Emirates Team New Zealand update - four starts, four wins

The breeze settled on the fourth day of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta at Nice France and the race committee was able to start, and finish, eight matches.

It was a day of close racing and some upsets. The French-German ALL4ONE beat the highly rated Artemis (Sweden) and in the second match the Italian team Azzurra also beat the Swedes.

ETNZ had only one race today, beating Azzurra by 35 sec. Until this match both teams were unbeaten – ETNZ with three wins and Azzurra with two.

Dean Barker and his after guard controlled the start, wanting the left and forcing Azzurra out to the committee boat end of the line. Azzurra crossed early, and ETNZ bowman Jeremy Lomas called the time-on-distance to perfection giving ETNZ an early advantage which they retained to the end.

Barker sailed conservatively, maintaining a loose cover on the Italians. The delta at the first mark was 28sec, the third mark 30 sec and at the finish the margin was 35 sec.

Grant Dalton: “Today the sun came out and the breeze was the most settled since we arrived at Nice.

“Dean did a great job in the pre-start and had Azzurra on the ropes in the pre start. Then they were over early and almost handed it to us.

“But Azzurra kept it tight. It surprised me that we didn’t sail away more than we did. We didn’t underestimate Azzurra even though they’re a new team and they certainly didn’t let us down.”