Lightning ends Italy-New Zealand race after Swiss revive America's Cup campaign with win over French

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Some fireworks between America’s Cup heavyweights from Italy and New Zealand were interrupted by the real thing Tuesday when a brilliant bolt of lightning struck the course a few hundred meters in front of the carbon-fiber boats during preliminary racing.

Italy's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team was sailing through a storm well ahead of two-time defending America's Cup champion Emirates Team New Zealand when the lightning strike startled the sailors and ended the race on the first day of the second round robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The race committee called an almost immediate halt to racing, awarding the win to Luna Rossa while the Kiwis were disqualified for going far outside the boundary as they headed off the course to avoid the incoming bad weather. Both boats immediately dropped their sails and were fast-towed back to port.

Video from the Kiwi boat shows the bolt hitting the water, with an instantaneous clap of thunder. Co-helmsman Nathan Outteridge is heard saying, “big gust here,” while co-helmsman Peter Burling looks at the lightning strike and responds with a startled expression.

Luna Rossa co-helmsman Jimmy Spithill outmaneuvered the Kiwis approaching the starting line and forced them into a low-speed tack that dropped them off their foils. The Italian crew then survived a nerve-wracking broach when the bow of the 75-foot monohull leaped out of the water and led at every mark.

The Kiwis are competing in the round robins, but their points don't count. They will sit out the semis and finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup while waiting to defend the Auld Mug in mid-October.

Team New Zealand beat Luna Rossa 7-3 in the 2021 America's Cup in Auckland. Spithill won the America's Cup for Oracle Team USA in 2010 and 2013 before losing it to the Kiwis in 2017.

Team New Zealand already has had its share of drama. On Thursday, its yacht Taihoro was damaged when it was dropped some 6 meters (20 feet) onto the support cradle by a crane lifting it out of the water after racing. The shore crew repaired the damaged hull and had the boat back on the water two days later.

Earlier Tuesday, Alinghi Red Bull Racing got a big win and boosted its chances of advancing when the Swiss beat France’s Orient Express Racing Team.

Alinghi scored its first win of the opening phase to pull level with Orient Express at the bottom of the standings with 1-4 records. The victory avenged a loss to the French on the first day of racing last week.

The opening stage of the competition will eliminate the lowest-scoring yacht by Sunday.

The remaining four boats will enter two-round playoffs to decide which one will take the Louis Vuitton Cup and earn a place in the America's Cup match, where it will face Emirates Team New Zealand.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team leads the double round-robin stage with a 5-0 record.

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The Associated Press