Race 5 of the America’s Cup started off brilliantly for Oracle Team USA thanks to some aggressive maneuvering by Jimmy Spithill in the pre-start. For the first time Oracle was able to take the windward position and establish an early lead. Leg 2 went well until the Oracle rounded the bottom mark, badly, and then compounded the issue with another poor decision to continue across the flood current towards the shore. New Zealand wisely chose to stay out of the flood current and when the two boats converged again New Zealand was in the lead. Barker built on that lead and won the race by 1:05.

Here is today’s trivia question:

Race 5: What maneuver did tactician John Kostecki call for that led to OTUSA’s loss of Race 5? [Just because I think it’s hysterical when you take the AC50 and 2017 America’s Cup match into account, Larry Ellison’s response to the maneuver was: “That was a massive tactical blunder. Oh yeah, and there’s no such thing as a ………”]