TNZ win Barker grudge match
Team New Zealand have gone two from two in an enthralling day of racing at the America’s Cup as Oracle Team USA suffered a shock defeat.
The twin victories – over Japan and Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR) – were the perfect response to Sunday’s close loss to Oracle and lifted them up to second in the qualifying standings, level with BAR on three points and two behind the Americans.
It was not all smooth sailing for Team NZ as helmsman Peter Burling made a poor start against BAR, receiving a penalty for entering the pre-start area early. As a result, they began the race two boat lengths behind the Brits.
BAR led by four seconds at the first mark but Team NZ put their foot on the gas to shoot past their rivals in an impressive show of speed. Burling picked up a huge wind shift in the third leg to edge in front by 100m, which ballooned out to more than 450m when BAR stalled coming out of the third gate and it was all-but over from that point.
Earlier, the Kiwis got the better of former skipper Dean Barker with a thrilling 33-second win over Team Japan.
Billed as a grudge match after Barker was let go by Team NZ following the stunning collapse at the 2013 event, Japan took the fight to the Kiwis and led for the first four legs on Bermuda’s Great Sound.
However, Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling held his nerve on before pulling away at the backend of the race to record their second victory of the regatta.
Team NZ edged the pre-start but Japan hit back to take a slight lead by the first mark.
Barker stretched the advantage to more than 100m in the third leg. However, a bad tack allowed the Kiwis to reduce the gap to just three seconds heading into the fourth.
In a crucial fifth leg, Team NZ then split away from their rivals and found better pressure on the outside of the course, forcing a 30-second turn around as they edged in front.
While Burling bounced back from Sunday’s close loss to Oracle Team USA, it was an impressive performance from Barker given the repairs they had to undergo following Sunday’s big crash with British syndicate Ben Ainsilie Racing, which was also damaged.
There were doubts whether either crew would be fit to take the water.
But ACRM regatta director Iain Murray confirmed both teams would be ready and the British boat made a strong start during their first race of the day against Oracle only for the Americans to storm home and win by 39 seconds.
There were fears the Brits had sustained more damage to their hull after making a huge nose-dive during a turn. But those concerns eased by the end of the race.
Day two got under way with a huge upset as Team France held off a late charge by Artemis by just three seconds to capture their first win of the regatta.
But the biggest upset was yet to come as the Swedes regrouped to stun Oracle by 39 seconds, handing the defenders their first defeat in four races.
Artemis shot out of the gates and built a big leg in the first half of the race.
As expected, James Spithill launched a big fightback in leg five. But unlike the race against BAR, they could not get their noses in front as Artemis showed just how unprecttable this matchracing can be.
On Sunday, Ainslie was judged to be at fault for the crash as he failed to react in time after being out-maneuvered by Japan skipper Dean Barker and his catamaran slid sideways into the Japanese.
BAR was left with a sizeable hole in the port hull and as the guilty party, were in danger of forfeiting points if they could not get their boat ready in time.
Under the new Redress code, Japan could have applied for an extra 24 hours to make repairs, although they ultimately decided the damage was not significant enough to do so.
‘‘Land Rover BAR and SoftBank Team Japan will be on the start line today,’’ Murray said. ‘‘Both of their race certificates have been put in and signed off so they will be racing.’’ Fairfax NZ