NZ replacing part of yacht’s hull after it was dropped by crane on first day of America’s Cup

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Emirates Team New Zealand worked on Friday to replace a piece of the hull of its yacht that was damaged in a crane incident after its first warmup race at the America’s Cup.

The mishap happened late on Thursday when the 75-foot yacht named “Taihoro” was being removed from the water after racing.

Team leader Grant Dalton said the multimillion-dollar boat fell some six meters (20 feet) onto the support cradle at their team base inside Barcelona’s old port. Dalton said the impact sounded “like a bomb went off.” The boat was eventually lifted to get the tips of its critically important hydrofoils off the concrete ground.

On Thursday, Dalton believed the repair job could keep his defending champion team sidelined throughout the double round-robin phase that lasts through next week.

But less than 24 hours later, Dalton said enough work was done overnight to give him hope they could be back on the water sooner than he expected.

“It’s possible that we could be back out by tomorrow,” the CEO of the team and race said.

“We’re pretty lucky. If it had fallen 200 millimeters to either side it could have been a whole bunch worse, but it fell into the cradle, perfectly into the cradle,” he said. “The guys have literally cut out a hole, it looks like the Titanic.”

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Missing any racing time is a setback, but it should be manageable as long as the boat can be refitted in the coming days or even weeks since as defending champions the Kiwis are guaranteed a spot in the finals in October.

The incident means New Zealand didn’t participate in the two warmup races it was scheduled for on Friday. That won’t impact the standings since its races don’t count; they are essentially only for practice to keep the team sharp for the final.

One of those races was against INEOS Britannia, which according to the rules had to start the race even though its rival couldn’t.

“We were obviously very worried that someone had gotten hurt initially, so we are very happy that everyone was safe,” INEOS helmsman Dylan Fletcher told The Associated Press about how he saw the Kiwis’ crane incident.

“You don’t really wish anyone to have bad luck or anything like that to go wrong because you just want to beat them because you’re better.”

Light wind

American Magic got its first point and handed Switzerland’s Alinghi Red Bull Racing a second straight defeat after a race where both teams struggled to find wind and spent long periods of time becalmed. The race control shortened the race from six to four legs to keep it from dragging on. It still lasted 31 minutes.

“It wasn’t pretty at all. It’s just tough conditions,” American Magic helmsman Tom Slingsby said. “I would have loved to foil across the line, but we just did what we had to do to get the win.”

The light winds forced the postponement of the Americans’ scheduled race against Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli later Friday.

One of the five challengers will be eliminated after the opening phase before the final four go to semifinals.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports