Above: Luna Rossa’s nippers celebrate winning the Youth America’s Cup; Italy’s Women’s Cup team will shortly repeat the exercise. With the mercurial young Marco Gradoni leading the next campaign and a litany of brilliant young Italian sailors on tap – all schooled in foiling from birth – Prada’s next Challenge will be the real deal (trust us on that). From the outside (opposite) the New Zealand Defender always had just a small edge in speed… but it was more subtle than that. The Kiwis were never slower – except briefly in a big sea-state or downwind in breeze – but they lost less speed in corners and had a crucial ability to exit tacks higher and often exit gybes deeper too. Once racing the faster AC75s, data live-linked to the boffins in Brackley, who then tweaked the onboard software, accelerated the rate of improvement for Ineos Britannia. Yet at the end, while you felt the Kiwis still had something in the tank, Ineos looked to have developed the hell out of an ultimately weaker concept – with all the extra aero drag of that fat canoe body. The Brits have never flown home from a modern Cup with a design concept worth developing, having to start afresh every cycle. It may not have been the sweetest-looking AC75 in Spain but with Britannia Team Pom finally have something to work with. Praise the Lord!
‘Imagine if these guys lost from here,’ he
taunted Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker as the extraordinary sporting turnaround unfolded. ‘What an upset that would be… That would be one helluva comeback and that’s the kind of thing I’d like to be a part of.’ While Spithill is hanging up his gloves
Cup fans will be delighted that the patriarchal figure of Mr Bertelli will remain part of it. A quarter of a century ago I asked him what had driven him to enter the Cup arena. ‘Passion and a little madness’ was his reply. Those ingredients have fuelled many astounding achieve- ments, from scaling mountains, to accom- plishments in business, the arts, science – every walk of life. In an interview at the Cagliari launch of
this year’s Cup yacht, however, Bertelli revised his motivation somewhat. ‘This curious and strange game requires persis- tence to reach the objective and it is the difficulty that gives meaning to the chal- lenge. Passion has nothing to do with it. Persistence is the true motor…’ It is also about legacy and Bertelli said
part of his persistence in going into battle again was about giving opportunity to a new generation. Italy is well-poised in that regard, having won both the Youth and Women’s America’s Cups in the lead-up to Barcelona. The introduction of the Women’s
America’s Cup represented another mile- stone of the current cycle, but it was regrettable that their series was com- pressed because of too many days in a tight schedule lost to lack of breeze.
ALL BLACKS In the customary hoopla and hyperbole leading into every major sporting event, British America’s Cup team boss, Ben Ainslie, described the New Zealand defend- ers as ‘the All Blacks’ of sailing. The compar- ison with the revered Kiwi rugby team was clearly intended as a measure of respect, but measured in terms of results it might have damned the sailing team with faint praise. If the Rugby World Cup is the pinnacle
of the sport and, therefore, the equivalent of sailing’s America’s Cup, the scales of suc- cess tip heavily in favour of the sailing team.
The Rugby World Cup made its debut
in 1987, the same year New Zealand made its first appearance in the America’s Cup at Fremantle, Australia. On their fortress home ground of Eden Park, Auckland, the All Blacks beat France 29-9 to win the inaugural Rugby World Cup. In 2011 the competition final returned to Eden Park and the All Blacks again defeated France to take their second title. In 2015, at Twickenham, London, the
Kiwi team claimed its third Rugby World Cup crown, this time against Australia. New Zealand’s current record across
the 10 Rugby World Cups played to date stands at three wins in a total of five appearances in the final. From 1987 there have been 12 America’s
Cup Matches (including the two Deed of Gift regattas) and New Zealand teams have competed in nine of them (1988, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2024) and won five (1995, 2000, 2017, 2021, 2024). In purely sporting terms an equivalence can be drawn between the contests, but in terms of technical demand there is surely no comparison.
SEAHORSE 45
CARLO BORLENGHI
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