June 24, 2007 Just when we thought the high-tech Alinghi had the edge, Emirates Team New Zealand came from behind to square the score in the 32nd America’s Cup Match. Conditions were ideal with a 10 knot breeze, and an enormous spectator fleet surrounded the course (see image gallery). The first half of the race was a carbon copy of the first race but the second lap belonged to the Kiwis, who made the pass on the second beat and extended on the run to the finish. Racing will resume on Tuesday in the best of nine race series. You can follow the racing on the internet in several ways such as the official race tracker, Live Sailing’s real-time 3D animation with real-time boat speeds, time and distances, live weather data, and audio commentaries and free on demand Internet video coverage of the 32nd America's Cup on your PC or Mac.
Match 2 –Emirates Team New Zealand beat Alinghi – DELTA 0:28
Emirates Team New Zealand neutralised Alinghi’s starboard entry advantage into the pre-start by sailing clean across their bow. An aggressive pre-start ensued with both helmsmen fighting for the right. Dean Barker got the hook on Ed Baird, forcing Alinghi into a tack. Barker followed into a tack and moved again to the right of the Defender, determined to win the end of the starting line nearest to the Race Committee boat. As both boats wound up to speed for the final approach, it was NZL 92 that was faster to accelerate, crossing the line three seconds ahead of the SUI 100. With a half-boatlength advantage and the breeze and wave conditions much softer than the day before, the Kiwis must have hoped that they could live in that position and control the match out to the left. However, just as the day before, Baird got SUI 100 fully up to speed and started edging forward and higher compared with NZL 92. The Kiwis couldn’t stay in position, and were forced to tack away. It was almost a carbon copy of Saturday’s match, with Alinghi tacking over to shadow the Kiwi boat. At the first cross SUI 100 was more than two boatlengths ahead and they controlled the match to lead by 19 seconds around the first mark. The New Zealanders attacked downwind however, managing to close the deficit to 13 seconds by the leeward gate, where Alinghi took the left and the Kiwis the right-hand option at the gate. Brad Butterworth played a loose cover game up the second beat, looking confident in his speed and wanting to protect the right once he had successfully swapped sides with Terry Hutchinson. However, Butterworth’s open tactics backfired as the Kiwis got back on level terms, coming in from the left with Alinghi forced to tack to leeward. Dean Barker did an excellent job of holding his position to windward on the Swiss, and took the match out to the right-hand layline. From this point the race moved firmly into New Zealand control, leading around the final mark by 15 seconds.
Alinghi threw many gybes at the final run, trying to wriggle around the Kiwis, but all to no avail as Dean Barker brought NZL 92 across the finish 28 seconds ahead.
After all this time of waiting, and all the preliminaries, the opportunity to savour the final seems all too brief. The first team to win five points wins the America’s Cup. Our guide to how you can watch the cup and festivities here. ou can follow the racing on the internet in several ways such as the official race tracker, Live Sailing’s real-time 3D animation with real-time boat speeds, time and distances, live weather data, and audio commentaries and free on demand Internet video coverage of the 32nd America's Cup on your PC or Mac.
