Thursday 28th of November 2024
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drama on the water in the third and it's now four-zip....

AS THE WORLD IS GETTING CLOSER TO NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION, THE AMERICA'S CUP IS BATTLED OUT BETWEEN THE NEO-ZEALANDERS AND THE BRITS... WE TAKE TIME OFF FROM THE MAD MEN LEADING THE WORLD, TO SEE HOW THIS 175 YEAR-OLD OLD CONTEST IS GOING....

 

Tempers were frayed out on the waters, with British skipper Sir Ben Ainslie taking a verbal swipe at Kiwi America's Cup commentator Stephen McIvor, after suffering another loss to Emirates Team New Zealand off Barcelona.

INEOS Britannia have fallen 3-0 behind the cup holders in the first-to-seven series, with Ainslie being heard swearing, seemingly in reference to McIvor, after a post-race interview.

"Still believe you're as close when it comes to performance, because I get that feeling coming off your boat?" quizzed McIvor.

"Maybe that's the Kiwi commentator in you, mate," chuckled Sir Ben.

"OK, I'll take that one on the chin," said McIvor.

The exchange seemed innocuous at the time, but Ainslie was heard to mutter "f***ing w*****" into a live microphone as the interview ended.

Ainslie was later asked if he knew the comment was audible on the international race broadcast.

"Possibly," he said. "I just thought it was a bit of a stupid comment from the Kiwi commentator, but I think it's good for our team, you know.

"It's good motivation."

McIvor was sharing the commentary booth with British sailor Shirley Robertson, who won Olympic gold at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.

After heading off four other challengers for the right to take on Team NZ for the 'Auld Mug', the Brits have barely fired a shot at their rivals and suffered their third loss, after copping a pre-start penalty that immediately put them 75 metres down.

"I am sure it's a tough call," said Ainslie about the penalty. "It felt like we were keeping clear, but obviously the umpires didn’t see it that way.

"Obviously, it has been tough for us, but we’ve kept it relatively close. It might look like there's a big gap in performance, but I don't think it's actually that big and we know that we can still make gains."

Race four was called off for lack of wind and has been rescheduled for Tuesday's rest day (NZ time).

"I think it's a much closer relative performance, but through the races, they've done a brilliant job, when they've been in the lead, of defending and finding the right moment to extend a little bit.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/10/14/britannia-boss-ainslie-takes-verbal-swipe-at-americas-cup-caller/

 

RACE FOUR WAS RACED THE FOLLOWING DAY AND THE BRITS, STAYING CLEAR FROM THE KIWIS* TOOK ANOTHER 23 SECONDS-BEHIND LOSS.... 

*GUSNOTE: NATHAN OUTTERIDGE IS AN AUSSIE SKIPPERING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF PETER BURLING ON THE KIWI BOAT.... THE UMPIRES WERE CORRECT IN THEIR CALL... SIR BEN LIKES TO GRIZZLE...

 

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NOTE FROM THE CARTOONIST-IN-CHIEF: I WILL DO A BEARDLESS SIR BEN IF HE WINS THE BLOODY THING.....

a cup....

America’s Cup, one of the oldest and best-known trophies in international sailing yacht competition. It was first offered as the Hundred Guinea Cup on August 20, 1851, by the Royal Yacht Squadron of Great Britain for a race around the Isle of Wight. The cup was won by the America, a 100-foot (30-metre) schooner from New York City, and subsequently became known as the America’s Cup. The American winners of the cup donated it to the New York Yacht Club in 1857 for a perpetual international challenge competition. In 1987 the San Diego Yacht Club took control of the U.S. competition.

Since the 1920s the America’s Cup race has been between one defending vessel and one challenging vessel, both of which are determined in separate series of elimination trials. Each competing vessel must be designed, built, and, insofar as possible, outfitted solely in the country that it represents. The original terms of the America’s Cup donation imposed many disadvantages on challenging yachts. Not until 1956 was a clause eliminated that required a challenger to sail on its own bottom to the scene of the contest, forcing a heavier style of construction than that of the defender. Until 1995, the America’s Cup competition was a best four of seven races; from that year until 2007 it required five of nine races to win. From 1958 to 1987 each race was run over a six-leg 24-mile (39-kilometre) course by yachts of the so-called 12-metre class. (No measurement on the 12-metre yacht was actually 12 metres. The “12” was a result of a complicated mathematical formula used in the yacht’s construction.)

 

In 1983, after American yachts (sponsored by the New York Yacht Club) had successfully defended the cup 24 times without a loss since the first defense in 1870, the Australian yacht Australia II won the cup. In the next race, in 1987, the Americans (now from San Diego) regained the cup. The controversial race of 1988, between the winning American 60-foot (18-metre) catamaran and a New Zealander 132-foot (40-metre) monohull, had to be decided in the courts and provoked a redefinition of the rules governing future races. For 1992, a new and faster yacht was designated as the International America’s Cup Class(IACC)—75 feet (23 m) in overall length—to race over an eight-leg 22.6-mile (36.4-kilometre) course. The 1995 event was run over a six-leg, 18.55-nautical-mile (34.4-kilometre) course. It was won by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, only the second victory by a non-American challenger in the history of the competition. The skipper of the New Zealand victory in 1995 was Russell Coutts, who also led New Zealand to a win in 2000; Coutts, skippering for a Swiss team, won a third consecutive victory in 2003. In 2007 the Swiss team, with Brad Butterworth as skipper, defended its title. An American team owned by businessman Larry Ellison, Oracle Team USA, recaptured the Cup in 2010 in a two-race competition that was delayed by numerous court battles. In 2013 the U.S. had one of the most-dramatic comebacks in sporting history: the American team (captained by Jimmy Spithill* and racing in a newly designed 72-foot [22-metre] catamaran) was trailing New Zealand 8–1 in a best-of-17 series and then won the remaining eight races for the most-unexpected America’s Cup victory of all time. See also yacht.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/yacht

 

*JIMMY SPITHILL IS AN AUSSIE

 

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four-two....

There’s been a sea change in Barcelona, where, after six calm days, the waves finally picked up enough to sweep Ineos Britannia to their first points in the 37th America’s Cup.

The British boat, skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie, won both of the day’s races, and now trail Emirates Team New Zealand 4-2 in the first-to-seven series. They were the first points Great Britain have won in an America’s Cup race since 1934, when Endeavour, skippered by the aviation pioneer Sir Tomas Sopwith, lost 4-2 to the US yacht Rainbow, skippered by Harold Vanderbilt.

“That was for everyone, both on the boat and on land,” said Ainslie, “there’s still a long way to go, but the comeback is on.”

The sea state was much choppier than it had been, and Emirates Team New Zealand were caught out by the change. They made a calamitous mistake before the start of the first race, when they dropped off their foils.

The light wind meant they were left dead in the water while Britannia circled around them. Ainslie trapped the New Zealanders in the dead zone created by dirty air coming off his sails, then sailed off into an insurmountable lead. They finished over a kilometre in front, and won by 1min 18sec.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/oct/16/comeback--ainslie-britannia-grab-first-points-americas-cup-sailing

 

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six-two....

EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND BRILLIANCE TAKES THE LOUIS VUITTON 37TH AMERICA’S CUP TO MATCH POINT AT 6-2


It was a fired-up, proficient and efficient Emirates Team New Zealand that aced the hardest to interpret wind direction here in Barcelona and took two clean races off the fast-charging Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia who left very little out on the water today but succumbed to a masterclass of weather reading and boatspeed.

 

In smoother sea-state conditions, Emirates Team New Zealand looked a different boat, able to employ a consistent ride height and smooth, fast manoeuvres whilst their sailing team out-smarted and out-fought the Challenger to now sit just one win away from defending the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.

Right from the outset, Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher, helmsmen of ‘Britannia’ laid their stall out, crossing from the port side with the finest of margins before circling immediately with intent to get on the Kiwi’s tail who had entered the starting box at pace and very much up for the fight.

 

https://www.americascup.com/news/3747_EMIRATES-TEAM-NEW-ZEALAND-BRILLIANCE-TAKES-THE-LOUIS-VUITTON-37TH-AMERICAS-CUP-TO-MATCH-POINT-AT-6-2

 

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over, red rover....

Team New Zealand have successfully defended the America’s Cup after beating Ineos Britannia 7-2 in Barcelona! This is their third America’s Cup win in a row and there was little doubt after they came back from a nervy start in race seven.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2024/oct/19/great-britain-v-new-zealand-americas-cup-2024-races-nine-and-10-live

 

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.