Desperately needing to resurrect their faltering SailGP campaign, New Zealand have committed a costly tactical blunder to miss the final at Cadiz, Spain.
The Kiwis seemed to have a top-three spot safely in hand, as they rounded the final mark of the final heat ahead of rivals USA, but sailed directly into the path of Sir Ben Ainslie's Great Britan, still approaching the mark, and had to sail in a circle to avoid collision, as the Americans headed to the finish-line.
Slapped with a penalty, New Zealand fell out of the three-boat podium race, with the United States, skippered by Aussie Jimmy Spithill, taking full advantage of their good fortune, winning the regatta and leapfrogging the Kiwis on overall standings.
"It was pretty easy for Ben [Ainslie] to go up a couple of degrees and take someone’s transom," fumed NZ skipper Peter Burling.
"Like every yacht race, when you’re on opposite legs, you try and do what you can to work with the other boats around you, and he obviously wanted to try and take us out of the final, which he did a nice job of.
"It was a bit unfortunate for us.”
New Zealand fell to sixth on the season table, still just two points out of third, but are running out of chances to make up lost ground, after breaking a wing at Saint-Tropez last month and missing the next regatta at Taranto, while a replacement was found.
Their next opportunity to make up lost ground comes at Dubai on December 9-11
