Emirates Team New Zealand have vowed to bounce back after a ripped spinnaker handed defending America's Cup champion Alinghi victory in the fifth of the best-of-nine series here on Friday.

The Kiwis also took heart from NZL 92's performance in windy conditions widely expected to heavily favour the much-vaunted Alinghi boat, SUI 100.

Team New Zealand got off to a cracking start and led Alinghi around the first mark but disaster struck on the second leg as a small tear split the spinnaker.

To make matters worse, a replacement sail was jettisoned in what team principal Grant Dalton called "chaos" onboard and the third kite was hoisted without being properly rigged and ended up twisting.

Alinghi sailed past and never surrendered the lead to record a second successive win that takes them to 3-2 in the best-to-five series.

"This is the tighest and toughest for sure", said America's Cup veteran Simon Daubney, trimmer with Alinghi, of the current competition. Daubney acknowledged that while Team New Zealand were having problems, "it's not going all smoothly on our boat. It's a very, very close contest between two very close teams and two even boats. One slip-up could be costly. The pressure's on... and as we get closer to the end, there'll be more pressure on the teams.

Daubney played down the hype that SUI 100 was a rocketship compared to NZL 92 in windy conditions.

"We weren't expecting to go out there (with the wind) at over 12 knots and blow the doors off", he said. "I'm not disappointed. We expected it to be close. It's a contest between two very, very close boats. It doesn't surprise us."

Dalton said a lack of boat speed had not even crossed the minds of his crew.

"We never today thought we'd be at a disadvantage pace-wise", he said, warning that his team would bounce back. "It's a team that can hang tough. We have always emphasised reliability as an essential element of our campaign. Today that small tear in the spinnaker cost us the race. "

But he added: "I'm very, very happy about the fight back. I couldn't fault it. We were about three boat lengths ahead when the spinnaker blew out. By the time we were sorted out they were about six boat lengths in front. We kept at them, taking metre after metre by metre out of their lead. We threw everything we had at them on the run home. The margin at the finish was 19 seconds. It could have been a lot bigger. It was an important race and not a race that we should have lost by a mistake doing something we've practised a thousand times. But we will get over it and we come out again tomorrow. We'll stay up and positive and move on tomorrow."

Source AFP