America's Cup Update

Wow this has gotten exciting...

A lot has happened since posting Thursday.  The score then was 8-2 with Team New Zealand at match point while USA needed 7 wins.  One more win and the Kiwi's take the cup home.

Friday weather broke to fluky low wind conditions.  I always hated sailing in low wind conditions because it's a waiting game rather than a sailing game.

And an interesting thing happened.  New Zealand lead race 13 from the start.  However race rules call for a 40 minute time limit.  If neither boat has crossed the line when the time limit expires, the race is abandoned.  The Kiwis came up about a mile short.   Oracle Team USA then came back to win the rerun 13th race.  The cup remains on shore for another day.

A cold front came through Saturday which threw the weather patterns out of normal.  The wind direction never came from the correct zone and the time limits put off racing for another day.  Normally the race course would be adjusted to the prevailing wind and that forces the course well out of range of shore viewing.  However the SFBay course is specifically designed to provide a spectator friendly arena in normal wind conditions.  

Races 14 & 15 were held Sunday and OTUSA won both.  So the score is now 8-5*.  USA has to win all the remaining four races while New Zealand only has to win one.

Dang!  Hollywood couldn't script this.  Though quoting the SCSon, if it were a Disney movie you'd know the outcome.

Score now 8-5.  OTUSA needs to win all 4 remaining races, ETNZ only needs to win 1.



* Looking purely at race wins the score is 8-7.  However OTUSA was penalized 2 race wins for some infraction during the previous series leading up to the America's cup.  I don't fully understand the situation leading up to the two race penalty, but I'm more interested in whether the two point penalty has an effect on the results.

Last week it looked like it wouldn't be an issue.  But today we are a lot closer to the ruling making the difference.