Yachting: Team NZ lose to Oracle

A botched spinnaker takedown saw Team NZ lose to Oracle overnight. Chris Cameron / ETNZ

A wayward spinnaker cost Team New Zealand dearly in the Louis Vuitton Trophy yachting regatta off Dubai overnight (NZT).

Up against competition leaders Oracle (United States, the Dean Barker-skipped boat lost all chance of a win when the halyard jammed nearing the second leeward mark.

By the time strategist Adam Beashel had climbed to the top of the mast to free the spinnaker, Team New Zealand had lost five boat lengths on their rivals.

Oracle went on to win by 25 seconds, extending their lead to 15 points, comfortably ahead of the second-placed New Zealanders on 8.5.

Tactician Ray Davies said the New Zealand boat had started well and were looking strong enough to hold Oracle out to the right layline.

"But they gained enough in the tacks to lead into the top mark by 10 seconds," Davies said.

"We threw gybes at them on the run and did catch up; we were quite overlapped closing on the gate and chose to go right.

"We gybed on the layline, the breeze went shifty and we couldn't lay the mark, so gave ourselves a difficult rounding on the left."

Despite the halyard issue, Davies said Team New Zealand made some solid gains up the beat, closing the gap to 15 seconds at one stage.

But Oracle eased away for the win on the penultimate day of the second round robin.

Mascalzone Latino raced up the placings into third on eight points after comprehensive wins over Aretmis (Sweden) and Synergy (Russia).

The top four teams after the second series of round robin racing will advance to the semifinals.

Standings after eight days: BMWOracle (USA) 15pts 1, Team New Zealand 8.5 2, Mascalzone Latino (Italy) 8 3, All4ONE (France Germany) 6 and Synergy (Russia) 6 4 equal, Artemis (Sweden) 5.

- NZPA