New Zealand goes 4-0 up on INEOS Britannia in America’s Cup, needs 3 more wins to retain title

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Emirates Team New Zealand took another step toward retaining the America's Cup after building a 4-0 lead over INEOS Britannia on Monday.

The cup will go to the first yacht that reaches seven wins. The Kiwis have three to go while the British boat has a huge deficit to make up.

New Zealand’s Taihoro made it four from four off the Barcelona beachfront after beating Britannia by 23 seconds. The two boats exchanged leads in the first leg, but the Kiwis made steady gains and were more than 350 meters in front when they crossed the finish line.

"It's nice just to keep marching forward," New Zealand skipper Peter Burling said. "(It) feels like we are improving a lot as a group as we go through these races and we are excited to keep pushing forward."

New Zealand is trying to win the Auld Mug, the oldest trophy in international sport, for a third straight time and fifth overall. The British have never won it in its 173-year history and are in their first final in six decades.

The challenger will have Tuesday to plot a fightback before sailing resumes on Wednesday with races 5 and 6.

"It is a good opportunity to take a day on shore and try to figure out how we can find some gains," Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie said. "They are clearly going really well. We have our moments, but still there are moments where we are losing a click and I think that is the difference. Obviously they have had a strong start, but we can still come back from this."

Britannia impressed in the Challenger Series when it made huge gains in speed and beat four rivals from Italy, United States, Switzerland and France. It counts on the design and engineering prowess of its partnership with the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

But the Kiwis, with their in-house design team, have a clear edge.

Burling's crew have executed flawlessly while also sailing aggressively. After nailing Britannia with a pre-start penalty when the two 75-foot foiling boats almost crashed on Sunday, the Taihoro and Britannia made several close crosses in Race 4.

Ainslie's boat started well enough by pinning the Taihoro to the port boundary, but once New Zealand got away and found more wind on the other side of the race track it was able to cruise away.

As the defender, New Zealand had a guaranteed spot in the finals and was able to set the rules and pick the venue in this winner-takes-all competition.

New Zealand may be leveraging another one of its advantages. While Britannia had to make a boat that could sail from late summer until now, the Kiwis were able to concentrate all their efforts on getting a boat ready just for one week in the cooler weather of mid-October.

The team led by Grant Dalton, however, knows first hand that in the America's Cup no lead is ever big enough. New Zealand was leading the 2013 final 8-1 before Oracle Team USA rallied for a 9-8 victory in San Francisco.

The team rebounded from that with their wins in 2017 and 2021 and are now on course to become the first syndicate to triumph three times on the trot.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports