America's Cup Emirates Team New Zealand - Dalton: ‘It’s time to get to San Francisco’

Two days ago Emirates Team New Zealand escaped near catastrophe when the team’s 130-foot tall wing sail clipped the side of a building during a launching exercise. Today team CEO Grant Dalton was breathing a heavy sigh of relief.

“It was windy the other day when we lifted,” Dalton says in a video from the Kiwi team. “We did a bit of damage, but Joey Allen says God’s a Kiwi and maybe he was looking after us because we could’ve gone out there and put it on its lid. It was a good lesson.”

Related story: Emirates Team New Zealand’s wing sail damaged

The team attempted to mount the wing on the AC72 platform in winds that reportedly were gusting into the 20s. The wing suffered damage that temporarily kept the team shoreside yesterday, but it was business as usual today.

“We’ve got the wing in now, normal, up already, and life goes on,” Dalton says. “We haven’t got very long now. We’ve done 50 lifts or so and we’ve got about 10 to go and we’re packing up. We’re almost at the end. Boredom’s coming, you can feel it today. It’s time to get to San Francisco.”