Emirates Team New Zealand's time off the water in Bermuda won't have as big an impact on their America's Cup preparations as first feared, with the team pushing ahead with repairs to their damaged catamarans.
The New Zealand boat was hit by Land Rover BAR during a practice race yesterday, with the Brits putting a gash in the side of one of the hulls.
While the Kiwi shore crew has been working around the clock to make the repairs, helmsman Peter Burling told Newshub a less than favourable forecast means they're making good use of the time off the water.
"The other guys went out and drifted around for a couple of hours and came in pretty early in very light breeze. It felt like today wasn't a bad day to be onshore" Burling said from Bermuda.
"We had a look at the forecast and decided we might as well take this opportunity to take care of some other work on the boat that we had planned. We'll definitely be onshore tomorrow again."
Only one practice race was able to take place on the Great Sound in Bermuda today, and America's Cup Race Management have already cancelled tomorrow's racing with the forecast expected to continue.
"You don't want to rush these things, and have a repair job a little bit heavier than what you could have done if you'd just took the time and done it nicely, and done it right the first time. If we repair it properly now, we'll be a lot happier when we do go racing" said Burling.
The enforced layoff is also a good opportunity for the sailing team to take a break, particularly Burling.
The 26-year-old went straight from a successful Olympic 49er campaign with Blair Tuke into the final stages of Team New Zealand's Cup preparations.
"Always ready to get out there but actually for us it's a nice chance to recharge the batteries. We've been pushing super hard since we got here, we've had some massive learnings. We've got a lot of things on the water and a lot of things still to come. We're really excited about how we're going.
That showed yesterday with the Kiwis winning practice races over BAR and Groupama Team France.
"We were pretty happy with how we were going. Was just a big of a shame in that last one that Ben decided to run into the back of us."
Newshub.
