Portuguese Win for Emirates

Emirates Team New Zealand, with Dean Barker at the helm, won the first America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) regatta in Portugal with a dramatic come-from-behind move in the winner-take-all fleet race on 14 August. Oracle Racing’s Jimmy Spithill, the winning skipper in the 2010 America’s Cup, jumped to a convincing early lead but couldn’t protect it. Barker found more wind on his side of the race course on the second lap to pass Spithill, who on Saturday won the match-racing championship. “For us it was fantastic,” Barker said. “It was always going to be a very difficult race, as the breeze never really established. There were big ‘holes’ in the race course, so it was about being at the right place at the right time.” Oracle Racing’s Russell Coutts was fourth, followed by Green Comm Racing, Aleph, Team Korea, Energy Team and China Team. The next stop on the ACWS circuit is in Plymouth, England from 10-18 September. The 34th America’s Cup will be sailed on San Francisco Bay in 2013 in 72-foot catamarans.