders in constant conditions. The disturbed winds of the opponent ahead ate up the speed advantage. After six races, the score was 3:3, which few people thought the Italians could achieve.

But the team around helmsman Peter Burling learnt, and the last race was a prime example of this learning curve. "We wanted to start on the right, we wanted to sail to the right in order to utilise our speed with free wind," says Burling.

The New Zealanders started to the right of the Italians and close to them, immediately rolling into a turn to the right at the start signal. They were ahead at the next encounter and never relinquished the lead. The Italians fought valiantly and kept the race open with a small gap until the leeward gate. From then on, however, the New Zealanders pulled away.

So that was it for the 36th America's Cup.

What will the future of the America's Cup look like?

That will depend heavily on who becomes the next first challenger, the so-called Challenger of Record. This time it was the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team. Coxswain Francesco Bruni hinted immediately after the finish that it would continue: "I'm sure it's not over for Luna Rossa, that Patrizio Bertelli will continue." Bertelli, owner of Prada, is the main financial backer of the Italian team.

However, the British Ineos team is also likely to lay claim to the first challenge, as this Cup has once again shown how important this early positioning is. Defender New Zealand and first challenger Italy had been working on the new rules for this Cup for around a year, giving them a head start in terms of development time over Ineos UK and American Magic. In the end, the two teams with the most development time made it to the final.

The 36th America's Cup had a lot to offer: Foiling monohulls, speeds over 50 knots, exciting races, innovative technology. What was missing was more teams. It will be interesting to see how the New Zealanders will lay the cards for the 37th defence in probably four years' time. They will have to manage the balancing act between the interests of billionaire patrons and more sponsorship-funded campaigns, maintain or rekindle Cup enthusiasm outside of New Zealand, but in the end everyone's focus must be on New Zealand.