“We’re sailing the boat really well in a straight line right now, so we can definitely win races out there. We haven’t actually won a race yet, so that hunger in the belly is more than ever to try and get out there and win the next three races.”
Team New Zealand does have a race win in the regatta, though, with their women and youth crew winning the fifth race of the weekend.
In the third race of four held on Sunday morning, the crew of Jake Pye, Erica Dawson, Josh Armit and Serena Woodall sailed a terrific race to be among the leading teams throughout, before a late capsize from France’s La Roche Posay Racing Team handed the second Kiwi boat their first win.
“What a thrill. We just managed to put it all together and it worked out pretty well,” skipper and co-helm Pye said after his team’s race win.
“We started out pretty rough but we feel like we’re getting ourselves back in the race.”
It was the second day in a row that the French had capsized and it was a costly one as they simply had to get through the final leg to win the race. Had they done so, they would be eyeing a spot in the top two. Instead, it was another non-scoring race for the team, to leave them among the bottom three.
The women and youth team have had a mixed run, with two ninths, two fourths and a seventh with their race win to sit sixth on the nine-team leaderboard.
Emirates Team New Zealand’s main crew are second overall, while the youth and women’s team claimed their first race win. Photo / America’s Cup
Team New Zealand’s crews got off to a horrible start on the second day of the regatta, with errors and penalties ensuring they were the last two boats to cross the finish line.
For the main America’s Cup team, it was nothing but podium finishes from that point.
With great conditions for racing, the Kiwis had some good duels on the course, with the racing providing plenty of opportunity for match racing tactics to play a part in the fleet racing.
Team New Zealand’s main crew will now go into the final day of the regatta looking to fend off the likes of Tudor Team Alinghi (38 points) and Luna Rossa’s women and youth team (35) to earn a shot at match race redemption against the main Luna Rossa team in the one-off two-boat final.
Standings after day two
Luna Rossa (Italy) – 51 points
Team New Zealand – 43
Alinghi (Switzerland) – 38
Luna Rossa women and youth (Italy) – 35
ARC Team USA – 34
Team NZ women and youth – 32
La Roche Posay Racing Team (France) – 31
GB2 (Great Britain) – 29
GB1 (Great Britain) – 28
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.