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America's Cup....

NotTheRealSteveWest
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NotTheRealSteveWest Newbie

NotTheRealSteveWest

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For those that are interested.

 

Taken from www.stuff.co.nz

 

Team New Zealand's nail-biting victory over defenders Alinghi early today is already being talked about as one of the greatest yacht races in the America's Cup's 156-year history.

 

 

The 25-second win, which took Team NZ 2-1 up in the best-of-nine series off Valencia, had everything and more.

 

In light and shifty seven to nine-knot winds, the seesawing battle provided a roller-coaster of emotions for sailors and spectators alike, as both crews established and then threw away big leads.

 

The New Zealanders at one stage held a huge advantage of more than 350m but saw that cut to nothing after they had a man overboard and then got their sails tangled.

 

Behind on the final downwind leg in a dying breeze, Team NZ got the decisive windshift to overtake Alinghi with the finish line in sight.

 

So astonishing was the contest in its ebb and flow that the international media showed their appreciation by bursting into applause at the start of the post-race news conference.

 

British yachting correspondent Bob Fisher, who has reported on every America's Cup since 1967, put it at No 2 in his list of all-time greatest races.

 

Only the decider in the 1983 series, when the wing-keeled Australia 2 came from behind to beat the Dennis Conner-skippered Liberty to win 4-3 and end the New York Yacht Club's 132-year hold on the Auld Mug, ranked higher.

 

"It compares very well with any race that has ever been and falls perhaps into second place," Fisher said.

 

"It is clouded by only one other, and that was the seventh race in 1983, because there was so much hanging on that. The whole outcome of the cup was on that."

 

Fisher described what unfolded on the Mediterranean in race three between Alinghi and Team NZ as "stunning".

 

He counted seven lead changes and didn't think he had seen so many before.

 

America's Cup Management media director Marcus Hutchinson referred to "an epic day".

 

"I think we are all agree we are witnessing without question the best America's Cup series since 83," he said.

 

"How do you summarise a race like that? It had everything."

 

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