Emirates Team New Zealand races during the America's Cup finals, in Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 18.The Associated Press
Emirates Team New Zealand built a 6-2 lead over INEOS Britannia in the America’s Cup finals on Friday to move just one point away from successfully defending the oldest trophy in international sport.
New Zealand’s yacht Taihoro won both of the day’s regattas in view of the Barcelona beachfront by wide margins, crossing the finish line with Britannia more than 1,000 metres behind. That delivered a strong hit to the British crew’s attempt at a comeback after they had won the last two races held on Wednesday.
“When you get a couple of losses it really puts you under pressure, so the way we responded today was awesome,” New Zealand skipper Peter Burling said after taking his America’s Cup match record to 21 wins.
In the days’ first race, the Kiwis pinned the Brits to the left side of the track and took advantage of higher winds on the right side to take over. They followed that up with another dominant performance to push the British to the brink of defeat.
New Zealand needs to collect just one win from the five races left on the schedule.
“The next match is always the hardest one to win,” Burling said, “but we are super excited and know that to win the America’s Cup you’ve got to be the fastest boat in the last race.”
The first of the AC75 foiling yachts to reach seven points will lift the Auld Mug. The British will have to win races 9 and 10 scheduled for Saturday to stay alive and extend the series.
New Zealand swept the first four regattas before the British bounced back by scoring two wins on Wednesday when Taihoro’s crew made some mistakes in the choppy waters. Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie then declared that “the comeback is on.”
New Zealand, however, had a day off to work out any kinks, eliminated any errors on the waves, and again showed why they are the defending champions.
“It was a tough day but credit to the Kiwis. They sailed two brilliant races,” Ainslie said. “We need perfection from here on in.”
New Zealand is trying to win the America’s Cup for a third straight time and fifth overall. The British have never won it in its 173-year history and are in their first final in six decades.
New Zealand is making good on its role as defender, which in the America’s Cup has the advantage of picking the venue, setting the rules and has a guaranteed spot in the finals. Taihoro hadn’t raced for a month while sitting out the playoffs, when Britannia bettered four other rivals.
Britannia came in with more recent racing experience and counted on the backing of the Mercedes Formula 1 design and engineering units. But New Zealand’s in-house design team has so far delivered a superior boat for the fall-weather finals.
The Brits are now reduced to hoping that they can tap into that America’s Cup lore of the 2013 comeback by Oracle Team USA, which was losing trailing 8-1 to Team New Zealand before rallying for a 9-8 victory. Ainslie, who is also Britannia’s chief executive, was involved in that historic fightback for the Americans.
“It’s going to need to be something like that [2013 comeback] obviously, 6-2 down,” Ainslie said. “We are on the back foot and don’t have any second chances. But that’s the nature of the game and we will keep going.”
Team New Zealand’s memory of that collapse in San Francisco was likely why its crew was subdued even after the huge wins.
When asked how he felt being so close to the title, New Zealand helmsman Nathan Outteridge replied: “I am feeling like it is not done until it’s done.”