America’s Cup: Dawn of a new day in race nine

San Francisco, CA (September 15, 2013) – If this was the first race of the 34th America’s Cup, the defense by Oracle Team USA would seem to be in hand. By far the best race of their series, the American team, trailing the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand by 6 points, smoked the Kiwis in every facet of the game to win race nine.

With ebb tide and winds steady at 18 knots, the defender took full advantage of the preferred port entry to control the prestart. Both teams wanted the leeward end, with the defender pulling the game nearly below the layline. With the door closed for the Kiwis, they were forced to ride the defender’s hip, and then wait for them to accelerate to a 4 second advantage.

“I worked with (coach) Phillipe Presti last night, and we had a great game plan today for the start,” said USA team skipper Jimmy Spithill.

It is not the first time the Kiwis have trailed at mark one, but with the defender’s new found speed, the challenger never got close. The American team grew the lead to 200 meters by the leeward gate, and despite the Kiwis getting the vital split at the leeward gate, the defender was easily able to cover and grow the lead to over 300 meters on the beat.

“The Americans are going well, they’ve stepped; we always knew they would,” remarked Kiwi skipper Dean Barker. “But we had similar conditions on Saturday, and we thought we were going just fine. They likely made a nice gain rounding the offshore leeward gate (due to the ebb), so it makes it hard to get back into it.”

The growth of the American team was most telling upwind where they clearly had gone to school on the Kiwis. Now exhibiting both foiling tacks and upwind skimming, it was the dawn of a new day for the defense syndicate.

After growing their lead to 700 meters on the run, the defender won race nine by 46 seconds.

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Nine Completed Races – First team to 9 Points Wins
Emirates Team New Zealand: 6
Oracle Team USA: 1*
* Began series with -2 points due to International Jury penalty from AC World Series.

America’s Cup Final schedule
Saturday, Sept. 7: Race 1 (1:15 pm PT), Race 2 (2:15 pm PT)
Sunday, Sept. 8: Race 3 (1:15 pm PT), Race 4 (2:15 pm PT
Tuesday, Sept. 10: Race 5 (1:15 pm PT), Race 6 (2:15 pm PT); Race 6 postponed
Thursday, Sept. 12: Race 6 (1:15 pm PT), Race 7 (2:15 pm PT)
Saturday, Sept. 14: Race 8 (1:15 pm PT), Race 9 (2:15 pm PT) Race 9 abandoned
Sunday, Sept. 15: Final Race 9 (1:15 pm PT), Final Race 10 (2:15 pm PT)
Monday, Sept. 16: Off Day
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Final Race 11 (1:15 pm PT), Final Race 12* (2:15 pm PT)
Wednesday, Sept. 18: Final Race 13* (1:15 pm PT), Final Race 14* (2:15 pm PT)
Thursday, Sept. 19: Final Race 15* (1:15 pm PT), Final Race 16* (2:15 pm PT)
Friday, Sept. 20: Reserve Day
Saturday, Sept. 21: Final Race 17* (1:15 pm PT)
Sunday, Sept. 22: Reserve Day
Monday, Sept. 23: Reserve Day
(*If necessary)