Kiwi Sweep at Youth America’s Cup

San Francisco, CA (September 4, 2013) – The Red Bull Youth America’s Cup delivered plenty of action over four days of intense competition on San Francisco Bay. Today, the New Zealand Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand recovered from a poor start to beat their fierce rivals on Full Metal Jacket (NZL) and the ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team from Portugal to win the inaugural title.

The winning team was led by Peter Burling with crew Blair Tuke, Jono Spurdle, Guy Endean, Andy Maloney, Sam Meech and Jason Saunders. “It was really cool that we could get a lot of the Olympic guys together and with a few other keelboat guys to help the mix,” said Burling, who with Tuke won the 49er silver medal at the 2012 Olympics. “We haven’t done that much sailing together as a crew but we all really grew into it this week and I think our results showed that as well.”

The leaderboard was tight, leading to tense moments on the final day. Just three points separated second from fifth place. When the Swiss Team TILT won race 7, they became the sixth different team to claim a race win in the regatta. The eighth and final race today, which was to score double points, was cancelled with the winds on San Francisco Bay over the limit.

The Red Bull Youth America’s Cup featured 10 national teams of sailors between 19 and 24 years of age competing Sept 1-4 on AC45 catamarans.

Final Standings
1. NZL Sailing Team w/ Emirates Team NZ (NZL) 2-RDG-7-3-1-1-4, 57 points
2. Full Metal Jacket Racing (NZL) 7-1-4-6-6-3-5, 45 points
3. ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team (POR) 3-6-1-8-8-5-2, 44 points
4. Team TILT (SUI) 8-5-2-2-9-7-1, 43 points
5. American Youth Sailing Force (USA) 1-7-3-5-7-4-8, 42 points
6. Swedish Youth Challenge (SWE) 6-2-9-1-4-6-10, 39 points
7. Objective Australia (AUS) RDG-10-6-10-2-3, 38 points
8. Next World Energy (FRA) 4-4-8-4-5-9-6, 37 points
9. All In Racing (GER) 5-8-5-9-3-8-9, 30 points
10. USA45 Racing (USA) 9-9-10-7-10-10-7, 15 points
(RDG = redress awarded by International Jury)