The conditions were better, the racing was better . . . The result was the same.
Ineos Britannia brought their best game to the match so far and for two legs we saw more lead changes than in the previous three races.
But after gate 2 Emirates Team New Zealand slowly ground out a 90 metre lead and moved into cover mode to take a 13sec lead at gate 3, and it was basically game over.
Ineos were still there if the Kiwi team made an error, but otherwise all that changed was the distance of the lead, 15sec, 24sec and finally 23sec, around 350 metres at the finish.
A fourth consecutive victory for Emirates Team NZ over INEOS Britannia that took them to within three points of victory in this first-to-seven series.
The 4-0 score for Emirates Team New Zealand takes them into ‘home-straight’ territory, with three wins to victory.
Not quite a match-point cliff edge yet, but it puts Ineos in a damage limitation situation, until they can recover to tie the match.
Tuesday 15 October is a designated Reserve Day with the teams next racing on Wednesday 16th for two more scheduled races.
Dylan Fletcher, port helm on Ineos Britannia, remained upbeat and determined, saying:
“It was very close all the way round the course, especially that first leg. It’s fine margins between the two boats but we know we need to come back stronger. They’ve obviously had the data from our boat throughout the race period and now we are able to look at theirs and see where we can make those gains. We are confident we can come out and beat them and we will come out fighting on Wednesday.”
He added . . . “I think that people have been doubting us from the start, but we’ve proved people wrong all along the way and we feel like we can take this to them, and we’ll just see how it goes on Wednesday. It’s disappointing but there’s a lot of belief and it’s not over yet.”
Peter Burling, Skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand, when asked if the team looked forward to changing conditions later in the week, commented:
“It’s been just this light bumpy conditions the whole time so I’d love to see a bit more variety. It’s obviously a completely different wind range to what they got in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, but yes, we’re ready to go across the board.”
Co-helm Nathan Outteridge added . . . “I think we’ve made a step forward again with the performance of the boat and are attacking nicely so we are going really well upwind, obviously we are very happy with that but plenty more to come still.”
So where do Ineos Britannia go from here?
They were competitive from the start of race 4 but seemed to lack the performace edge to build on that.
Unless they can find that edge in the next 24 hours or a dramatic weather change reveals different inter-boat performance abilities, the result could be settled this Friday 18 October.
The 37th America’s Cup is won by the first team to win seven races.
The remaining schedule includes racing days with two races per day on the 16, 18, 19, 20 and 21 October as required.
