After yesterday’s opening day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup – the Challenger Selection series for the America’s Cup in Barcelona – Emirates Team New Zealand reported damage to their America’s Cup boat after a crane malfunction when hauling the AC75 out of the water.

UPDATE: 10:30am CEST Friday 30 August

“We have assessed the damage and have now started the repair, this will continue 24 hours a day. There is some structural damage aft in the boat, but the main force was taken on the forward cradle splash. Overnight this area has been removed (in other words we have cut the piece out of the hull bottom) and the repair has started which means building a new piece of boat. It is too early at this stage to say when we will be sailing again but I have seen these guys work miracles before” – Grant Dalton

Late last night Emirates Team New Zealand confirmed that as a result of the damage they would miss today’s second day of racing at the Louis Vuitton Cup. A statement sent out Thursday evening by the team read:

The team have secured the boat with a portable crane and it is now safely being put back in the shed where the full extent of the damage will be assessed by the team overnight.

From initial assessments a call has been made that Emirates Team New Zealand will not be sailing tomorrow.

Once further investigation is made in the following 24 hours and a full plan for the repair of Taihoro is in place, the team will give a further update on the duration of time the team will be off the water.

Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton said, “Clearly this is a setback for the team at such an important time of the campaign. These are the moments that can define an America’s Cup campaign, and we have an amazing group of dedicated and talent people who will be working around the clock on getting the boat repaired.

“We will not be sailing tomorrow at least, and will provide further updates on the outlook in due course

What happens for New Zealand’s Louis Vuitton Races?

Emirates Team New Zealand were due to sail two match races today against INEOS Britannia in the second race of the day and against Orient Express Racing Team in the fourth race of the day. However, as we understand it, both of these races will still need to be ‘held’ and the Kiwis planned opposition will still need to start the race in order to be declared the ‘winner’ of the match.

In terms of the actual Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robin competition, clearly todays’s two losses will see the kiwis tumble down the order.  However, as Defender of the America’s Cup they already go through to that event, so their participation in the Louis Vuitton Cup is purely to allow them to practise against the other challengers. As such, missed races will not affect the kiwis in the short term, but any missed racing will be significant.

What does it mean for the Louis Vuitton competition?

Emirates Team New Zealand will only compete in the Louis Vuitton Round Robin series, which means they only have seven races left against competition before they meet the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup in the America’s Cup itself.

New Zealand’s scores will be removed from the competition at the end of the event and races against them will not be counted to determine the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finalists and, crucially, the team evicted from the competition.

As such, the easy ‘wins’ for INEOS Britannia and Orient Express Racing Team today against no competition may see them move up the overall ranking tables, but actually don’t mean much other than one fewer race against a top team.

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