America’s Cup 2021: Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa face off in a momentary endurance race

Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa have started the America’s Cup early with a momentary endurance race in the port of Waitematā.

With Auckland at Alert Level 3 due to the Covid-19 resurgence in the community, the America’s Cup match, which was scheduled to start this weekend, was delayed until next Wednesday at the earliest, pending the government’s decision on whether to extend the confinement in the city.

However, that hasn’t stopped the teams from participating in a friendly competition in the water.

Images posted to the Sail Chaser YouTube channel show Team NZ and Luna Rossa testing each other’s speed with an impromptu endurance race.

“Emirates Team New Zealand sailed to where Luna Rossa was practicing around 3pm,” Harry Lusk, creator of the Sail Chaser YouTube channel, wrote in the video.

“They circled each other for a short time and engaged in a momentary ‘endurance race’ before Te Rehutai sailed east to continue her practice.”

Both teams have been preparing for the Copa América match from first to seven as they await the decision on whether the event can continue.

Organizers are drawing up a series of contingency plans, which could include races that extend beyond the scheduled end date of March 21 if there are more Covid-19 outages.

America’s Cup Event has confirmed that it requested an exemption to compete under Level 3 restrictions “to keep as many options open as possible.”

Races can continue at level 2 but with crowd restrictions.