Young Writers Society

In the final race, between Switzerland (the defender) and New Zealand (the challenger), The lead had been going from one boat to the other the entire race, all four legs. Then, on the last leg, Switzerland's boat, Alinghi broke her spinaker pole. New Zealand (Fly Emarites) flew past, and was four boat lengths ahead, by the last half of leg four. Two boatlengths from the finish line, Emarites made up their penalty turn. If they'd have made the turn a couple of seconds later, they'd have won the race.

during their penalty turn, New Zealand lost almost all their speed, enough for Alinghi to catch up. They crossed the finish line, not 2 seconds apart!

It was the closest race in America's Cup history.

http://www.americascup.com/en/


Utterly amazing!

I believe the official result was that Team NZ behind by just one second.

If you're not in NZ you probably don't realise how big a deal this challenge was. I don't know what it was like anywhere else but it was in the News all the time. It was in the news, pretty much every day during the regatta, at least twice, in the main news and again in sport. I don't know how many times I saw that penalty turn at the end of the last race, but it was a lot and I didn't even watch the race. The America's Cup was everywhere.

It was awesome!!

sorry about the time. Last I heard, it was 2 seconds