Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR must beat Emirates Team New Zealand in at least two of their three races today to keep alive their hopes of lifting the America's Cup after the winds in Bermuda blew in New Zealand's favour yesterday and cancelled racing.
And the Land Rover BAR skipper reaffirmed his belief his team can still overhaul their 3-1 deficit in the first-to-five semi-final.
"I was very thankful when I was sitting up top to be able to look out back and see all their heads above water", said New Zealand helmsman Peter Berling, one of those left on board. Because the craft couldn't sail, it had to be pushed backward and sideways by support boats, costing the team 20 to 30 minutes and making it impossible to get back out for the next race.
The Great Britain boat had suffered a broken wing on the first day of the semi-final, which saw the team retire in the opening race and then having to forfeit the second.
In the other semi-final, Australian skipper Nathan Outteridge's Swedish team Artemis Racing lost twice to Team Japan to slump behind 3-1.
But it was good news for Team New Zealand as it provided an extra 24 hours for the crew to fix the damage which the boat suffered on Wednesday.
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Its talk shows hosted guests who challenged the wisdom of Arab rulers and adopted the role of supporter of the dispossessed. The expulsions come as Qatar is embroiled in a bitter diplomatic spat with its gulf neighbours and other Arab nations.
Throughout the day winds were consistently at the upper scale of the 25-knot limit that would see racing postponed.
After winning Tuesday's first race, New Zealand are in doubt for the rest of the regatta after their boat showed signs of damage from the high-speed impact. We have been constantly monitoring conditions on the racecourse during the course of the day and have decided that there will be no racing today. "But I've got a lot of belief in the team that this is something we can come back from".
Anyone with a ticket to the Americas Cup Village today is urged strongly to check their e-mail for communication from the Americas Cup about their tickets.
All three are said nursing some pretty nasty cuts and bruises, but Ashby said there will be no injury-enforced crew changes for tomorrow's racing.
The winners of the series are set to progresses to the challenger final and whoever wins that takes on defending champions Team USA for the America's Cup itself.
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