22 March 2010 / AP, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Team New Zealand beat Italy’s Mascalzone Latino by 56 seconds on Sunday to clinch a 2-0 win in the best-of-three final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy sailing regatta for America’s Cup teams.
The final was to be a best-of-five race series but was trimmed to a maximum three races when light winds delayed the start of racing on Sunday. Team New Zealand led 1-0 after winning the first race of the finals series by 12 seconds on Saturday and clinched victory in its home series with a convincing win in the second race. Teams match-raced in identical 75-foot America’s Cup Class yachts belonging to Team New Zealand and built for the 2007 America’s Cup off Valencia. Australian Adam Beashel, who was up the mast on the Team New Zealand yacht, called for the boat to take the right-hand side of the course on the first upwind leg and it managed to squeeze around the first mark with an eight-second lead.
