America's Cup - Kiwis revel in light breeze to score two wins on Day 1

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com on 17 Jun 2017 Emirates Team New Zealand opened their America's Cup account on the Great Sound, Bermuda banking two wins from the first two races.

Conditions were at the light end of the scale - similar to the final race of the Challenger Finals where Emirates Team New Zealand showed their transoms to the Swedish Challenger, winning by almost a minute and taking the series.

The officially forecast breeze of 10-13kts never eventuated, and the first start was delayed due to winds dropping below 6kts average. Generally the breeze was in the 7-10kts range.

Today Peter Burling and his crew took up where they left off - winning both starts and more importantly being ahead at the first rounding mark.

Emirates Team New Zealand led around all twelve marks in the racing today. However their performance was not without incident or error, and on two occasions Oracle Team USA looked like they would be able to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.

The first in Race 1 came at the final mark, where in a repeat of one of their Challenger Finals races, the Kiwis muffed a gybe and bought the AC50 to a grinding halt, ahead of a fast approaching Oracle Team USA. The Kiwis lead of over two minutes was cut to just 30 seconds at the finish by the fast finishing Defender.

Skipper Glenn Ashby put the stop down to a crew error 'just a couple of wrong button presses. It's definitely something that we could have done better and can work at,' he added.

The second occurred at the end of the third beat in Race 2 where Oracle Team USA chopped a lead of 95 seconds at Mark 4 back to just three secs at the top of the beat, at Mark 5.

'We got a couple of weird helicopter puffs, and we didn't have the boat set up that well for the tacks,' Ashby explained.

'But I think we did well enough to keep our elbows out and keep them behind us, after a couple of great starts.'

'It was one of those shifty days when a lead can be made and lost very quickly.'

Asked to comment as to whether he felt Emirates Team New Zealand had a speed advantage over the Defender, Ashby said it was more a question of boat positioning than speed.

'If you were on the wrong side of a puff it didn't matter if you were 10kts faster than your opponent.

'To me, it was more about boat placement than speed. But our boat felt very nice today, but I think it was more about boat placement.'

On the water, it looked like Emirates Team New Zealand was able to sail deeper angles than Oracle Team USA.

'If you could get the boat set up nicely, then you could wind it down successfully. We got a couple of good squirts downwind which certainly helped us. But you only had to go 20 metres too far before gybing, and you'd lose it completely.

'It was a tricky one today - more like sailing a (foiling) Moth. You can lose a lead very quickly in those conditions.'

Oracle Team USA looked very rusty at the starts and lacked match fitness after a 12-day layoff. The Defender was very strong in the start box during the Round Robin phase of the Qualifiers - and they were generally the best performed of the six teams.

But today if was a different story with Oracle Team USA being penalised in the first race for OCS (On Course Side) of the start line - handing Emirates Team New Zealand an 18sec lead at the first mark after just 74 seconds of sailing.

In Race 2, The Emirates Team New Zealand crew continued the form they had shown in the latter stages of the Challenger Final, winning the start by an official margin of 2 secs, which was stretched to 4 secs at Mark 1.

After the racing Ashby paid tribute to his crew, all of whom (Ashby excepted) were sailing in their first America's Cup race.

'They are a really good talented bunch of guys who are coming through, and it is good that they don't have a lot of baggage from other previous events.

'It is good to be able to push them when they need it.

'The boat feels good, and they are sailing far beyond their age and experience', Ashby added. 'Pete and the boys got us off the startline nicely, and that allowed us to ourselves in a position where we could sail a few puffs and shifts to get that initial little break.

'I think it was much more about boat placement because it was so shifty - and it was also about technique in those conditions - how you were adjusting the jib and the wing and the foil.'

The two wins in today's racing puts Emirates Team New Zealand on one point - having started the Match minus one point - due to Oracle Team USA winning the Qualifier Round.

Conditions are expected to be similar for Races 3 and 4 - which seems to be the Kiwis sweet spot. Then there is a five-day break before racing resumes on Saturday, June 24 - with the long range weather forecast showing stronger winds.

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