The Cup is going South...

It didn’t make any difference that Olympic hero Ben Ainslie was in the tactician’s spot for the first time. Look, Ferdinand Magellan couldn’t have bailed Oracle Team USA out of this mess.
Emirates Team New Zealand still has Oracle’s number. The Kiwis are just three wins away from the America’s Cup.

They swept Races 6 and 7 on Thursday, winning by 47 seconds and 1:06. If they win two more on Saturday, they’ll be in position to sip Champagn on Sunday.

In Race 6, they got exactly what they wanted in the upwind third leg — an extended tacking duel. Thanks to the rounder shape of their hulls and their smooth teamwork, they have consistenly had the advantage on that leg. This time they converted a 12-second deficit to a 44-second lead by the end of the leg. The maintained the lead through the downwind fourth leg — by 42 seconds at the mark.

Early in the telltale third leg, Team New Zealand crossed in front of Oracle. Oracle regained the lead against briefly on the next tack. The next time around, skipper Dean Barker had a slight advantage and executed a “dial-down” — essentially winning a game of chicken — that forced Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill to veer away to avoid a collision, costing the American team a second or two as New Zealand regained the lead.

There were at least a dozen tacks by each team on the leg, which exacted a physical toll on both crews. The upwind third leg has been the Kiwis’ moment of brilliance and that was the case again Thursday.

Ainslie replaced John Kostecki as Oracle’s tactician and apparently helped Spithill right away. Spithill had his best start of the finals and Barker was trapped in a trailing position heading toward the starting line. Oracle won the start convincingly and beat the Kiwis to the first mark by nine seconds.

Barker reversed the positions at the start in Race 7. He took the outside position, his team was faster to the starting line and the first mark. After the downwind second leg, the Kiwis’ lead was just seven seconds. Then came the upwind leg, and it was: So long, Kiwis. Oracle had no answer for them, and the only question from then on was how much New Zealand would win by.

The decision to switch tacticians was left up to skipper Spithill, team chief executive Russell Coutts said.

Kostecki, who grew up in San Rafael, is widely respected in the sailing world and probably knows the bay waters as well as anyone. However, he “hasn’t had the greatest series,” Coutts said.
He made a couple of tactical mistakes in the early races of the finals. On Sunday, he called for an immediate tack as the boat rounded the leeward mark, setting a course for Alcatraz Island. The decision forced a difficult hairpin turn, which the crew failed to execute smoothly, costing the boat precious seconds and, soon thereafter, the lead.

Coutts said it was an obvious mistake, but he said Kostecki has done well at other phases of the races, such as making calls in the pre-start. In the meantime, though, his counterpart, Ray Davies, has been practically flawless.

It’s a little unfair to compare the two because they have slightly different responsibilities because of the boats’ different designs. The Oracle tactician also grinds the winches to help power the hydraulics system and trim either the wing sail or the jib.

Davies, on the other hand, is generally free to stand up and try to read the wind, the waves and the current. On the Kiwis’ boat, the jib is controlled automatically and doesn’t have to be trimmed manually.

Ainslie, the skipper of the team’s alternate boat in unofficial races against Spithill’s crew, was coming off a London Olympics in which he was celebrated by the home fans for his fourth straight gold medal. He was knighted in March.

De Ridder’s appeal denied: Oracle wing trimmer Dirk de Ridder’s appeal of his dismissal from the America’s Cup has been denied.

The review board of the International Sailing Federation said it lacked the authority to reinstate de Ridder because the decision of the jury to dismiss him is considered “final and binding” by the protocol of the 34th America’s Cup.