MISHAP: Team New Zealand had a collision in training yesterday. PHOTO/Photosport
MISHAP: Team New Zealand had a collision in training yesterday. PHOTO/Photosport
America's Cup
The second practice race day on Wednesday in Bermuda ended in a heavy pre-start collision when Land Rover BAR collided with Emirates Team New Zealand after they had been comprehensively shut out in the last stages of the pre-start sequence.
Tauranga's Peter Burling on the helm of EmiratesTeam New Zealand had done a good job securing the favoured leeward end of the line and shutting out Sir Ben Ainslie and the Land Rover BAR boat.
"It was a bit of a shame in last pre-start we had the leeward end of the line pretty locked down, Ben was quite late and just ran straight into the back of us," Burling said.
"Just unnecessary a week out from the America's Cup. We are all here to learn and it's a shame we have a pretty big metre dent now in the back of our nice boat. It went straight in under the media pod with his windward bow and right down the inside of the leeward hull, so there is a pretty good dent there.
"You can definitely see it has punctured right into the cockpit right around where my steering wheel is."
Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton commented after assessing the damage.
"We know Ben well, he is a good guy but frustration is obviously getting to him, and the red mist came down, and it's a lot of damage in a time we can't afford it."
Other than the damage sustained it was a positive day for Emirates Team New Zealand. They won both races sailed against Land Rover BAR earlier in the day and Groupama Team France after both Oracle and Softbank Team Japan refused to race against the Kiwi team.
"Up until the last race with BAR we had a bloody nice day. We got the boat around the track really well, in really nice yachting conditions, but very unfortunate to get a hole in the boat in a practice race. I don't think Ben will be feeling too happy about it at the moment," skipper Glenn Ashby said.
