At this point in the 2013 America’s Cup series Emirates Team New Zealand was leading 2-0. Race 3 was close, but Oracle lost the race on the upwind leg when they had to take an upwind tack and ended up sailing hundreds of meters further. It became really obvious in this race that ETNZ is faster upwind than OTUSA.
![](https://www.marinersmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Race-4-G-Martin-Raget-ac-d2-r4-gmrac-7912-1.jpg?w=1024)
Race 4 started well for Oracle, but while gybing at the bottom mark they dropped their leeward dagger board too soon and too quickly causing USA-17 to nosedive. The blunder gave ETNZ a chance to close the distance between the two boats. Good tactics and minimal mistakes kept Oracle in the lead, giving the team their first win, but Team New Zealand’s blistering boat speed on the final leg (43 knots) held the delta between the two boats to a mere 8 seconds.
![](https://www.marinersmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Race-4-G-Martin-Raget-d2-r4-acak-7931-1.jpg?w=1024)
It was now patently obvious that New Zealand was not only faster upwind, but possibly downwind as well.
Here are today’s trivia questions:
Race 3:
What did Emirates Team New Zealand call the reinforcing structure underneath of Aotearoa’s platform? What problem did it cause?
Race 4:
Between the Louis Vuitton series and the America’s Cup match ETNZ installed “spoilers,” affectionately called “pie warmers,” on their stern crossbeam. What problem were they trying to solve?