JPN keeps it together, now leads 3-1. SWE kept it going to the end, good on them.

Mike

Offset penalties, BOTH GBR and NZL entering too early! Ainsle owns Burling in the pre-start, NZL capsized!!!!!!!

Mike

Oh Sh*t

massive pitchpole

Ben turns back to help. Awesome

Everyone seems to be OK. The wing, not so much...

Mike

Did NZ have damage to their first wing that they changed out earlier? . . . 'cause they're gonna need it.

Yikes! Lots of styrofoam souvenirs in the Bermuda waters.

These boats have proven they are really strong though, despite all the aero pieces coming off, no wing collapse and can be righted with a single chase boat.

The technique of pulling it into the wind rather than pulling from the top hull over is pretty slick too. Glad they didn't cut away and we got to see the whole process.

Couldn't believe the three guys on the top hull just stayed crouched in the hull the whole time, they must have had a lot of faith the wing wouldn't break and send them crashing under the boat.

yikes~
that looks expensive

I don't think they ever said why they had to change it. The announcers probably didn't know.

The wing looked structurally, they might be able to replace the lost foam and stretch some new heat shrink and be good to go.

The real question is how on earth did NZL manage to make a mistake like that, they have been a machine.

Looks like they turned deep down with no speed, and the wing was eased a lot. That combination will load up the bow, or more in this case lift the transom. Then no rudder to hold it down and the foils drive it into Davey Jones locker. A timing thing between Burling and wing trimmer and foil rake.

Much anticipated Presser. Burling did not show up.

Wow, that was pretty short. They looked tired and perhaps happy to be off the water.

Mike

The answer to the first wing for NZ was damage to the lower flap. (per Burling in conference)
Here is the Burling press conference

Top speed reached by BAR in race one today: 47.7 knots

I just rewatched the start of GBR/NZL. I don't think that GBR entered early (although the umpires did call that as an offsetting penalty for NZL). Looked like they were a length or two away from the box at 2:00, at least on the TV timer.

PM, Ainsle most certainly didn't turn back to help. He slowed, looked to be sure his chase boat was responding, and kept going. He actually told his crew that they were still racing until the RC or umps would call and award the point. That didn't happen, so he radioed in, and when told he had the win, they sailed to the dock. I am glad that he showed some concern for the NZL crew during the post-race onboard interview, especially after his horrible lack of such comment during the presser after nearly killing or disabling several guys on JPN in the opening series.

Mike

Thanks for the presser links! Quote of the day, from Burling: "Those three guys were able to safely get off of the yacht." So that's what we're calling it now?

Mike

He immediately turned head to wind and parked before getting to the reaching mark, as soon as he learned of the capsize. This happened before before he radioed RC. Call it what you want. I guess Ben is s total smuck.

I don't know about you guys but I find the penalty system very confusing.
It's not always clear when a penalty will be cleared, it's just too complicated for the average viewer IMO.

It's clearly too confusing for the guys on the boats too - I felt the rage with Iain Percy...I would have been dropping even a few more f-bombs. Having to slow down relative to the other boat is a real flaw in that penalty system in my opinion. Assuming that Barker noticed that Artemis had a penalty it gives him the opportunity to just let off the gas until Artemis slows down even MORE and Artemis has a real problem clearing the penalty. Artemis has to slow down to be two boat lengths further behind the other boat than she was when she earned the penalty. Artemis got a second penalty because of the way they judged their late turn once they sailed out of the boundary (although it looked clear that they were having some real difficulty and that it probably was not a tactical maneuver). Artemis then did drop their hulls down to the water for a good portion of that downwind leg trying to clear the penalty but Barker also slowed way down - it might have even been a tactical move to set Artemis up for an additional compounding penalty. Who knows if Artemis could even see Barker slow down - all they knew was that their penalty wouldn't clear. As I understand it at that point, if they don't clear the penalty when they round the next mark, they get ANOTHER penalty...so they just kept stacking up for Artemis and all they knew was that the f'in blue light wouldn't go off.