Dalton happy with NZL81's performance

1.00pm

Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton has given an upbeat assessment of replacement yacht NZL81's performance.

After Team NZ scored two wins from as many races in the second pre-America's Cup yachting regatta in Valencia today, Dalton said the crew were never under pressure.

NZL81 beat South African syndicate Shosholoza by two minutes 57 seconds in the first race, leading from start to finish, in 5-7 knots breeze.

The story was similar in the match against French syndicate K-Challenge, with NZL81 finishing 1min 53sec ahead.

The start of the regatta was delayed for two hours because there wasn't sufficient breeze, which built up to 10 knots by the time the second race was staged.

"It's always great to win. We were never under any pressure. Our starts were good and afterguard worked well with good clear communication and decisions," Dalton said.

He said NZL81 showed good speed against K-Challenge.

"In the heavier breeze in Marseille (first pre-America's Cup regatta), K-Challenge gave us a hurry-up on the first run. There was nothing like that today. We started well and continued to gain until the finish."

In other first flight races today, Italian Luna Rossa beat BMW Oracle Racing, Team Alinghi comfortably beat +39 while K-Challenge beat French rival Le Defi.

In the second flight Luna Rossa couldn't repeat their performance. Team Alinghi led from the start of this match to win.

Results

Flight 1

ITA74 bt USA71 by 58sec

SUI64 bt ITA59 by 1min 48sec

FRA57 bt FRA69 by 1min 45sec

NZL81 bt RSA48 by 2min 57sec



Flight 2

FRA69 bt RSA48 by 39sec

SUI64 bt ITA74 by 25sec

USA71 bt ITA59 by 2min 18sec

NZL81 bt FRA57 by 1min 53sec



Leaderboard

Team Alinghi 2/2 (2), Emirates Team New Zealand 2/2 (2), BMW ORACLE Racing 1/2 (1), Luna Rossa 1/2 (1), K-Challenge 1/2 (1) LE DEFI 1/2 (1), +39 0/2 (0), Team Shosholoza 0/2 (0).




- NZPA