SailGP championships leaders Australia have copped "a lot" of boat damage and a dent to their title tilt in extreme conditions on a chaotic opening day to the New York event off Manhattan.
With wind gusts of more than 40/h battering the race course, craning operations to lift boats onto the water were limited and, with time running out, organisers opted to put only the four leading teams - Australia, Britain, Spain and the US - out for Saturday's racing.
The Aussies (BONDS Flying Roos) were knocked out before racing even began when their F50 catamaran nose-dived severely following an on-board hydraulic issue.
They were left making urgent repairs to be ready for Sunday's action.
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"We went out there and it was tough conditions," said Flying Roos driver Tom Slingsby.
"We were just doing a practice lap and got out of control and did a big nose-dive.
"Unfortunately we did a lot of damage to the boat amd spent about 45 minutes with the tech team trying to make repairs but still weren't able to make racing."
"The SailGP tech team and our shore team are going to work hard tonight to help get us on the start line tomorrow."
Britain (Emirates GBR) struck first, winning the opening race of just two boats, before defending New York champions Spain (Los Gallos) mastered the brutal conditions to take victory in races two and three and finish the day on top of the event leaderboard with four points.
"It's kind of a weird weekend with the conditions we have today. You cannot fight Mother Nature many times," said Spain's skipper Diego Botin.
For the US team, racing on home waters for the first time this season, it was initially a day of frustration as their boat was not on the water in time for the delayed start of race one before they finished third in races two and three.
But they produced one of the standout moments, with their F50 hitting 100km/h during race three - just 3 km/h short of SailGP's all-time speed record.
The full Sail GP fleet is expected to contest Sunday's racing.
