Team NZ stretches America’s Cup lead over British to 4-0
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
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Team New Zealand has continued its winning way going 4-0 up in the America’s Cup match against Britain’s INEOS Britannia in Barcelona.
The victory cements skipper Peter Burling’s place as the winningest America’s Cup helmsman, on 19 victories, surpassing Jimmy Spithill’s 17.
The way to win 19 involved a closely fought first two legs, then the defenders began to edge away from the British challenger to a 23 second margin at the finish.
Unlike yesterday’s dramatic near-collision in the start box, the boats kept their distance with the British faster across the line to hold the narrowest of leads, crossing in front of the defender Taihoro.
A critical moment came at the first mark rounding where Team New Zealand managed to tack in front of the British, forcing them to round the other mark - with the official margin at that point “zero”.
That was where we got back into it,“ said Nathan Outteridge, Team New Zealand’s co-helmsman.
In a couple of close crosses on the second leg, Team New Zealand was just in front and Sir Ben Ainslie’s crew twice protested, both unsuccessfully.
In what would become the pattern in this encounter, the margin at the second gate increased slightly to 3 seconds in favour of Team New Zealand.
The defender extended by several boat lengths in the upwind leg three, pulling ahead to 13 seconds at the halfway mark, 15 seconds at the fourth, 24 seconds at the fifth, and finishing 23 seconds ahead.
INEOS Britannia’s skipper Sir Ben Ainslie was unbowed: “ They’ve obviously had a good start but we can come back from this,” he said in a post-race television interview.
“We've, made a step forward again with the performance of the boat and getting tacking nicely,” said Outteridge.
“Every win on the board is obviously a super nice,” said the skipper Peter Burling, not being drawn further on the significance of being beyond the halfway mark on the scoreboard.
The fourth win in a row puts Team New Zealand just over the halfway mark in its battle to be the first to clock up seven wins.
The match now takes a one-day break, returning to the waters on Wednesday (1.10am Thursday NZ time).