Thrills and spills

NZ set to face damaged Japan and Great Britain

It was a dream start for organisers but a nightmare for the shore crews of Team Japan and Ben Ainslie Racing. Day one of the America’s Cup qualifiers delivered the type of drama and action that was hoped for when the high-powered 50-foot catamarans were first conceived, with lead changes, protests, shock results and collisions.

The race of the day was Oracle Team USA’s stunning come-frombehind victory over Team New Zealand, who looked to have an unassailable lead through the middle stages. Sound sickeningly familiar?

That is where the parallels between the 2013 regatta in San Francisco and the current iteration of the event end.

Already Bermuda has delivered something very different.

It was not the rollicking duel between the defender, who, in a first for the event, have inserted themselves into the challenger series, and Emirates Team New Zealand that was the main talking point after the opening day of action. Rather it was the hull-to-hull combat between British team Ben Ainslie Racing and Team Japan in the final race that captured everyone’s attention.

As the two teams jockeyed for position in the pre-start, Team Japan skipper Dean Barker aggressively challenged his rival for inside running and counterpart Ainslie did not react quickly enough.

The leeward hull of the British boat came crashing down on Team Japan, and the crew were forced to duck and dive to get out of the way.

Or, as Barker describes: “I saw an ugly, big, black hull come towards the side of the boat and proceeded to land on our hull.”

If the America’s Cup has been pitching itself as F1 on the water, perhaps Ainslie should take heed of the old adage “you can’t win a race on the first corner, but you can lose one”.

But just as he was after his skirmish with Team NZ in practice racing earlier this month, Ainslie was unrepentant about the incident.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened, but when you are pushing these boats as hard as we are, it’s inevitably going to happen from time to time,” he said.

Such casual acceptance that this is what the new foiling America’s Cup is all about suggests we are in for a heart-stopping few weeks.

The potential for thrills and spills have already been highlighted in the lead-up to the event, with numerous incidents of capsizes, nosedives and out of control catamarans.

But the drama seen on day one was something else.

BAR were lucky not to end up at the bottom of the Great Sound given they were taking on water at a great rate, having split their hull.

In amongst the carnage, there were some fascinating tactical duels on the race course, which suggests sailing smarts will still count for something in this regatta.

Team NZ made a costly tactical error in their second match-up of the day against Oracle, and will be looking to improve their decisionmaking around the race course in their upcoming matches.

But the Kiwi team won’t be paying much attention to the defender right now. If they get to the point where Oracle is their chief concern, then that is a good problem to have.

In competition stragglers Team