“We knew the forecast was going to be up,” Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said, talking about Thursday’s sail. “The head engineer sent an email out to the sailing team saying, ‘It’s day 28, two days to go, let’s really push this thing and get the loads up’.
“…The breeze really kicked in and the waves got up. It was around 28 knots when we had to bear away to come home and I think we had a VMG dead downwind of around 32 knots. And I know we had an average speed over 2.5 minutes of something like 42 knots over the ground.
“It was big waves, the bow was digging in, the boat was lifting. We we’re ok, but you never really know how ok until it all goes wrong. But that’s the hardest we’ve ever pushed…
“All good, we got back, but there wasn’t anybody unhappy to put the boat back in the shed, that’s for sure!”
From : America's Cup
