Near flawless sailing by the New Zealanders coupled with some disasters for the Italian crew saw Prada lose the second
race of the America’s Cup by a whopping 2 minutes and 43 seconds.
Team New Zealand took control brilliantly at race start tacking early and getting an 18 second lead.
For a moment in the first leg Prada were gaining until the Italians sailed into an early disaster - a crew member “Max”,
had to be removed by a rescue boat suffering a gash to the head.
The wound was connected to another problem for the Prada crew, it was caused by a carbon rod being used to clear flotsam
that had attached itself to the Luna Rossa’s keel.
The time the boat took to stop helped Team New Zealand had a 2 minute 19 second lead.
However on the down-wind leg Prada picked up some vital time and the gap narrowed 26 seconds to 1 minute 55 at the
second mark.
But with some unfortunate tactics, and further problems with their sails for Prada by mark five Team New Zealand had had
widened the gap over the Italians to 2 minutes 25 seconds.
There was no stopping Team New Zealand as they sailed almost flawlessly to a win of 2 minutes and 43 seconds ahead of
the Italians.