New Zealand's Black Foils fell agonisingly short of the final at the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix, missing out by a single point after a dramatic decider against the home team on Lake Geneva.
A scoreless opening race on Sunday left the Kiwis under real pressure. They led around the first mark in the deciding race that followed, only for the Swiss to split at the gate, move ahead, and snatch the final qualifying spot in the group.
"It was a really up-and-down day for the team. We definitely had our worst race of the event in that first one," said Black Foils co-CEO and driver Peter Burling.
"But I think the team did an awesome job bouncing back from that, leading at mark 1 in that final race and really giving ourselves a shot to make it in the final. We felt like we deserved to be in the final this weekend, but it wasn't quite to be."
The Black Foils finished sixth and second in Sunday's two races, ending Group B on 13 points, one behind Explora Journeys Swiss.
An early foul by the Swiss forced the Black Foils off their foils in the opening race, dropping the Kiwis from third to fifth. They clawed back onto the foils and began closing on the fleet, but a button failure brought a boundary penalty that let the Swiss through at the final turn to snatch the last point on offer.
"It felt like everything that could go against us did, with a big incident with the Swiss down the first run and then a button failing, which got us that boundary penalty later on in the race," Burling said.
Australia's BONDS Flying Roos led the four-boat final from the start. Spain's Los Gallos had other ideas, splitting away at the first gate before finding the pace to foil past and take their third win in five events. The Australians settled for second, Denmark's ROCKWOOL Racing rounded out the podium, and home team Explora Journeys Swiss finished fourth.
Fifth place earns the Black Foils six championship points. They sit 12th overall in the Rolex SailGP Championship on 27 points, having missed four events following February's collision in Auckland.
Burling took plenty of encouragement from the team's progress since Valencia.
"We're really proud of the way we've managed to step forward a long, long way from Valencia," he said. "It felt like the boat was going really fast. There are just a few decisions and a few incidents we need to keep tidying up."
Next stop is Pensacola, Florida, for a training camp at SailGP's first long-term training base, a shared facility giving all teams access to on-water support and technical specialists to train and test outside race weekends.
Racing resumes at the Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix, presented by DP World, on 21-22 November.
