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A blown out spinnaker ended Team New Zealand's chances of victory in race five of the America's Cup in Valencia this morning
Alinghi won the race by 19 seconds and now have a 3-2 lead in the best of nine race series. Race six is tonight and race seven on Monday.
The gear failure was a cruel blow for the Kiwis who had made such a promising start to the race, which BMW Oracle Racing designer Ian Burns predicted would "probably decide the America's Cup".
Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker got the better of Ed Baird in the prestart charging over the line ahead at pace.
It was a spectacular prestart with both boats immersing themselves well into the spectator fleet.
Up the first beat it was an arm wrestle with nothing separating the boats in the lumpy 12-14 knot winds - conditions which were expected to favour the Swiss boat.
On the approach to the mark the Kiwis benefited from a little bit of pressure on the left which saw them push ahead of the Swiss and round the top mark 12 seconds ahead.
However, disaster struck early in the first run when a hole in the spinnaker emerged in a high pressure point. Just as they were preparing to peel off to a new one, the giant red kite shredded, causing the black boat to depower.
The drama didn't end there. With one ripped spinnaker, the second sail they were in the process of putting up then got tangled up, forcing them to hoist a third one.
By the time they had recovered Alinghi had sailed past and out to a six boat length lead.
After sailing through the challenger series without any major gear failure it was a cruel blow for the Kiwi crew.
But to their credit they regained their composure and managed to reduce the deficit.
Trailing the Swiss by 25 second at the third mark Team New Zealand threw everything at the Swiss on the final run.
While they clawed their back to within three boat lengths, the unflappable Swiss crew, skippered by Kiwi Brad Butterworth were never going to be let Team New Zealand back.
The gear breakage aside they will take some positives from this morning's race. Barker showed he can get the better of Baird while NZL92 proved it can match the hyped up Swiss boat SUI100 in conditions which were expected to heavily favour the Alinghi boat. But there is no denying that it was a win that got a way.
"It was a mistake and you can't make mistakes," Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said.
"We pride ourselves in our crew work. The guys are going to be disappointed for sure. But one of this team's strengths is its ability to bounce back."
