Pearson Yachts Forum
General Category - Pearson Owners and Enthusiasts => Cruising => Topic started by: The Great Godsea on September 25, 2013, 04:31:53 PM
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Hey, not for nothing but... how about Team USA?
Wow.
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An amazing recovery. The first few races team US sailed badly - you could see the hulls touching the water as they went around the mark, whereas team NZ rode their foils all the way around. As an aside, it is an awesome thing to see one of those beasts "in the flesh" rounding the mark...gotta see it to believe it. Those boats are BIG and mindbogglingly FAST. But the Oracle team certainly got their act together - in part due to a fellow Brit, Sir Ben Ainslie, coming on board - and it has been great to see them really master their boat. Initially the Kiwis were better sailors, pure and simple; in the end, I think both crews sailed equally excellent races, but the Oracle boat was simply faster. But the focus, drive, determination to come back from being 8-1 down is truly outstanding. Gotta say the opening minutes were the most spectacular - jockying for position at the start, and then Oracle hitting that wave - wow.
I was really worried about the wind, that it would be cancelled, but it held up well for them. In the afternoon when we did our weekly Beer-Can race (in the South Bay), it had increased to a solid 30 knots. We managed 8 knots surfing waves in - not quite the 40+ of the AC72s! - but fast enough to beat the other boats in the field, most of which were 20 years younger.
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Impressive wins all around! Cheers!