Emirates Team NZ goes horizontal and capsizes during America's Cup racing off Bermuda, leaving sailors in the air. Photo/America's Cup
Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling is taking a "wait and see" approach to getting his ACC boat back on the water in time for America's Cup challenger racing tomorrow.
The Emirates Team NZ ACC boat dramatically capsized at the start of their second race against Ben Ainslie Racing and had to be towed back to dock for what looms as a long night of repairs for shore crew.
On a day of carnage in winds near the upper limit allowable for racing, all four challenger semifinalists suffered damage to varying degrees, with the Kiwis copping the worst.
"Obviously we've sustained quite a bit of damage, but firstly and the most important thing for us is that the guys on board are safe, with no major injuries," said Burling afterwards.
"That's definitely a relief, when you see a few of them falling off, and you see their heads above water and they're fine.
"Right now, the guys have obviously taken the boat out [of the water] and are assessing the damage, of which we have quite a bit, but we feel like we'll be able to repair it and get back into action."
Burling was not prepared to speculate on the cause of the mishap or whether the boat would be repaired in time for the next scheduled encounter with BAR, whom they lead 3-1 in the first-to-five series.
"Just as we went to accelerate, we got really high and then proceeded into a big bow-down trim," he said. "We'll have to review the footage, we're not quite sure what caused it yet, but we'll review it soon.
"I think we'll have to wait and see [when we can return] - the boat's still in the air at the moment. One thing is, as a group of New Zealanders, we are incredibly resilient and that's something that will be crucial going forward, especially with forecast tomorrow being incredibly windy.
"They're already working on repairs and getting us back out there. We'll bounce back from this and at some stage, we'll get the boat back to 100 per cent, but right now, we're still assessing the damage."
Perhaps the best scenario for Team NZ would be for winds to exceed the average upper wind limit of 24 knots tomorrow, forcing a postponement and providing another 24 hours to make repairs.
Today's winds were marginal and the Kiwis had already replaced their wing, after suffering a breakage in the preparation for their first race of the day, barely making the start-line in time.
"It was amazing seeing the whole team come together and get that wing into the boat," said Burling. "To be able to repay that with a race win was incredibly pleasing.
"It definitely was a full team effort - I think we had every single person that Team NZ has here out on the forecourt, helping."
Burling took a conservative approach in the conditions, tracking BAR in the early stages, before pouncing at the fourth mark and extending to a winning margin of more than two minutes.
But Team NZ were immediately in trouble in the start box of the second encounter, incurring an early-entry penalty that was offset, when BAR committed the same offence.
Ainslie got the jump on Burling on the start-line and as Team NZ responded, they quickly found themselves overbalanced and toppling into the water.
"We thought we had a penalty at the start, so we were effectively just waiting for him to go and then follow him down," said Burling. "We accelerated like normal, we got very high on the foil and pretty soon after that, we were going down pretty quickly.
"It was just about trying to looking after ourselves - none of the crew were injured at that stage and we're really thankful that no-one was hurt.
"It took us a very long time to get in, we couldn't load the wing spar or a few components on the boat. Thankfully, we have an amazing shore team and they'll be digging deep to get us out there shortly.
"Right now, we can't say how long it will take to fix it."
Burling was pushed on injuries sustained during the tumble and NZME understands some crew members needed stitches afterwards.
"I think we've all got a few bruises and cuts, and bits and pieces, but nothing major," he assured.
Ainslie has garnered a reputation for agression, especially at the start, but Burling denied any outside influences contributed to Team NZ's accident.
"We feel it was fully our error. We'll bounce back from this - it's a great test for us as a team and will really pull us together."
Today's schedule/results
SF 2 R3: SoftBank Team Japan beat Artemis Racing dnf (Japan 2-1)
SF 1 R3: Emirates Team New Zealand beat Land Rover BAR by two min 10 secs (NZ 3-0)
SF 2 R4: SoftBank Team Japan beat Artemis Racing by 27 secs (Japan 3-1)
SF 1 R4: Land Rover BAR beat Emirates Team New Zealand dnf (NZ 3-1)