America’s Cup: Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling on where they have got the better of Ineos Britannia

By Christopher Reive in Barcelona

A scoreline can only tell you so much.

With a 4-0 lead in the America’s Cup match against Ineos Britannia, the gap is a comfortable one for Team New Zealand. With three more wins, they will lock the Auld Mug away for a record third-straight time.

But across those four races, only one has been a race all but over after the first leg. Tuesday morning’s 23s win was again a tightly contested affair – the closest of the match so far – and Team NZ again showed one area where they might have an edge over their British counterparts.

“Probably a little bit more consistency at the moment, I’d say,” starboard helmsman Peter Burling said when asked where he felt Team NZ had an advantage through the first four races.

“They seem to have moments where they’re really fast, then moments where they drop off for some reason. It’s the [second] generation of these boats, they’re closer than they’ve ever been, and we’ve just got to keep going out and executing.”

A day removed from a near-collision in the pre-start that saw the British penalised and Team NZ sail to a clear lead, it was the Kiwis who had to try to make up ground early in race four.

The teams didn’t engage in the starting box, but the Brits were better off the line and had the Kiwis’ number up the first beat.

But by the end of the first leg, it was advantage Team NZ.

“We had to wriggle our way out of that situation,” Team NZ starboard flight controller Andy Maloney said.

“I think we executed two really nice tacks in that position to keep it close enough on the next cross up the upwind, and we sailed the top that beat really well to give ourselves an opportunity at the top mark to take the lead.”

Ineos Britannia haven’t been completely out of the contest, despite what the scoreline suggests.

They have plenty of speed, and in races two and four, they took the fight to Team NZ and jostled for the lead through the early legs but were unable to keep the pressure on down the stretch.

“Every race we go into it knowing it’s going to be a dogfight,” Maloney said. “When another boat does get the lead on you, you know it’s going to be a really tight match.”

While Team NZ have a very fast boat, the performance of the sailing team has been impressive. They have read the breeze well, maintained smooth flight despite the tricky sea state, have been getting around the course cleanly and have not made big enough mistakes for the British to capitalise on.

But with a reserve day on the schedule tomorrow, the team will be back at work looking at what they can do better and where they can get more out of their package before they look to close out the series later in the week.

“These boats, they’re obviously optimised to the nth degree,” Burling said.

“With a lot of the packages you run very small sails for the conditions. You can be a little way out and end up a long way off in performance. That’s something we’re constantly working on and we’ll just keep getting faster from here.”

America’s Cup match results

Emirates Team New Zealand lead the America’s Cup first-to-seven series 4-0.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.