"It was tough out there today and the conditions were very much top end racing for these boats," said Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker. Barker said they had a minor collision with Artemis but luckily came out of it with just a minor ding in the boat.
The fleet race was followed by another round of time trials. Two timed runs were scheduled for each team over the 500m course. But with four yachts back at the dock and Oracle 4 not completing the runs, there were only four contenders.
Oracle 5, with a run of 48km/h was fastest yacht, with Team New Zealand on 47.36km/h second.
The wind was expected to build again overnight. Teams take a scheduled two-day break from racing and the regatta restarts on Thursday with three fleet races.
"Overall we're feeling pretty happy going into the business end of the regatta and have learnt a lot over the last few days," said Barker. "Still we made mistakes out there today so our focus is on lifting our game and ensuring that we don't repeat them again come Wednesday."
Leaderboard
1 Team New Zealand 37 pts
2 Oracle Racing 4 36
3 Artemis Racing 29
4 Oracle Racing 5 26
5 China Team 22
6 Aleph 20
7 Energy Team 19
8 Team Korea 17
9 Green Comm Racing 13.
