Christchurch hosted plenty of fast and furious racing action. We round up five moments you might have missed.
Emirates GBR hits Spain in practice
Christchurch began with a bang for the British team, with Emirates GBR hitting Spain in practice racing. The incident, which resulted in damage to both teams’ F50s, saw the Brits handed a devastating 8 point reduction to its event score (meaning they started the event on -8 points) and a 4 point loss to their season score overall. Reflecting on the incident, driver Giles Scott described it as ‘a proper clanger’, but took solace from the fact that it ‘could have been so much worse'.
ROCKWOOL DEN in collision chaos
The chaos continued when racing dawned, with ROCKWOOL DEN making a big error in the start box of the first fleet race. The Danish collided with Canada, who then ricocheted off to hit the USA. The incident saw the Danish F50 sustain serious damage to its bow but the team managed to finish all three fleet races to end the event in 9th overall. Despite this, the Danish earned a painful penalty for their mistake - the loss of 8 event points and 4 season points.
Australia sustains serious damage in mark crash
The crashes didn’t end there. Just seconds later, Australia swerved to avoid a collision with Canada, with driver Tom Slingsby electing to hit a race mark instead. Despite his avoiding action, the Australian F50 sustained serious damage in the incident. “We were going to hit something, so I just turned hard onto the mark,” he said afterwards. “It’s really badly damaged our boat - the whole front beam’s snapped, I’m sure our boards and hulls are really badly damaged.” The Australian team picked up the worst penalty of the weekend - the loss of 12 event points and 8 season points.
Switzerland near miss with New Zealand
The drama continued in the second fleet race, with Switzerland coming close to hitting New Zealand as they approached a mark rounding.
The incident led to the Swiss losing control of the F50, flying too high and skidding on the water as they tried to round the mark.
New Zealand takes the season lead
A triumphant win on home waters combined with Australia’s 8-point season deduction catapulted Peter Burling’s team to the top of the Season 4 leaderboard. Australia has slipped into second place and it remains unclear if the team will be back on the start line for Bermuda. This could set the stage for an imminent and unprecedented shake-up of the leaderboard.
