Burling, Team New Zealand reach match point in America’s Cup

HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) — Helmsman Peter Burling and his underdog Emirates Team New Zealand won two races Sunday to reach match point in the America’s Cup against Jimmy Spithill and two-time defending champion Oracle Team USA.

Now the Kiwis need to avoid the kind of soul-crushing collapse that kept them from winning the oldest trophy in international sports four years ago.

Burling, who at 26 could become the youngest helmsman to hoist sailing’s greatest prize, steered his red-and-black, 50-foot foiling catamaran to victories of 12 seconds in Race 7 and 30 seconds in Race 8 on the Great Sound.

The Kiwis moved to 6-1 in the first-to-seven match. Team New Zealand has won seven races but began with a negative point because Oracle won the qualifiers.

The clincher could come Monday, when two races are scheduled.

New Zealand, a small, sailing-mad island nation, will no doubt be holding its breath.

This is a rematch of the epic 2013 match on San Francisco Bay. Team New Zealand, then led by Dean Barker, reached match point at 8-1 before Oracle rallied to win eight straight races in one of the greatest comebacks in sports to retain the Auld Mug.

Underfunded Team New Zealand almost folded after that debacle, but has bounced back with a remarkably fast boat design that includes a radical cycling grinding system.

Burling appeared to give a friendly wave to the Oracle crew as he sailed alongside and into a controlling position during the prestart of Race 8.

From there, he kept his catamaran on foils all the way around the course as he sailed to the cusp of what would be an enormous upset of powerhouse Oracle Team USA, which is owned by one of the world’s richest men, software tycoon Larry Ellison.

Burling has won Olympic gold and silver medals, along with Team New Zealand crewman Blair Tuke. Now he’s closing in on adding his name to a list of America’s Cup winners that includes Dennis Conner, fellow New Zealander Russell Coutts and Ted Turner.

While Burling steers the boat, the crew is skippered by Australian Glenn Ashby, 39, a multihull wiz who controls the wingsail.

Spithill became the youngest helmsman to win the America’s Cup in 2010 when Oracle Team USA beat Alinghi of Switzerland.

Team New Zealand first won the America’s Cup in 1995 when Coutts — now the CEO of Oracle Team USA — skippered a five-race sweep of Conner off San Diego.

After defending in 2000, Coutts jumped ship to Alinghi of Switzerland and led a five-race sweep of Team New Zealand. The Kiwis lost again to Alinghi in 2007.

In Race 7, Spithill turned up just a little bit as the catamarans approached the starting line, perhaps fearful of being early across the line as he was in Races 1 and 5, both losses. He said those mistakes were due to a software glitch on the space-age boat.

That’s all Burling needed to put his cat ahead for good, winning by 12 seconds. Oracle did cut Team New Zealand’s 35-second lead at the fifth gate mark to 12 seconds at the sixth gate mark.