Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Vs Emirates Team New Zealand

The America’s Cup, contested in foiling 75-foot monohulls, will be won by the “boat” that spends least time touching the water, and sails best in nearly no wind. Hardly traditional yachting values. Strategic starts and boat speeds of these 50+ knot craft are still crucial, however, and the spectacular action can be watched live on TV or online.

- Bruce Maxwell

The Italians have never won an America’s Cup. This is the second time they have made it to the final, by completing a comprehensive 7-1 rout of Sir Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Team UK in the late February Prada Cup matches for challengers.

Their previous finals appearance was 21 years ago, when they triumphed amid 11 challengers from seven countries, including five American entries, and went up against the same Kiwis in the same place, losing 5-0. That 30th AC was the first time America had been neither Defender nor Challenger.

The British, bereft of the auld mug since losing an opening race around the Isle of Wight in 1851, had a topsy turvy 36th series, going down 0-6 in the December “worlds” because they couldn’t foil in lighter airs, then sweeping the Prada Cup round robins 5-0 in moderate conditions, but sinking back to 1-7 ignominy against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in mostly moderate winds of the Prada Cup final.

New York Yacht Club’s American Magic syndicate had earlier been literally wiped out when their boat capsized in a round robin race, sustaining a hole in the hull which, although mended, led to forfeits and a limping, less-than-optimum farewell. Their contest effectively ended with the capsize.

The Americans can still say that they have won the AC in 29 of the 35 events, which are held roughly every 4-5 years, prior to this outing in island-strewn Hauraki Gulf waters, just outside Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.

The Australians were first to remove the auld mug from its bolted-down plinth at New York Yacht Club when they won in 1983 in Newport, Rhode Island. The Kiwis won three times, first in 1995 in San Diego, California.