It was a fired-up, proficient and efficient Emirates Team New Zealand that aced the hardest to interpret wind direction here in Barcelona and took two clean races off the fast-charging Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia who left very little out on the water today but succumbed to a masterclass of weather reading and boatspeed.
In smoother sea-state conditions, Emirates Team New Zealand looked a different boat, able to employ a consistent ride height and smooth, fast manoeuvres whilst their sailing team out-smarted and out-fought the Challenger to now sit just one win away from defending the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.
Right from the outset, Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher, helmsmen of ‘Britannia’ laid their stall out, crossing from the port side with the finest of margins before circling immediately with intent to get on the Kiwi’s tail who had entered the starting box at pace and very much up for the fight.
Sharp turns and fine execution from both teams yielded a fascinating lead-back to the line with the British making the better time-on-distance but Emirates Team New Zealand crucially held the windward position and immediately adopted a high mode with a smaller J3 jib than the British who had set a larger J2.
With a north-westerly breeze filtering off the land, filling and shifting wildly and delivering pressure between 8-14 knots, this was a day for the ‘wind-whisperers’ and it was Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge onboard ‘Taihoro’ who maintained constant dialogue with their trim team of Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney up the first beat, who read it best.
