AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The main attraction for spectators and television viewers at the America’s Cup will always be the AC75s, the sleek racing yachts that can fly above the water on hydrofoils at speeds as high as 60 miles an hour.
The event’s scene-stealer this week, though, may be the supporting actor that has been racing them: the helicopter filming the races between Emirates Team New Zealand and Italy’s Luna Rossa for international television broadcasts. Its nail-biting maneuvers, almost always at high speed and sometimes only a few feet above the water, have brought the sheen of a big-budget action movie to what can often be a relatively straightforward sprint.