BARCELONA – In spite of another New Zealand win off the coast of Barcelona on Oct 14, which leaves them 4-0 up and just three wins away from retaining the America’s Cup, there was some cause for optimism for the challengers as the British boat skippered by Ben Ainslie made its best start of the series so far.
They were neck and neck at the end of the first leg but after some dramatic action on the second leg when the two boats were crossing tacks at high speed, Emirates Team New Zealand managed a small gain on leg three.
From there, the Kiwis defended well and crossed the finish line just 23 seconds ahead of Ineos Britannia.
“We did a good job,” said New Zealand co-skipper Peter Burling. “Every win on the board is a super nice one. It’s nice to keep marching forward.”
Ainslie, meanwhile, had belief that his team can still fight back despite their huge deficit, saying that they are “going to keep going and push all the way here”.
The British sailor was part of a US-led team that made one of the biggest-ever sporting comebacks against New Zealand to win the America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013.
The event is competed in a first-to-seven-wins format, so nothing is for certain yet as it is still possible for the Britons to bounce back.
The New Zealanders are also unlikely to be getting over-excited about their 4-0 lead in the 13-race series.
They will be more than aware that in 2013, they led 8-1 in a 17-race series before the Americans came back to life and won the next eight races to retain the ‘Auld Mug’ – and the inspiration for Oracle Team USA was provided by none other than Ainslie.
“It was a good race,” said Ainslie after the tight defeat on Oct 14.
“We had a good start but they’re going well. We have to try and figure out how to improve the performance.
“Clearly, they’re going really well. I think we have our moments but there are moments when we are losing a click and that’s really the difference.”
Race 5 is slated for Oct 16, so the teams had a day off sailing on Oct 15 to work on their strategy.
Ainslie said that the reserve day would give the crew a good opportunity to work on ways to narrow the slight performance gap they were seeing against New Zealand.
“It’s a good opportunity to take a day ashore and figure out how we can make some gains,” he added.
“They’ve obviously had a strong start but we can come back from this.” AFP
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