Conditions on day two at Sardinia proved considerably kinder than the punishment the fleet had absorbed the day before, yet the racing still found ways to produce a capsized Swiss boat, a dramatic Kiwi nosedive, and a photo-finish so tight that crews were still holding their breath long after crossing the line.
| 1. Luna Rossa – Women & Youth | 55 pts |
| 2. Emirates Team New Zealand (Senior) | 47 pts |
| 3. Luna Rossa (Senior) | 44 pts |
| 4. Emirates Team NZ – Women & Youth | 39 pts |
PredictWind had already issued warnings before the first race, flagging the risk of thermal collapses that could push pockets of dead air across the course without notice. The brutal chop of day one had been replaced by a southerly sitting between 11 and 16 knots, a surface that looked perfectly manageable from the outside but concealed an unstable thermal picture that would leave its mark on every race of the afternoon.
The day's most compelling sailing came in Race 4. Emirates Team New Zealand's senior crew, Nathan Outteridge alongside Seb Menzies, spent six legs locked in a close battle with the principal Luna Rossa entry, neither side able to find a decisive advantage. On the second upwind beat, ETNZ ducked beneath the Italian transom and committed to the right boundary, a calculated tactical risk. They came back on starboard tack in lifted pressure and carried that advantage all the way to the final approach, where a high-speed crash gybe fired directly across Luna Rossa's bow sealed the win by just two seconds.
Outteridge's on-board audio captured the decisive moments: "Ducking here... now burn it to the boundary. Holding starboard. Prepare for the slam-tack right on his nose. Hold the power, hold it!"
Race 5 was a different kind of spectacle. The breeze dropped to around seven knots and began shifting erratically across the Gulf of Angels, forcing the race committee to shorten the course four times before a result could be recorded. Tudor Team Alinghi were in trouble even before the start, picking up an immediate boat-on-boat penalty after a too-aggressive pre-start encounter with the ETNZ Women and Youth crew. Attempting to claw their way back through the fleet, the Swiss team committed to a downwind gybe and ran straight into a patch of completely dead air. The AC40 rolled onto its side, the wing touched the water, and a full capsize followed.
Their shore crew reacted quickly and righted the hull, but the outcome was already settled. An instant DNF brought Alinghi's afternoon to a close before the fleet had even reached the next mark. While that was playing out behind them, Athena Pathway's Women and Youth crew had kept their boat on the foils throughout the mayhem and converted the fleet's confusion into a convincing race win.
Alinghi skipper Paul Goodison was candid about how the day had gone: "It's been a tough day. We made some big changes overnight, went back out there today and struggled a lot. The boat wasn't working quite as it should... but we got a good look at how we operate under pressure as a team."
The on-board audio from Phil Robertson during the capsize gave a clear sense of how quickly it unfolded: "Watch the cross, he's coming up – up, up! Far out, that's a penalty. No wind here, she's falling off the foil... coming down, watch it, we're over!"
Television commentators described the scene as it happened: "Athena Pathway have managed to stay fully airborne while the rest of the fleet is completely stuck in the mud! And look behind them – Alinghi has tipped it in! A full capsize for the Swiss!"
Race 6 brought its own drama, centred on the principal Emirates Team New Zealand entry. The Kiwis had moved into a comfortable lead heading into the final downwind leg when a severe autopilot malfunction struck without warning. The boat reared up sharply before driving its bow into a heavy nosedive, leaving the principal Emirates Team New Zealand entry sitting dead in the water while the rest of the fleet sailed past. They crossed the line last, having led the race. Luna Rossa's Women and Youth team took the win, with Marco Gradoni reading the dying breeze with precision and timing a downwind gybe at exactly the right moment.
Seb Menzies reflected on what had been a testing afternoon: "Today had some stressful moments... you're just trying to stay calm and talk to each other without tone or anything like that so you keep the boat calm and make the best decisions you can. A lot of reviewing what went wrong tonight."
Two fleet races remain on the final day of competition. The top two points-scorers from the completed fleet racing will advance to a winner-takes-all Championship Match Race.
