Syd used to say to me when something was going good Be careful Spithill said because you can be a rooster one day and a feather duster the next.
A sailor had to be careful indeed in the 34th America s Cup which generated historically fast speeds and risks in carbon fiber foiling catamarans that bore a greater resemblance to flying machines than boats.
But while it once looked all but certain that Spithill the Oracle Team USA skipper and helmsman and his crew mates were going to end up as feather dusters in San Francisco they were ultimately able to turn Fischer s catchphrase on its head pulling off the greatest comeback in America s Cup history and one of the most dramatic in any sport.
Trailing by 8 1 to the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand and within one defeat of losing the Cup Oracle continued to upgrade its boat and its confidence and against overwhelming odds and a team of veteran sailors proceeded to win an unprecedented eight straight races to defend the trophy.
The final blow was delivered Wednesday in the first winner take all race since 1983. It was a grand spectacle with the biggest and loudest crowd of the regatta gathered onshore and the two predatorial catamarans crossing the start line in near unison at well over 30 knots.
Oracle was the first to crack burying both bows in the water as it prepared to round Mark 1 And generating a huge splash and a collective gasp back on shore as it slowed dramatically. But there would be no breakdown and no Kiwi revival. Though New Zealand led at Mark 1 and Mark 2 the third leg was again critical. In the early stages of this best of 17 regatta Oracle was the slower boat upwind but as the series stretched on the team s designers and shore crew used the off days to modify the boat to their advantage.
Wednesday only underscored the obvious. Oracle was the significantly faster boat upwind hydrofoiling for extended periods while Team New Zealand remained closer to the water and increasingly farther from the defender.
They just got better and better said Grant Dalton the managing director of Team New Zealand who was also part of the crew Wednesday. They got about a minute and a half faster on the beat than they were nine days ago. We were sort of 50 seconds a beat quicker and now they re 50 seconds quicker than us. So they ve done a really amazing job to turn that around.
The full extent of what Oracle did to change that crucial speed equation is not yet clear. Modifications were made to multiple aspects of its AC72 from the hydrofoils to the wing sail that was its primary power source. And unlike Team New Zealand Oracle sailed with a new measurement certificate reflecting changes to its boat s configuration for every race as it searched relentlessly for incremental improvements.
Russell Coutts the most successful skipper in the Cup s modern history and Oracle s chief executive shared some details looking as relieved as he did delighted.
The major changes in my view were the balance of the boat where obviously the load sharing between the foils is critical so we adjusted that quite a lot said Coutts an engineer by education.
We changed that loading by manipulating the wing shapes and flaps. So we didn t actually change anything in a physical sense. We just changed the setting so we more bottom loaded the wing and more off loaded that and that created a different loading for the foils. And that was probably the biggest change we made.
And then there were a bunch of little changes that just reduced the drag a few kilos here and a few kilograms there and all the sudden you have an edge.
Coutts said the other major factor was his team s growing confidence in its yacht.
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