Team New Zealand steamrolls opposition

CHRIS CAMERON

LEADER OF THE PACK: Emirates Team New Zealand leads the fleet at the first mark in race one, day one of the Sardinia Trophy regatta which is part of the Audi MedCup.

Skipper Dean Barker and his Emirates Team New Zealand crew made it a red letter day for Kiwi sailing in Italy today.

They pulled off the extremely rare feat of winning all three races on the opening day of the latest round of the Audi Med Cup in Sardinia.

While the America's Cup is in limbo, the majority of the world's best sailors have migrated to the five regatta series and despite the presence of sailing icons the ilk of Paul Cayard, Barker and his crew steam-rolled the field.

All but one of the hat-trick of wins came empathically.

Race one was a shut-out.

Team New Zealand led at every mark and won by 19 seconds. Race two was almost identical, only the eventual winning margin was larger (32s).

Russian entry Synergy nearly spoiled the party.

In race three Russian crew Synergy opened up a handy lead over Barker and his team and on the final downwind leg appeared to have the match sewn up.

But the Russians fluffed their final gybe opening the door for the rapidly closing Team New Zealand to pass and win by the narrowest of margins (one second)

"I'm not sure if anyone has won three in a row before, but if they have, it doesn't happen very often, so we are very pleased with our performance today," Team NZ boss Grant Dalton said.

"We were a little lucky in the last race. On the final beat we were a solid third, and that's the way it was set to stay. But it fell for us a bit. Everything we did turned to gold."

Team New Zealand will race twice more tomorrow.

Two more wins would open all but an unassailable lead.

Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies hoped Team New Zealand's unique achievement today would have a demoralising effect on the rest of the nine boats in the fleet.

It sure looked that way as the likes of Cayard shuffled past while Davies waxed lyrical.

"We had some really good starts," he explained.

"[Skipper] Dean [Barker] and [bowman] Jeremy [Lomas] judged them to perfection and that set us up to be in a pretty strong place. We just had to defend from there. The boat is going well and having Adam Beashel and Kevin Hall alongside me in the tactical and strategy roles seems to be working really well."

After 21 races in the Med Cup, Team New Zealand is in top spot on 68.5 points. The next best is Matador from Argentina on 93.5 and United States entry Quantum Racing on 100.5.

Cayard's Swedish outfit Artemis is fourth on 110.5.

"Today put a few points between us so it could not have been a better day in that respect,'' Davies said.

"Sailing can come and go so we have to keep the hammer on and keep the pressure on these guys. All these guys at this level know tomorrow can be different that is the funny thing with this sport but if we can start like we did today we should be in the reckoning."

* Greg Ford travelled to Sardinia courtesy of Emirates.

- © Fairfax NZ News