News

RESTART – BEST OF FIVE
28 June 2007

With its win on Wednesday, Alinghi tied the America’s Cup Match at two wins apiece. Essentially, the series is now a best of five, with the first team to win three races, beginning tomorrow, winning the America’s Cup.

Today is a scheduled off day and both teams are planning on spending the day on debriefings and video review. There will also be the Jury hearing at 11:00 to hear the protest filed by Emirates Team New Zealand.

The series has been tight, with Alinghi winning the first and fourth matches. The Kiwis came from behind in winning matches two and three.

“They are good all round,” said Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth in assessing the Emirates squad. “It’s 2-2: they go well, there is no question. This is a great regatta, these are the two best teams in the game and it just doesn’t get any better than this.”

Emirates skipper Dean Barker agrees: “We knew coming into this that Alinghi was going to be very strong and we would have to see how things played out in terms of performance. But I think what we have learned so far is that there is very little difference. I think we are really still sizing each other up and it is coming down to which team sails better on the day…”

The forecast for Friday is for strong sea breezes, perhaps upwards of 15 knots.