Members of Oracle Team USA wave to spectators after winning against Emirates Team New Zealand during Race 13 of the 34th America’s Cup yacht sailing race in San Francisco, California, Friday. — Reuters



SAN FRANCISCO — The lightest wind of the America’s Cup led to one crazy day on foggy San Francisco Bay.



When the boats came back to shore Friday afternoon, Jimmy Spithill and his Oracle Team USA teammates were smiling and slapping each other on the back after keeping the America’s Cup in America for at least one more day.



Dean Barker and his mates on Emirates Team New Zealand could only shake their heads at how close they’d come to wresting the oldest trophy in international sports from the American powerhouse.



Spithill and Oracle Team USA stayed alive for the second straight day, pulling away from the Kiwis to win the re-sail of Race 13 by 1 minute, 24 seconds.



The first attempt to sail Race 13 was abandoned because it wasn’t completed in 40 minutes, the result of organizers trying to fit two races a day into a two-hour TV window.



Team New Zealand, which reached match point Wednesday, leads 8-3. Oracle has won five races but was penalized two points by an international jury in the biggest cheating scandal in the Cup’s 162-year history.



Oracle Team USA, owned by software tycoon Larry Ellison, has won four of the last six races. It needs six more wins to complete a miracle comeback.

“We believe we can win,” said Spithill, a 34-year-old Australian who lives in San Diego. “From the start of this regatta we were off the pace, and we were honest about it and we were critical about it, inside our own team. But where we are now, we truly believe we’ve got the boat to do it, that we’ve got the tools to do it.”



Races 14 and, if necessary, 15, are scheduled for Saturday.



Earlier Friday, organizers had to abandon or postpone a race for the sixth time since last weekend. The previous five were because of wind over the safety limit. That was imposed after British sailor Andrew “Bart” Simpson was killed in the capsize of Artemis Racing’s catamaran during a training run May 9.



Team New Zealand was slogging along on the upwind fourth leg when the 40-minute time limit was reached. The Kiwis had a lead of a mile at one point on the fourth leg.



It was a bizarre scene as the high-performance catamarans limped between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island in only 9 knots of wind.

Previously, the cats had hit speeds of 50 mph (80 kph) while skimming across the tops of the waves on hydrofoils, with their hulls completely out of the water.



“Today was a very unusual day on San Francisco Bay and I think it’s the first time we sailed out there all day when it was that light all day,” Barker said. “It’s frustrating to be on the wrong side of it but we knew the time limit existed.”



The wind built past 11 knots for the restart and both boats foiled into the starting box.



With the big cats a mere 10 feet apart, Barker fended off Spithill’s attempt to get the inside position and led at the start and around the first mark.



With both boats foiling going downwind, Oracle was able to grab the lead.

As the boats converged, New Zealand crossed just ahead on port gybe but Oracle, on favored starboard, had to dip out of the way and protested. New Zealand was penalized, but it was moot because Oracle had sailed into the lead.



The Kiwis made another mistake at the bottom gate mark. The American boat gybed on top of them and headed for the right buoy. Instead of following Oracle, the Kiwis gybed toward the other buoy and slowed considerably. That allowed Oracle to open a 20-second lead. — AP