BARCELONA: Holders Emirates Team New Zealand produced a faultless display to beat challengers Ineos Britannia in Monday’s postponed fourth race to take a commanding 4-0 lead in the America’s Cup. In spite of another New Zealand win off the coast of Barcelona, which leaves them just three wins away from retaining the America’s Cup, there was some cause for optimism for the challengers as the British boat skippered by Ben Ainslie made its best start of the series so far.

They were neck and neck at the end of the first leg but after some dramatic action on the second leg when the two boats were crossing tacks at high speed, the New Zealanders managed a small gain on leg three. From there, the Kiwis defended well and crossed the finish line just 23 seconds ahead of Ineos Britannia. “We did a good job,” said New Zealand co-skipper Peter Burling. “Every win on the board is a super nice one. It felt more like a boat race today than yesterday. It’s nice to keep marching forward.”

Sunday’s second race had been postponed because of a lack of wind but the first race was marked by a 75-metre penalty being handed to the British after Ainslie’s boat attempted a risky pre-race manoeuvre that almost resulted in a collision.

“It was a tight start,” said New Zealand co-helm Nathan Outteridge on Sunday. “We had a bit of work to do to get off the boundary on the left side but when we had the opportunity to cross over to the right side we managed to get a little gain. “We’ve made a step forward again with the performance of the boat and getting it tacking nicely. Very happy with the result, plenty to come still.”

No complacency

The New Zealanders are unlikely to be getting over-excited, however, about their 4-0 lead in the 13-race series. They will be more than aware that in 2013, they led 8-1 in a 17-race series before the Americans came back to life and won the next eight races to retain the ‘Auld Mug’ — and the inspiration for Oracle Team USA was provided by none other than Ainslie.

“It was a good race,” said Ainslie after Monday’s tight defeat. “We had a good start but they’re going well. We have to try and figure out how to improve the performance. “Clearly, they’re going really well. I think we have our moments but there are moments when we are losing a click and that’s really the difference.” Race five is slated for Wednesday which will give the teams a day off sailing on Tuesday to work on their strategy.

“It’s a good opportunity to take a day ashore and figure out how we can make some gains,” said Ainslie. “We are going to keep going here, push all the way. They’ve obviously had a strong start but we can come back from this.” — AFP