EMIRATES TEAM NEW Zealand began their America’s Cup defence in ominous style on Saturday, cruising to wide-margin wins in the opening two races over challenger Ineos Britannia.
Skippered by Peter Burling, the Kiwis were faultless as they drew first blood by 41 seconds in the opening race of the best of 13-series final.
And they doubled up later in the day, claiming the second race by 27 seconds to leave four-time Olympian Ben Ainslie’s Ineos on the back foot ahead of races three and four on Sunday.
The futuristic foiling yachts may have cost millions of dollars to develop but the AC75s are rendered redundant without a crucial free ingredient – wind.
And that source of energy required to make the boats fly across the water was in short supply off the coast of the Catalan capital early Saturday afternoon, delaying the scheduled first race by over half-an-hour.
Once the 37th edition of the world’s oldest international sporting trophy finally got underway, New Zealand were quickest across the line with Ineos Britannia struggling from the start.
At speeds touching 40 knots (74kph) New Zealand carved out a comfortable lead.
“We got a great start, I was a little bit nervous sitting there with no wind before the start,” said Burling ahead of race two.
“Hopefully we can get another one,” he added.
“We didn’t have the perfect entry to the race, but the guys did a good job to keep calm,” Ainslie said.
“The Kiwis did a nice job, we didn’t do a lot wrong, they just did a better race.
“There’s a long way to go yet, we’ll keep pushing!”
