Team Germany has suffered its second defeat in the third race of the pre-regattas for the America's Cup. Off Trapani, skipper Jesper Bank and his crew lost their duel against Cup giant Emirates Team New Zealand by 1.51 minutes.
Extreme conditions prevailed for America's Cup yachts on Friday with waves up to two metres high and gale-force winds of up to 25 knots off Trapani. As a result, the twelve Cup teams on the Romeo and Juliet courses suffered a lot of material damage. Team China had to retire, as did the French K-Challenge. Emirates Team New Zealand also had material problems before the first start and had to carry out repair work in the harbour.
The Kiwis would have missed the start against the Germans had the race committee not postponed the start and moved the course. In the duel, the favourites remained confident, but Team Germany kept up well. Jesper Bank happily stepped off the GER-72 in the late afternoon and said: "Man, it was fun sailing today. I'm glad that we were able to keep up so well with one of the top challengers both in the start phase and during the race."
The surprise of the day was Team Shosholoza's victory over the K-Challenge. The South Africans had already managed to force a penalty on the favourites from France in the pre-start phase. The RSA-83 started the race at a corresponding advantage, but the race ended abruptly after a quarter of an hour when the forestay on the FRA-60 broke and the South Africans took their first victory off Sicily.
Due to the marginal sailing conditions, the second round of the day was postponed to Saturday. In the fourth "flight", the United Internet Team Germany will meet Team Shosholoza with the Hamburg professional sailor Tim Kröger on Saturday at 12.30 pm.
The 41-year-old boat captain said in Trapani: "It's a shame that our duel against the Germans had to be postponed. We were going so well at the moment." Jesper Bank said: "If we want to finish ninth here, we need the point against Shosholoza. That's the statistical way of looking at it. The same applies to Shosholoza the other way round, of course."
The ARD reporters will report on this and other exciting races on Sunday in their Sport Extra programme on the German TV channel Ersten. Following pictures from the German Touring Car Championship, the 40-minute sailing report will begin at around 3.30 pm.
