New Zealand wins World Series

Auckland, New Zealand (December 19, 2020) – As if written into the script, the final race was the one that mattered when it came to who would take the PRADA America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) Auckland trophy. With Emirates Team New Zealand and American Magic on even points, a win against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli would give the Kiwis the point that they needed to take the trophy.

And that’s what happened. Emirates Team New Zealand won the last race by 0:16 seconds over Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and opened a bottle of champagne on the Race Village main stage in front of their fans.

Race 9: Italy beat Great Britain
As the race boats headed out to the course there were questions about how the weather would play out with a forecast for light breezes. The issue that caused the biggest delay was the huge flotilla of spectators on the water. Clearing the area proved challenging and time consuming but eventually the first race of the day got under way just over an hour later than planned.

The race was a one sided affair and as the breeze dropped the British team struggled to stay on the foils. As Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rounded the gate at the bottom of the course for their last beat to the shortened race, (finishing at the windward gate on leg 5), they were a full leg ahead of INEOS TEAM UK who remained stuck in the water, unable to fly. By the finish the Italians who hadn’t experienced any flight problems were almost 2 legs ahead.- Full report

Race 10 – New Zealand beat USA by 1:19
As Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) and American Magic (USA) came into the start box neither seemed keen to engage in a pre-start duel. The big race changing moment was to come at the top of the second beat when the Americans fell off their foils through a tack and parked up just short of the windward gate. The mistake proved costly, handing the lead to the Kiwis who rounded the windward mark 54 seconds ahead. From there Emirates Team New Zealand cruised to victory sailing the final lap unchallenged to win. – Full report

Race 11 – USA beat Great Britain by 5:48
The problems started for INEOS TEAM UK (GBR) as they were dealt a penalty for an early entry into the start box, a blow that was to have implications later on. As the breeze dropped American Magic struggled to recover from a bad tack, but in this race they had a big safety margin. – Full report

Race 12 –New Zealand beat Italy by 0:16
There was everything to play for in this last race and the show the teams put on didn’t disappoint. By the last gate rounding there was 18 seconds between the pair as Emirates Team New Zealand headed down the right and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli down the left. The difficulty in pulling off clean gybes was clear to see, at one point the margin had grown to over 300m. But by the finish, it was the Kiwis that had held their lead to finish ahead of the Italians and in doing so, win the PRADA America’s Cup World Series. – Full report

Peter Burling Helmsman – Emirates Team New Zealand
On today’s victory: “Today was at the bottom end of the wind range we agreed to sail on. We could really notice big gains and losses, which made it a tricky race. We had a pretty good race with Luna Rossa, even if we were seeing some pretty light numbers, so it made for a pretty tricky end of the race. We really enjoyed the challenge. We were blown away by how many kiwis showed up to see us here and seeing how many boats were around the racetrack.”

Jimmy Spithill – Helmsman – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team
On today racing: “Today was a little bit patchy. At every start, the wind was at the correct speed to kick off the race, but there clearly were a couple of errors on the course, but the guys that did a better job of that won the race.”

On pre- start strategy: “Francesco and I get to discuss the strategy before the start. There are certain times where you are the helmsman and you make the decision, and the other guy is really doing the foil trimming, and every time you are the helmsman you have to make the decision. It’s been a fun process: it’s something completely new, never done before in the Cup, so it’s been really cool experience. Felt good to come off the line well both times”.

Dean Barker – Helmsman – New York American Magic
“We were looking forward to having a good close race with Team NZ, it was nice to have a small advantage at the beginning, but when you drop off the foil it’s sort of game over. These boats are challenging at the bottom wind range”.

Sir Ben Ainsley – Skipper – INEOS TEAM UK
On today – “Tough day, particularly in lighter air we are struggling. There is certainly a lot for us to look at in terms of what went wrong. The other three teams are doing a much better job than we are, so we’ve got to figure that out pretty quickly. All boats stopped, some more than others”.

On tuning Britannia: “We want to be more competitive than we are right now. We are right at the cutting edge of technology, all these teams have fantastic designers, engineers and right now we are not where we need to be, but that’s why we want to compete in this arena, to push ourselves against the best, and we’ve got to learn, understand, develop, and make that jump.

“There are a couple of key areas where we are lacking a little bit, this event is for us actually a more than an incredible opportunity to be able to go up against these teams and realize ‘OK we’ve got some serious problems’. We’ve got a bit of time to turn that around and make the most out of this opportunity”.

With the PRADA America’s Cup World Series Auckland now complete, the final stage of racing for 2020 changes gear with the PRADA Christmas Race. This is a knockout series comprising two semifinals and a pair of finals tomorrow with racing starting at 3:00 PM NZT weather permitting, exact start time published on americascup.com. The ACWS is December 17-19, with the final result to determine the initial pairings for the two stage Christmas Race on December 20.

America’s Cup details – December 17-20 details – Results – YouTube – Time converter

U.S. viewers can watch all racing live on NBC Sports Gold. NBC Sports Network and www.nbcsports.com will carry most of the racing either live or with a time delay, and all races will be available on replay (see schedule). International viewers can watch racing live and on replay via the America’s Cup website and the America’s Cup YouTube channel (see details).

36th America’s Cup
In addition to Challenges from Italy, USA, and Great Britain that were accepted during the initial entry period (January 1 to June 30, 2018), eight additional Notices of Challenge were received by the late entry deadline on November 30, 2018. Of those eight submittals, entries from Malta, USA, and the Netherlands were also accepted. Here’s the list:

Defender:
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)

Challengers:
• Luna Rossa (ITA) – Challenger of Record
• American Magic (USA)
• INEOS Team UK (GBR)
• Malta Altus Challenge (MLT) – WITHDRAWN
• Stars + Stripes Team USA (USA) – WITHDRAWN
• DutchSail (NED) – WITHDRAWN

Key America’s Cup dates:
✔ September 28, 2017: 36th America’s Cup Protocol released
✔ November 30, 2017: AC75 Class concepts released to key stakeholders
✔ January 1, 2018: Entries for Challengers open
✔ March 31, 2018: AC75 Class Rule published
✔ June 30, 2018: Entries for Challengers close
✔ August 31, 2018: Location of the America’s Cup Match and The PRADA Cup confirmed
✔ August 31, 2018: Specific race course area confirmed
✔ November 30, 2018: Late entries deadline
✔ March 31, 2019: Boat 1 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ 2nd half of 2019: 2 x America’s Cup World Series events (CANCELLED)
✔ October 1, 2019: US$1million late entry fee deadline (NOT KNOWN)
✔ February 1, 2020: Boat 2 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ April 23-26, 2020: First (1/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Cagliari, Sardinia (CANCELLED)
✔ June 4-7, 2020: Second (2/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Portsmouth, England (CANCELLED)
• December 17-20, 2020: Third (3/3) America’s Cup World Series event in Auckland, New Zealand
• January 15-February 22, 2021: The PRADA Cup Challenger Selection Series
• March 6-15, 2021: The America’s Cup Match

Youth America’s Cup Competition (CANCELLED)
• February 18-23, 2021
• March 1-5, 2021
• March 8-12, 2021

AC75 launch dates:
September 6, 2019 – Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Boat 1
September 10, 2019 – American Magic (USA), Boat 1; actual launch date earlier but not released
October 2, 2019 – Luna Rossa (ITA), Boat 1
October 4, 2019 – INEOS Team UK (GBR), Boat 1
October 16, 2020 – American Magic (USA), Boat 2
October 17, 2020 – INEOS Team UK (GBR), Boat 2
October 20, 2020 – Luna Rossa (ITA), Boat 2
November 19, 2020 – Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Boat 2

Details: www.americascup.com