Team New Zealand during the America's Cup - Louis Vuitton Cup - Barcelona, 2024. Photo: AFP
Team New Zealand have won their penultimate race in the America's Cup challenger series, while Luna Rossa have suffered their first loss.
The New Zealanders beat Alinghi by 38 seconds and finished the day equal in the series with Luna Rossa, after the Italians lost to British boat Britannia.
Team New Zealand have one more race, before exiting the series as the Cup defenders, leaving four of the other five teams to fight out the right to be their challenger. French boat Orient Express lost again on Sunday, leaving them on the precipice of elimination.
The conditions were lumpy for the day's sailing off Barcelona with a 12-14 knot breeze, and Alinghi made a better start than Team New Zealand, but surrendered the lead after giving the New Zealanders an opening while sailing hard to the right of the course.
The Kiwis led by seven seconds after the first leg, though a loopy turn at the second narrowed their lead. But they sailed better than their opponents from there, with a dominant win.
Helmsman Nathan Outteridge explained what happened at the start.
"We were just a little late with our final trigger-pull on the start, so gave up a bit of space to windward for Alinghi... We will need to review that one to see how we could have done a bit better, but it was good to get the pass on the upwind. With these waves out here today, it is pretty hard to control the leeway at times when going around the bottom mark so a little skid keeps it interesting."
Team New Zealand's last race in the series is against American Magic on Monday before the America's Cup match race begins on 12 October.
"To be honest we would happily keep racing,'' Outteridge said.
"We will need to gear up for tomorrow as it is going to be a big one against American Magic. It's going to be a bit sad to be the last race for a little while, but it is great to see the conditions are turning it on and we're getting some good racing."
It was a terrific day for the Britannia crew, who won their first race against Alinghi and then beat Luna Rossa, who had been unbeaten in the series up until this race.
The British dominated against the Italians, surviving a small nosedive on a gybe exit on the final downwind leg to win by 25 seconds.
They are safely in the semi-finals.
Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie said it was a great day for them.
"We all know the America's Cup is a bit of a battle to try and get the maximum performance out of these boats and for whatever reason we haven't really done a great job of that so far, but today in those conditions we set the boat up well and showed what it's capable of. We haven't really raced that much in that sort of swell and breeze strength but it certainly felt like we got it hooked up in that stuff and it was going well. We did a nice job on that right hand side and if you've got a bit of extra speed, it makes the tactics look pretty good and we've got to keep looking to find those gains and take each day at a time."
In the day's other race, Orient Express were desperate to stay in the series, but had to call a 15 minute delay to fix a mainsail and then found themselves behind American Magic, a lead they were never able to pull back, eventually losing by 15 seconds.
Orient Express now has to beat Britannia on Sunday to draw level with Alinghi. The Swiss team can go through if they beat Luna Rossa, but face a race-off with Orient Express if the French team get up to tie them on points.