The victory that makes everyone agree. “New Zealand is the best team there has ever been in the America’s Cup,” he chisels Sir Ben AinslieCEO and helmsman of Ineos Britannia defeated by the Kiwis. “It is undoubtedly a deserved victory. They were superior to everyone else in every area and established themselves as a benchmark for other teams” he applauds Max Mermaidskipper of Luna Rossa. “In their team there is a culture built over the years that makes the difference; it is a process that takes time, but Luna Rossa is on the right path.”
The Haka that accompanied Taihoro in the regatta
Now that it’s all over, that Emirates Team New Zealand has beaten Ineos 7-2, becoming the first team in the modern era to win the America’s Cup three times in a row, it must be said that the other teams have suffered greatly from its excessive power. Long before the final, indeed, years before the last act in the port of Barcelona, because the America’s Cup begins at the same time as the other ends. And if you combine a group of formidable sailors, physicists, mathematicians, designers who continually dialogue, with the possibility of writing the rules – as the regulation has provided since the nineteenth century – then an explosive mixture is created. Much more than the Haka that the Maori warriors played on the canoe that accompanied the boat called Taihoro to the regattas. Luna Rossa also suffered from these pre-departure conditions, quantified as a one-year advantage. From the moment the characteristics of the AC75 with which it would be competed were announced, the reduction of the crew and the return of the cyclors. But not only that: the possibility for the defenders to race in round robins with the others, so as to be able to study them. Also adding the management software produced and distributed to the other teams, or the composition of the jury paid by a NZ structure.
New Zealand, a splendid boat
But beyond all the advantages given by the regulation, New Zealand has built a splendid boat (smaller wings, narrower rudder, more agile maneuvers). And it was a breath of youth on a cup that for the last time saw 47-year-old captains like Ainslie, 45-year-olds like Spithill51enni come Bruni. It is no coincidence that Luna Rossa is working on a helmsman package with the double Olympic champion Ruggiero Tita and the 20-year-old prodigy Marco Gradoni. We have to fight back blow for blow, and sailing is now in a PlayStation era well represented by rudders that look like steering wheels, framed on TV for the first time (with the data on the display obscured).
Peter Burling‘s turning point
The jewel in the crown of this country of 5 million inhabitants who live off rugby and sailing is Peter Burlingwhich was already a phenomenon when he was driving his parents’ boat as a child. There is a before and after Burling, in New Zealand, and he himself underlined it: “This team had some bad memories before I played match point”, and the reference is to 2013 when the Kiwis had the lead 8-1 they lost the cup 8-9 to Oracle. From the ashes of that defeat was born the greatest cycle of the modern America’s Cup. Luna Rossa remains with a very young team and a memory: the lightning regatta, when Prada beat New Zealand. A flash of hope for the future.
#Zealand #Max #Sirena #Luna #Rossa
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