Skipper James Spithill lifts the America's Cup with members of the Oracle Team USA after winning the overall title of the 34th America's Cup yacht sailing race over Emirates Team New Zealand in San Francisco, California, Wednesday. — Reuters SAN FRANCISCO — Oracle Team USA prevailed in a dramatic winner-take-all showdown with Emirates Team New Zealand Wednesday to win the 34th America's Cup, completing a stirring comeback that helped make the once-troubled event among the most exciting in sailing history. For Oracle and its hard-charging skipper, Jimmy Spithill, the win was an extraordinary sporting triumph, one that saw the team climb back from a seemingly insurmountable 8-1 deficit in the best-of-17 series to keep the trophy it won three years ago. The thrilling final races were also a ringing vindication of Oracle owner Larry Ellison's controversial decision to transform a once-staid yachting event into a TV-friendly, extreme-sports spectacle featuring huge catamarans flying across the natural amphitheater of San Francisco Bay at 50 miles per hour. “A lot of people who were never interested in sailing are now interested in sailing,” Ellison said at a post-race news conference. “This regatta has changed sailing forever.” Emirates Team New Zealand, a plucky challenger that lacked a billionaire sponsor but nonetheless sailed to the brink of Cup victory, must now endure the ignominy of having let the prize slip from its grasp in the final days after a grueling two-year campaign of boat development and training. Oracle dominated the last race, showcasing the dramatic improvements in boat speed on the upwind leg of the race that began to emerge a week ago. Oracle seemed to find an extra gear after losing most of the early races, and even overcame a pre-match penalty that required it win 11 races on the water. The speed improvements appeared to come mainly from changes that enabled the boat to consistently “foil,” or lift almost completely out of the water on small horizontal wings, even when heading upwind. The team also changed tacticians after its early losses, installing Britain's Ben Ainslie — the winningest Olympic sailor in history — in that spot in place of San Francisco native John Kostecki. The winning Oracle team had only one American on board. As one of the most coveted sporting prizes, the America's Cup over its 162-year history has fueled patriotism even in non-sailors and winning the trophy was seen as a mark of a nation's seafaring greatness. When Australia broke America's 132-year hold on the Cup in 1983 the jubilation brought normal business to a standstill. Just a week ago, New Zealand fans had all but begun celebrating what seemed like an inevitable sporting and economic windfall for the longtime international sailing power, which supported the team with about $30 million in government funds in the hopes of bringing the trophy - and attendant tourism and publicity - back home. But Wednesday it was Ellison who was celebrating, joining the crew on the boat moments after the finish. New Zealand's soft-spoken skipper, Dean Barker, called the defeat “very difficult to accept — a very tough pill to swallow.” Ellison was non-committal as to whether he would hold the event in San Francisco next time. “Personally, I'd love to come back to San Francisco,” he said, but suggested that extensive discussions with city officials lay ahead. Oracle had plenty of advantages coming into the regatta. It was on its home turf, and had enough money to hire top sailors and build two equally matched boats to train against one another. The team was distinctly international, with New Zealander Russell Coutts, who led the Kiwis to Cup victory in 1995 and 2000, serving as CEO and the Australian Spithill as the skipper. But the Kiwis, led by a 56-year-old managing director, Grant Dalton, who doubled as a workhorse on-board “grinder” during races, proved ingenious in developing their boat, particularly in pioneering the use of hydrofoils that lift both hulls almost entirely of the water to reduce drag. Ellison said one unnamed team had already stepped up as a challenger for the next Cup. Dalton wouldn't name the team. — Reuters
