Britain won a second race in their head-to-head America’s Cup final against New Zealand on Wednesday, reducing the holders’ lead to 4-2 in the first-to-seven points series in testing sea conditions off Barcelona.
The British crew skippered by Ben Ainslie outmanoeuvred the New Zealand crew led by Peter Burling in the final seconds of the pre-start and shot across the line in their foiling AC75 to establish an early lead in the day’s second race.
“Solid effort from the team today, that was for everyone,” Ainslie said on the live America’s Cup broadcast as his crew celebrated.
“Still a long way to go, but the comeback is on … every day we are getting better at sailing this boat”.
Britain led around the first mark and were able to stay ahead in all of the eight legs, hitting speeds of more than 35 knots as they navigated a churned-up sea, holding off a late New Zealand challenge for the win.
“We really needed to get those two wins on the board,” Ainslie’s co-helm Dylan Fletcher said.
Ainslie and his crew were also able to get the better of the New Zealand team skippered by Peter Burling at the start of the first race as the Kiwis came off their foils, while the British stayed up and foiling.
“We always knew this was going to be a fight, awesome to have a battle on our hands now,” New Zealand’s Burling said, admitting he was disappointed by a couple of errors on board.
SAILED CLEANLY
Britain crossed the start line to leave New Zealand in their wake and disappeared up the course. By the time New Zealand were able to get back on their foils Ainslie’s crew just needed to make sure they sailed cleanly to capitalise on the advantage.
Ainslie’s crew kept their cool to notch up their first morale-boosting victory in a long quest to win the “Auld Mug”, which Britain have never won in the race’s 173-year-history.
“We sort of let ourselves down,” Burling’s co-helm Nathan Outteridge said of the New Zealand performance, adding that he was not surprised by Britain’s stronger showing on the water after they had lost the previous four races.
Britain have not been in the America’s Cup final for more than 60 years, while New Zealand are looking to record a third straight victory in the battle for what is billed as the oldest trophy in international sport.
The Kiwis won the event in Bermuda in 2017, beating the United States, and retained the Cup at home in Auckland in 2021 with victory over Italy.
The New Zealand crew, who were given their usual rousing traditional Maori send-off when docking out, sat aboard their boat as they were towed back in, as usual locked in discussion as they looked ahead to the next races scheduled for Friday.
The British waved and were met with horns blaring as their supporters celebrated a much-needed fillip.
