New Zealand won the third America’s Cup race against Great Britain to extend their lead to 3-0 in the first-to-seven series, after a near collision between the two boats before the start.
The fourth head-to-head had been due to take place later on Sunday, but with the Mediterranean breeze fading, the race committee said that they had abandoned competition for the day and would try to restart on Monday.
Ben Ainslie’s British team, who went into Sunday 2-0 down, were penalised in race three after failing to keep clear in response to an aggressive close-quarters manoeuvre by Peter Burling’s New Zealand crew in the pre-start.
“It was a little bit uncomfortable .. with how close the boats got,” Burling said, laughing on the America’s Cup live broadcast immediately after the end of the race off Barcelona.
The penalty was not what the British had needed to bounce back and rebuild their confidence after two losses on Saturday to the New Zealanders, who have so far started better and shown slightly more speed in their foiling AC75 monohull.
Burling said the New Zealand team had been “working on little bits and pieces” in preparing to defend the America’s Cup against Britain, which won the right to challenge them.
The 33-year-old Kiwi skipper said it was “great to finally execute it in a race … and to make it count”.
Britain had to drop 75 metres behind the Kiwis after crossing the line to shake off the penalty, handing the America’s Cup holders an early advantage.
“It was obviously a port-starboard and we thought we were keeping clear but the umpires didn’t see it that way,” Ainslie said of the decision to impose a penalty on the British, who were the give-way boat under the rules of racing in sailing.
Despite coming close to overtaking during an early tacking duel, the British were unable to get past and the New Zealanders sailed away from them for a convincing win at the finish.
“Just got to keep upbeat,” said Ainslie, adding that there was a long way to go in the competition which Britain has never won in the 173-year history of the “Auld Mug” and has not challenged for in 60 years.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing hard,” said Ainslie, who with co-helm Dylan Fletcher is carrying the weight of British expectations with the campaign to bring home the Cup.
Reuters
