The last two racing days of «the America's Cup» by Moscow time took place on Sunday night and Monday night and pleased with spectacular match races and sharp moments.
The traditional fresh wind for San Francisco was blowing this time with critical strength for AC72 catamarans. There was only one race on September 15 due to the strong winds, but it added gray hairs to the Kiwi fans' heads. Emirates Team New Zealand was close to capsizing during the turn, but thanks to composure and a ton of luck, the guys managed to handle the AC72. This critical situation couldn't help but affect the Kiwis' speed. They lost to Oracle Team USA by 52 seconds. Watch this chilling moment on replay:
ETNZ skipper, Dean Barker, after the race: «We got a little rushed and lost hydraulics». Slightly? OK.
In the ninth race of the final series, the Kiwis were unlike themselves and gave the American team the win by a 47-second margin. That Oracle Team point finally went into the scoring.
As the tenth race proceeded, neither team had an obvious advantage. Now and then the boats were ahead of each other, it was not so easy to guess the winner as before. «It seemed we'd see a head-to-head finish» but in the last stretch the Kiwis took a 16 second lead.
The Kiwis lead, but no longer in the dry, 7-1. In essence, this means that the next race day could be the last for the America's Cup «» 2013 if the New Zealanders manage to win twice. A very realistic scenario, although it cannot be overlooked that with the change of tactician(John Kostecki to Ben Ainslie) Oracle Team looks an order of magnitude stronger.
