Team New Zealand make it two from two

Team New Zealand made it two from two in the Louis Vuitton Trophy yachting regatta off Auckland today after gear failure on their opponents' boat turned a tight battle into an easy victory.

They ended the day tied with Azzurra as the only crews in the eight-strong fleet with a 100 percent record after two rounds of the preliminary round-robin.

Team NZ beat Azzurra's compatriots, Mascalzone Latino, by four minutes 43 seconds, but the huge margin belied the closeness of the racing over the first two of the four legs on Waitemata Harbour.

Mascalzone, with New Zealander Gavin Brady helming, protected the right hand side of the course up the first beat and the move paid dividends as they built a handy lead.

They rounded the top mark 22sec in front, but Team NZ, skippered by Dean Barker, were able to close the gap to 8sec at the bottom gate.

As the crews looked set for a close fight in a breeze that built up to about 14 knots, Mascalzone's hopes of an upset suddenly evaporated when the jib clip attacking the halyard to the sail broke.

Barker said Team NZ did not get a great start, giving Mascalzone more momentum off the line and also the favoured right hand side.

"We had a fair amount of work to do to minimise the damage," he said.

"Down the run, we took advantage of a couple of mistakes they made and rounded the favoured end of the leeward gate at almost the same time as Mascalzone Latino rounded the other end."

Barker said Team NZ managed to get control with a lee-bow tack as the boats converged for the first time on the third leg.

"Then they had the gear breakage when the match was shaping up as a very, very close race," he said.

"We're pleased to get the point but we would rather not win through a breakage. Fortunately we were in control when it happened."

Azzurra, who had won the inaugural Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta in France in November, maintained their good start in Auckland with a 41sec victory over Russia's Synergy.

The two crews engaged in a tacking duel on the first leg with Azzurra making small but decisive gains to lead by 7sec at the top mark.

Synergy stayed close during the ensuing run downwind, but Azzurra, with skipper Franceso Bruni at the wheel, then began to pull away and were able to play the windshifts.

In the day's other races, Britain's Team Origin and Sweden's Artemis grabbed their first successes of the regatta against opponents who had won yesterday.

Team Origin produced a good start against France's All4One and maintained a comfortable lead to finish 1min 33sec in front.

Artemis also led for most their contest with French entry Aleph and crossed 1min 22sec ahead.

Aleph's chances of a comeback were dealt a blow when they produced a poor sail change at the end of leg two, dropping their gennaker into the water.

- NZPA