The Great Britain helmsman Ben Ainslie says his boat was no match for Team New Zealand at the America's Cup today.
Ainslie was visibly frustrated as they retired after making an error early on to gift the New Zealanders an easy victory.
Team New Zealand. Photo: AFP
The start was even but BAR's Ben Ainslie made a jibing error on the second leg and plunged both hulls into the water, giving the New Zealanders a clear lead.
New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling also made a couple of mistakes, but they had such a lead that it didn't matter in the end.
The race was reduced from the usual seven legs to six due to light winds and Great Britain was almost two legs behind when they decided to retire.
Ainslie was visibly frustrated during the race.
"We stuffed the bows, wiped off all the speed and in those light winds once you do that it's just so painful trying to rebuild the speed high and get going again'" he said afterwards.
"In all fairness to Team New Zealand they were really going well against us and more than likely would have found a way past us anyway but it would have been nice to make life a little bit harder."
Photo: RNZ / Todd Niall
It is Team New Zealand's sixth win..... Team USA came from behind to beat Japan to stay one point ahead of New Zealand.
Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling is happy with the way his boat sailed in the first day of light conditions.
Winds were just above the allowable minimum with all the skippers saying how challenging the conditions were.
Burling says the team made some good adjustments.
"Even though we didn't race yesterday we still learnt a lot out of it and we made some changes overnight and we're really happy with how we're going."
"It's something we've put a lot of work into, our light air setup,and it's really pleasing to see that we're somewhat on the pace."
Team New Zealand meet Japan and France tomorrow.
- RNZ
