New Zealand is over halfway to retaining the America's Cup after gaining a fourth race win over Britannia on the water off Barcelona.
Britannia tried a very different pre-start game-plan, electing to disengage from any potential penalty-inducing close calls and instead trusting in the outright speed to try to outmuscle the Kiwis in a straight line. It was a tactic that initially appeared to work.
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Britannia came off the start line to windward with two knots more boat speed and then matched New Zealand’s pace to the boundary.
On the next convergence the British allowed New Zealand to duck and head to the right of the course. From there, sailing in clear air and benefitting from a slight pressure build out of the upper right quadrant, the Kiwis eked their way back level with the British boat as the windward gate approached and squeezed in a tack in front to block the Challenger’s route to the right hand mark.
The British tacked away and the two teams rounded opposite windward marks at precisely the same time. On the downwind, when New Zealand gybed before reaching the left boundary and came back across on the right-of-way starboard gybe, to make the slenderest of crosses.
A protest from Britannia that they had been 'hunted' by the Kiwis was quickly dismissed, and it was from there that the Kiwis started to build a lead they would never relinquish.
On this six-lap course, with the wind hovering around 10 knots and a dull cloud cover, Emirates Team New Zealand put on a masterclass of front-running, taking metres of leverage at every opportunity and defending the right side of the course upwind tenaciously.
There was little the British could do other than play the middle and left of the course upwind and by the final windward gate, after some textbook covering, the Kiwis rounded with a 24-second lead before sailing an assured downwind leg, going boundary to boundary and executing pace and poise to cross the line at speed to record a 23-second victory.