America’s Cup

A tough day for INEOS Britannia. Today they made sure they were positioned clear of the Kiwis at the pre-start and then looked strong from the start. It was a tense and tight race with both boats rounding  opposite windward marks at precisely the same time. But then the Kiwis gybed before reaching the left boundary with the narrowest of crossings. INEOS protested, but it was dismissed. Then the Kiwis worked on getting the lead and holding onto it. On this six-lap course,  according to americascup.com, with the wind hovering around 10 knots and a dull cloud cover, Emirates Team New Zealand put on a masterclass of front-running, taking metres of leverage at every opportunity and defending the right side of the course upwind tenaciously. The Brits had no choice but stay in the middle or to the left. By the final windward gate the Kiwis had a 24 second lead and by the finish, took the win by 23 seconds. Dylan Fletcher, port helm on INEOS Britannia, reflected on the small margins saying: "We just focused on [...]