LVC ACT 12: Team New Zealand in a strong lead

With two more wins today, Emirates Team New Zealand is now at the top of the rankings in Act 12 of the America’s Cup pre-regattas.
With eight wins from eight races, NZL 84 is now a point clear of the other “big four” of the America’s Cup Class fleet, Alinghi, BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa, each of which has a 7-1 record.
Grant Dalton said, “We still have three round-robin matches to sail – against Shosholoza, and Alinghi on Tuesday and BMW Oracle on Wednesday. So we’re not expecting an easy time through to the semi-finals. Only an extreme optimist would expect to get through this regatta unscathed.”
Valencia put on another sunny day today but the breeze, unlike previous days, built to 16 to 18 knots before fading later in the afternoon.
Grant Dalton: “We had two good results today. We were expecting a tough race against Desafio Espanol. They have a new boat that looks good, they have a good crew and they’ve been working hard.”
“Today, even though they have been sailing the new boat for only three weeks, they made us work hard.
The deltas: NZL 84 won the start by 2sec, at the top mark the boats were level (but ESP 88 incurred a penalty at that time), at the second mark NZL 84 was 36sec ahead, at the third 28sec ahead and 43sec at the finish.
In the first match of the day NZL 84 comfortably beat the United Internet Team Germany by 1min 59sec. NZL 84 won the start, took the right of the course and controlled the race from there.
NZL 84’s deltas tell the story: 2s at the start, 59s at the first mark, 1.19 at the second mark, 1.39 at the third and 1.59 at the finish.

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