Oracle Racing Jimmy Spithill fought off pounding waves and stiff winds Wednesday to guide his crew to a first place tie with Emirates New Zealand during the opening day of racing of the America's Cup World Series off Naples.

Spithill dominated the day’s opening race, taking a commanding lead after the fourth buoy to race to an easy victory over France’s Energy Team.

“It was pretty bumpy out there, pretty challenging, but once again I was really impressed by these boats. I think they give the best racing in the world in these conditions,” Spithill said. “We had two really good starts and after that it was about the tacks. You had to pick a flat spot. That's where there were huge gains and losses.”

Oracle was challenged early by Artemis, but the Swedish team’s day came to a crashing end when their boat capsized while rounding the seventh buoy. Artemis did not sail in the day’s second race.

"It was a balance between racing the boat hard and not putting ourselves in a position of risk,” Artemis skipper Terry Hutchinson said. “I don't really feel like we put ourselves at risk but still we ended up on our side. It’s just very frustrating… Luckily no one's injured, but the wing is absolutely broken… It's a real bummer, the boat was so well prepared and sorted for the regatta, and we've been going well in training, so all in all a pretty big disappointment."

In race two, the Emirates New Zealand team made up for a disappointing opening race by pulling ahead and holding off Team Korea, Spithill and the French.

“It's cool, the sailing is pretty awesome, you can't complain when you're sailing in conditions like that,” said Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker, who sits at the top of the leaderboard after two fleet races. “But it's very challenging for the boats and very taxing for the crew. The goal was to get back to the dock in one piece, which we did - it’s nice to be back in good shape."

Emirates led the overall standings by one point coming into Wednesday’s opening round after last year's three regattas -- in Cascais, Portugal; Plymouth, England; and San Diego.