If ever Team Shosholoza came close to winning their first America’s Cup match race in the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 2, it was in Monday’s neck-and-neck race against the super-slick American BMW Oracle racing team — but it was not to be.
To the amazement of hardened sailing correspondents covering this first Spanish America’s Cup event, the South Africans took the lead from Larry Ellison’s multimillion-dollar professional sailing machine in smart tactics just after the first windward mark.
They held it down the entire first run, making gains as they found and maximised on scattered puffs of wind.
At one point, they managed to extend their lead to over 80m with flawless gybes and speeds at least a knot faster than BMW Oracle, which carries 11 square metres more sail area than Shosholoza.
But BMW took the lead again on the beat in four- to five-knot breezes that saw the two yachts periodically dying in windless patches.
Then — amid exclamations of déjà vu from commentators — Team Shosholoza took the lead again on the second run and seemed set to hold it to the finish. However, a late gybe and winds favouring BMW Oracle’s side of the course edged the Americans ahead just 100m from the finish.
Supporters from every single team on the water wanted to weep, but veterans of the America Cup cautioned that it is still too early for Africa’s first-ever challenger to score a win, especially against a top-flight team like BMW Oracle.
In the first Flight 2 on Monday, Team Shosholoza also lost to the French Le Defi Challenge, and in the last Flight 4, Shosholoza again lost to Cup defenders Team Alinghi. — Sapa