His trim technique was more about twist than traveller play. Ben Ainslie Racing’s Freddie Carr marvelled at how dynamic the adjustments were in the top elements of the wing – ‘like a hummingbird’. More oil also meant the tactics could


be more aggressive, allowing the team to throw in a quick extra tack, or a tighter mark rounding. Less stability, of course, equates to more


demanding sailing skills and Ashby acknowledged that sailing the boat accu- rately required hair-trigger responses. ‘A very small misadjustment of the


daggerboard rake, just 0.5°, can send you skywards or down the mine incredibly quickly,’ he noted. Similarly, rudder rake was super-critical. ‘Just 1mm of adjustment at the top of the rudder can have a massive influence on performance.’ While the cyclists drew the attention it


took keener eyes to observe some of the more subtle differences. Oracle, for example, experimented with different daggerboards in each hull, apparently to optimise speed on the opening reach to Mark 1. They also sailed with very slack lower


shrouds, which racked the hulls slightly allowing the windward bow to droop. The theory was that this would increase the allowed 3° of rudder rake by maybe half a degree. In a game of millimetres other teams responded with similar techniques. Foiling is the name of the game and even


momentary lapses off the foils can be a game-changer. The holy grail to complete a race without wetting the hulls was first achieved by ETNZ, but as the event went on the top teams were consistently return- ing flight scores well above 95 per cent. Against some predictions the AC50s


produced exciting match racing, full of drama and tension, with design strongly influencing performance differences. As the stage was set for the final battle between Oracle and ETNZ all the elements were in place for an epic encounter. Plus far more was at stake than a simple grudge match between arch rivals. Had the Challenger been Ben Ainslie


Racing, SoftBank Team Japan, Artemis or Groupama, they had already signed up to the Framework Agreement proposed by Oracle. This bound signatories to a four- year cycle of two America’s Cup series util- ising the current class of foiling AC50 cata- marans, interspersed with a full schedule of World Series events. Win or lose, the Oracle model would sail on into the future. ETNZ were the only team to hold fast to


the time-honoured tradition of going all-in for a high-stakes game where winner takes all – including the right to shape the future. The gulf between the two visions was


articulated by none other than Mr Amer- ica’s Cup, Dennis Conner. He disparaged the Oracle model as ‘a circus’ and ques- tioned what would separate the America’s Cup from any other regatta. ‘It used to be something special and they’ve just turned this into a completely different event.’ Ironically, with so much at stake, the


racing for the Match itself proved anti- climactic. One-sided drag races, absent from the Challenger series, now made an appearance. New Zealand opened their account with four comprehensive wins in the first weekend. Then, with a five-day gap before racing resumed, both teams worked on improving their packages. Momentum in sport is a potent factor


and it was all going New Zealand’s way. Jimmy Spithill’s early bravado had evapo- rated into that admission that ‘the next five days will be the most important of the cam- paign. We need to make serious changes.’ When racing resumed on the second


Saturday New Zealand had made some aerodynamic improvements with new fair- ings, while Oracle had stripped weight out of the boat and modified their foils, rudders and sailing techniques. ‘There are too many changes to go


through,’ said Spithill, who was already beating the comeback drum. Defence chief Sir Russell Coutts, though,


was less confident. In a column he wrote for Bermuda’s Royal Gazette he said he was disappointed at the final being so lop- sided. In reference to the 2013 comeback, he wrote: ‘This time it feels a bit different.’ On the second Saturday the teams


shared a win each. Was Oracle’s first win of the Match a hint of things to come? Young Burling, who had earlier shrugged off Spithill’s psychological jabs, decided to poke a stick of his own. ‘Great to see a bit of fight out of these boys,’ he remarked. ‘It’s only just beginning, mate,’ Spithill


fired back. But in reality it was the beginning of the


end. On the Sunday ETNZ posted two more comprehensive wins and moved to match point. One more race on Monday and the Cup was New Zealand’s again. It was a stunning result. Redemption for the team’s heartbreaking near-misses in 2013 and 2007 and triumph for a campaign well managed, well designed and well sailed. To the victor the spoils and New


Zealand had been clear it would chart a ‘more traditional’ course. Team principal Matteo de Nora spoke of ‘going back to the future’. Details remained to be revealed but, with the Italian Luna Rossa syndicate under longtime ally Patrizio Bertelli lined up as Challenger of Record, the New Zealand Protocol will certainly include a nationality requirement, which was only nominally observed in the current cycle and entirely absent from the Framework Agree- ment, despite the Deed of Gift’s most famil- iar injunction for ‘a friendly competition between foreign countries’. The two-year cycle will go and the World Series and the Cup class will also be up for reconsidera- tion, with hints of a return to monohulls. ETNZ CEO Grant Dalton said a lot of


good things happened in Bermuda. ‘The Coutts vision is not my vision, but he did what he thought was right and he did it well. Just because we didn’t sign the Frame- work Agreement doesn’t mean that there aren’t elements we agree with.’


Emphasising that holding the America’s


Cup was a privilege and not a right, he vowed to do the right thing. ‘We will not try to impose our will on it so that we can hold on to it at all costs. The rule should not be written or contrived to make it easier for you to hang on to it. We will do a rule that allows for fair competition.’ As to the boat decision, he said it was


important not to lose the yachting aspect. ‘It is still a race of yachtsmen and just pumping oil around the boat isn’t neces - sarily really yachting.’ He acknowledged the AC50s were


spectacular and fast, ‘but whether they’d go so well in a decent northeasterly off Rangitoto [the volcanic cone at the entrance to Auckland Harbour] with the tide running out, I’m not so sure. ‘They might go straight down the mine.


Maybe they are not quite right for where we are heading.’ And there was no mistaking they were


heading for a New Zealand defence, where a nation that has endured 14 years of conflicting love and indifference for this ‘bloody trophy’, as Ashby called it, was once more fully and passionately engaged. Now with a defence to stage, probably


in 2021, it is assured of adding at least one more starring role in this most intriguing and enduring of sporting contests. With a reputation for innovation, it will be inter- esting to see what direction the new guardians choose to chart and what, if any, features of the 35th America’s Cup reappear in the 36th. Ivor Wilkins


SMARTER IN THE LAB, SMARTER ON THE WATER – Andy Claughton, Land Rover BAR technical director For Oracle the 35th America’s Cup needed to be a game of two halves or they would not retain the Cup, three-peat or whatever tortured phrase they liked to employ. On the first weekend of the Cup they received a total shellacking at the hands of Emirates Team New Zealand. This was a consummate performance by


ETNZ. On Saturday they were offered free passage to the startline, led at Mark 1 and, as the only team that had never been over- taken in this event, duly won both races. Neither race was completely incident


free. Peter Burling stopped sailing at the final leeward gate, but was mercifully per- suaded to continue to the finish line before Oracle could take advantage. In the second race Oracle got to within a couple of metres of an overlap at the last windward gate, but they came out of the next gybe on two hulls and New Zealand extended to win by a minute. It was now clear that, with the wind


speed in single figures, if you let ETNZ get ahead, that’s how it would stay. In response, with slightly more wind forecast on Sunday, Oracle ran an asymmetric configuration with a shorter daggerboard tip on the port side. With a shorter tip the


SEAHORSE 37


w


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