In a few hours the 19th race of the 34th America’s Cup will be sailed in San Francisco Bay, an all or nothing winner takes all final race. The New Zealand team dominated the early races. They have been at match point for 7 races now but have not been able to capture that final point. During a lighter wind race #13, New Zealand was ahead by over 1 km when the race reached the time limit and was abandoned, they only had 3 minutes of sailing left to win the whole event. No matter what happens this will be a historic day, either as the biggest comeback in sporting history or the craziest last minute rally.
To convince you that this is worth watching here are a few select videos worth checking out.
Emirates Team New Zealand bow down in race 1 (3 min)
Emirates Team New Zealand nearly capsizes (2 min)
Highlights: America’s Cup Finals Races 9 &10 (46 min)
America’s Cup: Apparent Wind (2 min)
The first two are just crazy things that happen on these boats. In the first check out the amount of engine power that the rescue boat requires to keep up with the AC72.
Race 10 was amazing, really worth watching.
The Apparent Wind video does a really nice job of explaining the concept and why on these boats it is so important.
So far the top speed in racing has been 47 knots. With only this final race I expect the teams will push their boats even harder. The starts in the last two races were intense with contact between the boats.
Well worth watching today, live on YouTube America’s Cup channel starting at 4:30 pm or replay in the evening.