America's Cup: Team NZ on match point, need one more win to lift Auld Mug

Peter Burling gives a thumb's up for Team NZ after their win off Bermuda. Photo / America's Cup

Helmsman Peter Burling and Team NZ sit on match point, within one win of lifting the America's Cup off archrivals Oracle Team off Bermuda.

After the Americans won their first race in the first-to-seven format match yesterday, the Kiwis could have been excused for a few nerves, with memories of their San Francisco capitulation four years ago still haunting them.

But Burling responded in the best possible way, taking both today's races in convincing fashion.

Emirates Team NZ moved within a win of glory with their most comprehensive starting performance of the regatta, catching their opponents deep in the start-box and leaving them standing.

Ahead by about five boat lengths across the line, they were 12 seconds up at the first mark - game over.

New Zealand have not lost a race after leading to the first mark and lost their only race yesterday after trailing early.

"It makes life a little easier when you get off the start line a full 14 seconds early," said Burling. "That's full credit to our full team - we've got an amazing coaching staff like Murray Jones and Ray Davies, really analyzing everything we've been doing.

"It really showed today - we had a really good understanding of what they were trying to do in the starts and a pretty good strategy to deal with it."

Compounding his problems, Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill took his ACC boat over the boundary up the third beat in an attempt to find some way back, incurring a two-boat length penalty in the process.

Now hundreds of metres ahead, Burling only needed to sail error free to carry the day and found further assistance, when Oracle fell of their foils rounding the fourth mark, losing more valuable ground.

The Americans split around the fifth gate, hoping for a miracle breeze to make up the 500-metre deficit, but the mountain was too high to climb.

New Zealand sailed an almost perfect race, achieving 100% flight time on their foils around the course.

"You've got to take your hats off to those guys today," said Spithill. "They sailed very clean, very smart and they deserved to win two races.

"It's a tall mountain to climb right now, but we have been here before. The guys are going to fight the whole way.

"We can't focus too much on the end result, we have to take one race at a time. We've definitely got a lot to learn after today, come back out tomorrow swinging and ready to fight."

Earlier, Team NZ steadied the nerves, after the Americans captured their first victory yesterday.

Today dawned with lighter winds than yesterday, but Burling controlled the first pre-start and led Spithill across the line by about a boat length, holding a three-second margin at the first mark.

"We've got a pretty impressive bunch of designers in the chase [boat], tweaking it and making sure our starting package is as good as it can be," said Burling.

"I think that's showed over the last couple of days, we've had quite a few starts within about a metre of the line, doing over 30 knots. We're really happy with the package they've given us."

Ahead by 32 seconds through the third gate, Team NZ found a decisive puff down the right boundary of the fourth leg to further extend the margin.

Oracle made up 20 seconds down the sixth leg, but Team NZ had more than enough to see them home for a 5-1 scoreline.

"We said last night we had a fair few things to work on and we addressed them today," said Burling. "I think that showed through upwind speed.

"It's an incredibly shifty day and we tried to consolidate a little bit halfway up that second beat and let them get a bit closer, but it felt like we had pretty minimal risk that whole race."

35th America's Cup match
Race 7: Emirates Team New Zealand beat Oracle Team USA by 12 secs
Race 8: Emirates Team New Zealand beat Oracle Team USA
Team New Zealand lead the first-to-seven series 6-1