By Alexander Smith
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) -Italy recovered from a dramatic, high-speed nosedive during the first race against Britain on Tuesday, bouncing back in the second to square the America’s Cup challenger series at 4-4.
The Italians have already suffered several problems with their AC75 boat during the long campaign to become the challenger for the ‘Auld Mug’, which dates back to 1851.
“These curve balls that keep coming our way … We are sort of making a habit of this … We are really going to learn what we can from today,” Italy’s co-helm Jimmy Spithill said on the America’s Cup live broadcast after racing finished.
The teams were level going into Tuesday in the first-to-seven Louis Vuitton Cup, with the winners getting to challenge defenders New Zealand for the America’s Cup.
But the Italians’ sleek silver foiling monohull crashed bow-first into the Mediterranean waters off Barcelona. The dramatic splash down came as it picked up speed after bearing away from the top mark of the first leg of eight in the head-to-head race.
The Italian forfeited the race as their support team used tape to repair their ‘silver bullet’, finishing it just in time for the crew to make the start of the second race.
This started with an unforced error by the British, who skidded out of the boundary during a high-speed turn in the ‘pre-start’, incurring a distance penalty which they could not shake until they crossed the line, gifting Italy an early lead.
“We just got out of position,” said British co-helm Ben Ainslie, with the high speeds the AC75s are sailing at meaning any slight misjudgement is accentuated.
“It was our mistake and they (Italy) did a really good job to defend,” Ainslie said, describing the closely-fought contest as “two good teams really going at it hammer and tongs”.
Racing is set to continue on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)
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