VALENCIA - A hole the size of a 20 cent coin did the damage for Team New Zealand in race five of the America's Cup in Valencia.
After such a promising start where they lead across the startline and round the first mark, disaster struck for Team New Zealand early in the first run.
A tiny tear in the spinnaker, which probably occurred during the hoist, appeared in a high pressure point.
Just as they were preparing to peel off to a new one, the giant red kite shredded, causing the black boat to depower.
Then with one ripped spinnaker, the second sail they were in the process of putting up then got tangled up forcing them to hoist a third one.
By the time they had recovered Alinghi had sailed past and out to a six boat length lead.
Alinghi won the race by 19 seconds and now have a 3-2 lead in the best of nine race series making tonight's race a must win for Team New Zealand.
Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said no one was to blame for the incident.
"I don't know what you would have done anyway. It is one of those ones where you go kick the cat, go throw a few plates and kick a few walls in and move on.
"The fact is we ended up with a tear and if we had done the peel 20 second earlier it wouldn't have happened. This regatta is tight and you have to get it dead right. Right now Alinghi is getting it more right than us otherwise we would be 2-3. Winners are grinners and Alinghi didn't make any mistakes."
Dalton said the key for his side now is to put the loss behind them and go out and try and level it up.
"How you react to something like that is the key to how you go forward as a team. It is like a fork in the road or the defining moment. You can make it the defining moment but it's important that we don't do that, but just see it as a loss in the best of five and move forward.
"I think we always sail our best when we are relaxed and we were completely relaxed today. Dean [Barker] was masterful in the start, it was a planned move to not to dial so that is Dean at his best relaxed. That is important that we stay relaxed."
One aspect that came from the match was how even the boats were in the conditions which at 12 knots plus were expected to favour Alinghi.
"We were not expecting to go out there in over 12 knots and blow the doors off," Alinghi trimmer Simon Daubney said. "We knew the Team New Zealand boat was a good alround boat."
Daubney said his crew's performance wasn't exactly faultless today either.
"It is not going all smoothly on our boat as well. The pressure is on here. It is a very close contest .. one little mistake is costly and you don't want to be the guy that makes that mistake."
The conditions for race six tonight are similar with 12-14 knots expected.
Full coverage of the America's Cup from nzherald.co.nz/americascup and desktoptv.co.nz
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