I hope some of you have had the opportunity and inclination to watch the America’s Cup competition the past week. So far, it has been plenty exciting.
If you missed it, to recap: In the first race, the Defender, Team New Zealand, took the early lead over the Challenger, Alinghi, from Switzerland. However, a series of mishaps and blunders that apparently had begun before the start soon took effect.
First, during a tight maneuver behind the starting line, Team NZ had taken on water. That, plus the heavy wind, heeled the boat over more than was expected by the designers.
So, on the rough seas, she continued to take on more water, despite the efforts of a crewman with a plastic bucket, who was obviously waging a losing battle.
As Alinghi caught up, there was a cracking noise when the boom on TNZ broke. The boom is the pole that extends back from the mast. Its biggest role is to control the bottom edge of the mainsail. With that broken, the crew was no longer able to keep the sail shaped properly.
That was bad enough but being troopers; the Defenders sailed on, hoping that the stiff conditions might lead to similar problems for Alinghi.
But Neptune struck them again. This time, a wave came over the bow and caught the headsail, the one in front of the mast that actually generates most of the power. The shackle that holds the front corner of the sale broke loose and it fluttered in the wind.
The foredeck crew struggled to get the jib back on board the boat and stowed away. They brought up another headsail, this particular type known as a genoa.
But as they tried to raise it, it also tore loose. Even Kiwis know when they’re licked and they were for this day.
Team New Zealand, practically reduced to “a painted ship upon a painted ocean,” withdrew from Race One. 1-0 Alinghi.
The following day, it looked as though New Zealand would even the best of nine series. They led through five and a half legs of the course. But on the final downwind leg, Alinghi managed to slip close enough behind to block the wind and take the lead with about a mile to go.
A pass that would have made any good ol’ boy NASCAR driver proud. 2-0 Alinghi.
A day off, then Race Three. Kiwi fans were confident that their boys would not let the challengers, from a landlocked lake in Switzerland, take a 3-0 lead.
But they did, Alinghi, getting a last minute cellphone call from their weather team miles upwind, made a last minute decision to start at the right end of the starting line. That’s where the wind went also and they jumped out to a six boat length lead that NZ, try as they might, could not overcome.
The series could be over by now. Alinghi needs only two more wins. Skipper Russell Coutts has now won 12 America’s cup races, making him second only to American Dennis Connor with 13.
Coutts, himself a New Zealander, was the skipper when New Zealand took the Cup from the U.S. But Swiss Biotech Billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli paid some big bucks to get Coutts and several other Kiwis to sail for him.
By the way, ESPN2 commentators Paul Page and Gary Jobson explained the origin of the name Alinghi the other night. It’s a word that Bertarelli came up with just because he liked it. I guess you can do that when you have that much money.
The races are being held on the Huraki Gulf off New Zealand, where the clock is 18 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time. As a result, the 1:00 PM or so starts in New Zealand translate to 7:00 PM the day before here … Prime Time on ESPN2.
Enjoy.