Groupama Team France Denies Oracle the Win

Ben Ainslie and his team showed grit and tenacity to win the Oman stop on the America’s Cup World Series. After getting a third and two firsts in Saturday’s races, they had poor starts in all three double points races on Sunday, including two OCS* penalties. On Sunday they were in last place at the first mark in each race but clawed their way back to finish those races 2-4-3 to win the regatta.

*OCS = on course side, meaning they crossed the starting line before the starting signal. The penalty is to drop two boat lengths behind all the boats that started correctly.

Groupama Team France Denies Oracle the Win

Watch the video of incidents between Oracle and Team France at the windward gate in Races 4 and 6 in Oman. In each case Oracle lost one place. Since the Sunday races score double points, finishing one place higher either in race would have given Oracle two more points, equal to BAR.

Oracle Team USA finished two points behind Land Rover BAR. Did this incident at the windward mark in Race 4 cost them the regatta? If they had come in fourth instead of fifth in Race 4, they would have had equal points to BAR and would have won on the count back.

In Race 6 France passed Oracle at the last gate, and Artemis snagged the anchor line on a mark, dropping them to last place in the race and in the regatta. Watch the action in this video.

Oracle finished only two points behind Land Rover BAR. If they had finished fourth instead of fifth in the first race on Sunday, or if they had hung on to the lead in the last race, they would have won the regatta.

Emirates Team New Zealand still leads the overall America’s Cup World Series

Uncharacteristically last in one race and next to last in another, ETNZ still managed to be on the podium for the event and to maintain their overall lead in the America’s Cup World Series. Winning the first race of each day pushed them into third place in Oman. They maintain a six point lead over Oracle in the series.