Emirates Team New Zealand during the 37th America's Cup 2024, Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta. Photo: AFP
Team New Zealand won the America's Cup preliminary regatta off Barcelona overcoming their closest race of the series to clinch the title.
The day started with the New Zealanders suffering their first loss of the regatta, going down to American Magic, but the defenders had already sealed their place in the final.
The final against Luna Rossa turned out to be the race of the regatta with the top two qualifiers involved in an epic match race in lighter conditions.
Team New Zealand won the start and the Italians were then handed a penalty for a close encounter.
Peter Burling's boat was ahead by 22 seconds at the first windward mark but that closed to 16 seconds at the second.
The racing stayed close and despite Luna Rossa being handed another penalty for being too close, they were only 11 seconds behind at the final mark.
Team New Zealand then covered their opponents on the final run and found an area of high pressure to score a 34-second win.
Skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand Peter Burling was understandably delighted with the win but said it was tense.
"I think just incredibly challenging to sail in those conditions, we had a fair few issues we were managing on the boat, but we lucked out in the pre-start and got a penalty on them.
"I was amazed the second penalty got turned off when it did with them still ahead of us - but then to stick to our guns and make a pass from there was really pleasing."
Burling knew they would be in for a battle.
"We were expecting it to be tight and we were struggling to get the shifts right, but it's going to be a close regatta. It's all about making sure you get the phases right and sail the boat in the right places. I think we were a little frustrated with how we sailed today but plenty to go back and have a look at afterwards.
"It definitely wasn't our prettiest work, we made it pretty hard for ourselves but absolutely stoked to walk away with that the one because if you can make that many mistakes and still win a yacht race. It's been a bit of a tough day for us to be honest with that first race against American Magic but really happy to take the win."
The challenger series starts on 29 August with Team New Zealand involved in the round robin part of it.