Weather Plays Havoc In Americas Cup

Tied at 3 all team New Zealand and the Italians on Prada Luna Rossa have been having an epic battle in Auckland. Yesterday there was no racing as the wind was too light. Winds need to be above 6.5 knots or 12 km/h as there is a time limit for competing the course.

Today was race 7 and 8 which in race 7 saw the lead change hands for the first time in the finals. The Italians had an 18 second lead erased as Team New Zealand chose the correct sails. Smaller is better with these boats as the Kiwi's gambled using a J3 sail perfect for 10 knots or more wind speed. The Italians used a J1.5 for sub 10 knot winds and paid the price. The bigger the sail the more drag and thus the opposite of what we would have expected.

The Italians were looking good until the wind picked up and were overtaken by the kiwi's on leg 3 never looking back sailing of into the distance and the win by 68 seconds. 4-3 New Zealand with one race to go today.

Race 8 saw the Italians take the early lead only for New Zealand to come back at them and then disaster for the Kiwi's as they fell off the foils due to no wind as they came to close to the Italians who had what little wind they had in their sails. Suddenly the Italians had a 4 minute lead and were up at the top end of the course whilst the Kiwi's were still at the bottom and it was the Italians who touched down due to no wind.

New Zealand was sailing in the opposite direction to find the wind to build up speed and this paid off. The Italians were caught whilst still floundering in the water and suddenly New Zealand had a 2km lead and were flying. The trick is to stay on the foils as once you come off them it is difficult to get back up when there is little to no wind. The Italians lost the race by 3 minutes 55 seconds which is heart breaking for Luna Rossa considering the lead they had.

5-3 Team New Zealand with the Kiwi's now 2 races away from victory. This is still too tight to call as anything can still happen after what happened today.