Sailing-New Zealand take America’s Cup to the brink with wins over Britain

BARCELONA :New Zealand cruised to within a point of retaining the America’s Cup on Friday, twice outclassing the British challengers to take a 6-2 lead in the first-to-seven series off Barcelona.
Skipper Peter Burling’s New Zealand crew outpaced Britain’s Ben Ainslie in both races in a tricky breeze, twice making the most of wind shifts to get ahead and then build on their lead in their high-tech AC75 foiling monohull “Taihoro”.
“It was nice to bounce back from a few mistakes the other day and put a couple of solid races on the board … it was just awesome, we were loving it,” Burling said on the America’s Cup live broadcast after his team’s second victory of the day.
“When you get a couple of losses, it obviously puts you under pressure,” Burling said of the impressive performance by his New Zealand crew after two defeats by Britain on Wednesday.
The British coach said the team’s boat may have sustained some rudder damage during the second race, making it harder to handle “Britannia”, the boat which Ainslie and his billionaire backer Jim Ratcliffe hope will “bring the Cup home”.
“Hat’s off to the Kiwis .. they sailed two really nice races,” Ainslie said as he and the team digested defeat, adding that they would have to “take that on the chin”.
“It’s still not over yet, so we’ll keep fighting,” Ainslie said of the British chances of staging a comeback when racing resumes at the weekend, adding that the rudder had not been a determining factor in the losses.
“We had a little bit of an issue, but I think it came down to the first shift off the starts on both races,” the 47-year-old said, adding: “Tomorrow’s another day”.
Ainslie knows about unlikely comebacks.
In 2013, the British sailor was part of a United States-led team that staged one of the biggest sporting revivals against New Zealand in San Francisco to clinch the America’s Cup, which the Kiwis then retook in 2017.
In the first of Friday’s races, Britain got across the start line first after pre-race skirmishes but the Kiwis capitalised on a favourable wind shift on the right hand side of the course to seize an early lead, which they extended to win the race.
And while the start looked even in the second race, the New Zealand crew once again read the wind better to ride the shifts and power their way ahead of the British upwind.
They went on to sail a near faultless race, while the British were slowed by one ‘splash down’ where their hull dipped into the water and gifted New Zealand more crucial metres.