Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA completed the biggest comeback in the 162-year history of America's Cup sailing by beating Emirates Team New Zealand in the deciding race of the regatta on San Francisco Bay, staving off elimination with eight straight wins.
The US boat, backed by the world’s eighth-richest man according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, won the regatta 9-8 against a Kiwi team funded by taxpayers and corporate sponsors. Ellison, Oracle Corp.’s chief executive, spent more than a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars to win the trophy off Valencia, Spain, in 2010, earning the right to host the latest edition of sailing’s premier competition.
The biggest previous comeback in the Cup’s history was in 1983, when Alan Bond’s Australia II rebounded from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven series over Dennis Conner’s Liberty and ending the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year hold on the trophy, the longest winning streak in sports.
Ken Read, sailing analyst for NBC, said Oracle’s comeback was every bit as stunning. “It’s not just a sporting event anymore, it’s a soap opera,” Read said before the race today. “They did three things: They changed how they sail the boat, they kept the design and engineering teams working literally around the clock, and they weren’t shy about changing major personnel.”
Ben Ainslie, four-time Olympic champion and member of the winning crew, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We never stopped believing we could improve and get back into the competition.
“It got harder and harder for us, but ultimately we hung on in there and won that deciding race, so the team did an incredible job.
“We just grew and grew and in the end we were too strong for the Kiwis. To be part of a winning America’s Cup team is for me personally part of a lifelong dream,” said Ainslie, who was drafted in as tactician, in place of John Kostecki, from the warm-up crew.
New Zealand prime minister John Key summed up the mood of his country in defeat by simply tweeting: “Bugger”.
Ellison’s victory caps a series shaped by his vision and marred by tragedy. Seeking the television audiences of auto racing’s Formula One or Nascar, his planners advertised the world’s best sailors racing the world’s fastest boats -- $8 million, 72-foot (22 meter) catamarans with 12-story vertical wings, capable of soaring above the waves on hydrofoils at speeds exceeding the posted 45-mile-an-hour (72-kilometre-per- hour) limit on the Golden Gate Bridge near the course.
Tiny on-board cameras and innovative on-screen graphics flashed up-close racing to viewers, with vistas of San Francisco as a backdrop. Spectators in waterfront grandstands sat close enough to hear skippers barking commands.
A training accident on May 9 killed Andrew Simpson, a British Olympic gold medalist and member of the Swedish team Artemis Racing. That accident, the second involving the new boats after Oracle flipped in October, spurred four investigations, dozens of new safety rules and renewed debate over whether technology had advanced faster than sailors’ ability to safely use it.
Oracle's successful defence of the Cup may give new life to Ellison's high-tech vision. Ellison has said he'll consider smaller catamarans, 45 feet or so, for the next Cup, increasing safety and reducing costs to attract more than this event's three challengers.
Bloomberg
