RR2, Race 4: SoftBank Team Japan bt Groupama Team France by 5:59

SoftBank Team Japan easily overcame Groupama Team France for their third win of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers.

There was a short delay in getting the first race off, with the southwesterly wind coming over the land, shifty and unstable.

The yachts were up and foiling in the pre-start, and Team Japan hit the line a few seconds ahead. France were late at the start and conceded an easy head start for Team Japan.

SoftBank had moved to seven seconds ahead by the first mark.

France had a weak gybe in their first turn, as the light air proved a challenge. Stability and foiling is key.

France putting foils in the water on tacks, too.

France began doing ten knots and were reeling in Japan, who were at half the speed.

If they have a hull down it is slow, and it is certainly hard for either team to stay up on the foils going downwind and gybing.

At gate three, Team Japan led by 1min 29sec. As the boat picked up speed reaching downwind, Japan were able to put the bow down slowly and stay on the foils.

There was a lot of technique to sailing in light air and the French just haven’t had the time on the water.

Japan made it around the bottom mark, but slowly.

As the wind died on France, skipper Franck Cammas was forced to gybe twice to lay the mark and rounded 3:13 behind Dean Barker and Team Japan.

No hope for the French here.

RR2, Race 5: Emirates Team New Zealand bt Land Rover BAR by retirement

Desperate performance by the British, who retired a leg behind with Emirates Team New Zealand BAR having already finished the race.

The wind for the start was 8.2 knots at 244 degrees on Morgan’s Point.

Land Rover BAR crossed the line slightly ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand, but New Zealand had pace on them to windward. At the turning mark, BAR carried New Zealand up four boat lengths, reaching past the mark and then turned downwind.

New Zealand made an excellent gybe, but BAR didn’t as skipper Sir Ben Ainslie buried a hull. “What happened ... it’s absolutely killing us,” was Ainslie’s frustrated response. It took BAR ages to get moving again, and the race went south from there on one bad turn.

The Kiwis raced off and led by three metres and five seconds at the second mark. They had very impressive foiling tacks going upwind in light air and added to their delta at every mark.

The differences in the light-air foil design on the two boats is amazing: the Kiwis have a long narrow blade that angles out from the shaft, flattens out in the midsection and turns upward for the last third of its length to the tip. BAR had shorter foils with a fairly straight angle from the shaft.

The speed of the New Zealand’s tacks was so fast that they kept the hulls out of the water. This quick turn avoids the need to build speed out of a wet tack or gybe.

The New Zealand team had a crew member lying on the foredeck on their downwind approach to the finish to keep the bow down.

With the Kiwis in total control, and the course having been shortened to finish at gate five, Ainslie called the race committee on the radio to say they were retiring.

Another point for New Zealand, the front-runners to challenge Oracle for the “Auld Mug”.

RR2, Round 6: Oracle Team USA bt SoftBank Team Japan by 0:32

SoftBank Team Japan got the start from Oracle Team USA by a whopping 18 seconds, as Dean Barker once again showed himself as a master of the pre-start race manoeuvre. Team Japan hit the turn 24 seconds ahead and led downwind by 150 metres.

Japan rounded eight seconds clear and, even though Oracle produced a mediocre tack going upwind, there was not too much of a loss.

Barker picked his layline perfectly and saved a gybe on Oracle to lead at the third mark by 21 seconds.

Going back upwind, tactician Tom Slingsby is up peddling behind Jimmy Spithill. This gets weight aft and also allows him to poke his head out of the boat to get a better idea of what is happening on the course.

Going downwind, Oracle had a split at the bottom mark after two gybes and took the favoured side. Quite impressively, they gained the lead on a private puff.

Team Japan has had a habit giving up leads, and this one they paid for in spades.

Oracle round gate five with a 35-second lead on Team Japan, for a leg gain of almost a minute.

Spithill took the right side downwind approaching the final leeward mark, and rounded with a left turn, heading to the finish.

RR2, Race 7: Land Rover BAR bt Groupama Team France by 0:23

Land Rover BAR skipper Sir Ben Ainslie put Groupama Team France in a port-starboard confrontation in the pre-start. Ainslie had to alter course by ducking around Team France and the umpires called a penalty on the French.

Team France crossed the start line ahead of BAR and then crossed in front to give BAR the two-boat-length lead necessary to wipe off the penalty, then turned down the course in hot pursuit.

Going downwind, the French had boat speed and got ahead. Both boats were having trouble moving at all. They went around the left-hand mark and BAR went for an immediate tack to get to the left upwind side first.

On the left, BAR worked up on foil, but had to tack soon because of the course boundary. They had a close crossing with France in the lead and finding more air pressure on the left.

The French tacked on BAR’s bow and then had to go super slow around the inside. Ainslie took a wider, faster move around the mark and outside of France to pass them with more speed.

Then France got up on the foils faster going upwind and retook the lead at the fourth match by 15 seconds. BAR followed around and tacked quickly, like they did the last time around the leeward mark.

Going back upwind, BAR were foiling at 18 knots France were stuck and slow. BAR went ahead and were on starboard. Ainslie used good match-racing tactics, hunting the port-tack French boat with their starboard advantage and forcing to bear off below the layline.

BAR hardened back up, made the mark and took the race.