New Zealand SailGP Team claimed two Fleet race wins to top the leaderboard at the end of the opening day of the Range Rover France Sail Grand Prix.
Pete Burling took the Kiwi team to two wins in some extreme conditions, with Tom Slingsby and Australia claiming the other win.
At the end of the day New Zealand have 27 points, two points clear of the United States in second with the Aussies a further five behind.
For Ben Ainslie and the British team it was a mixed bag.
A flying start in the first race saw them lead of most of the race but eventually slip to second behind New Zealand with Jimmy Spithill and the USA team in third.
In the second race a poor start by Ainslie quickly saw them in last place and obviously with a technical problem . . . eventually limping out
after a failure in the starboard daggerboard casing, meant the team could not move the foil up and down.
Meanwhile Australia took the win ahead of the USA with Nicolai Sehested bringing home Denmark in the third place.
After some quick work by the British technical team, the Brits were ready for the start of race 3.
After a short delay for the British shore a team to make an on-water fix, with 3 minutes to go the repair was made, and GBR were ready to race. Race 3 started in 19 knots (35Km/h) winds that were hitting 28 knots (50 Km/h) by the end.
Spithill made a good start but it was Tom Slingsby’s Australia that took the early lead.
By Gate 2 Burling rounded ahead of Ainslie and powered away to a second win, with Quentin Delapierre and the France team coming through to take second, setting new speed record of 99.9 Km/h (53.9 knots)
USA were third and Ainslie took fourth to salvage enough from the day to be fifth overall with 18 points and a chance to make the Final race.
On the leaderboard going into the final day, Ainslie ia one point behind fourth placed France and two behind Australia, who with 20 points hold the third Final race place.
New Zealand with 27 points and the USA with 25 are looking good for the Final race but with the new format providing an additional fleet race Sunday it allow more opportunities for France and Britain to attack the leading pack, although removing Slingsby will not be easy.
The forecast for Sunday is for lighter winds.
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