New Zealand pedal past USA to claim America’s Cup glory
Burling’s crew hammer Oracle 7-1 in final series On-board cyclists key as radical thinking pays off
Four years ago the America’s Cup gave us one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history as Oracle Team USA, with Sir Ben Ainslie on board, bounced back from 8-1 down to secure a remarkable 9-8 triumph against the Kiwis in San Francisco.
This time there was to be no fairy-tale comeback. Not even the merest hint of one. Like the All Blacks toying with Lion cubs, this was as one-sided as sport gets.
Emirates Team New Zealand, powered by their posse of pedalling sailors, claimed the 35th America’s Cup in emphatic fashion in Bermuda yesterday. Leading 6-1 overnight and needing just one more race win to secure the Auld Mug for the third time in the nation’s history, after their successes in San Diego in 1995 and again in Auckland five years later, the Kiwis did it at the first time of asking, dominating the US as they had done all the way through the final series. The Cup is heading back to Auckland, although quite when and in what format remains to be seen.
There was a lot at stake in the final given New Zealand’s role as conscientious objectors to the new protocols agreed by the five other teams. Now they have the Cup, they hold the keys to its future. Suffice to say, there was plenty of frantic negotiating in Bermuda last night. This was exactly what Larry Ellison, Oracle’s billionaire owner, feared might happen. Not even in his worst nightmares, though, could he have imagined such a one-sided final.
New Zealand even started the final series on minus one point as the US had won the round-robin qualifiers. But they never looked like losing, winning eight of the nine races.
Jimmy Spithill, the Australian skipper of the American boat, could not even blame a poor start in yesterday’s final humiliation. He had been outgunned and outmanoeuvred for most of the final series but yesterday, finally, managed to get his boat to the first mark in the lead.
It took New Zealand all of 10 seconds to reassert their authority, Pete Burling getting the first gybe in and putting the Kiwi boat’s nose in front. Thereafter it was, literally, plain sailing. Or rather, plain cycling. The other teams had all said in the lead-up to this America’s Cup they were not that worried by the Kiwis’ radical design, which they had developed in secret in Auckland and which featured four grinders – or ‘cyclors’ as they dubbed their grinders on static bikes.
By the end it was becoming apparent how much of an advantage it was giving them; an extra 30 per cent in hydraulic pressure, according to Land Rover BAR grinder Freddie Carr. It was what they did with that power which was so impressive.
The Kiwis’ aggressive boat design and radical control system, which allowed Burling to concentrate on driving the boat as Glenn Ashby and Blair Tuke – with whom Burling won Olympic 49er gold last summer – trimmed the foils and wing, paid off. The Kiwis’ ambition and innovation deserved the ultimate reward.
So Burling becomes the youngest winning helm in America’s Cup history. At 26, he is four years younger than Spithill when he won the Cup for the first time. Only once, when Burling made the mistake that led to the Kiwis’ spectacular capsize against the GB boat, has he looked rattled. The way New Zealand bounced back was hugely impressive and explains why the America’s Cup is heading back to Auckland.