‘Pistol’ Pete ready to fire Kiwi challenge
It seems ‘‘Pistol’’ Pete Burling is living up to his nickname with Team New Zealand’s helmsman proving increasingly quick on the draw.
Burling’s lack of match-racing experience, especially the heated duels in the starting box, appeared to be his only handicap as he transferred his golden success from Olympic fleet racing to the brutal one-on-one format of the America’s Cup.
But Murray Jones, a five-time winner of the Cup and Team New Zealand’s performance coach, has been quick to ease any concerns around the syndicate’s young gun ahead of the regatta’s start in Bermuda this weekend.
Burling and his Olympics partner Blair Tuke form two-thirds of the Kiwi afterguard with skipper Glenn Ashby in a new-look crew, responsible for making the key decisions at high speed.
Jones believes the new class of 50-foot foiling catamarans introduced for this 35th edition of the Cup has evened out the experience
Alevels that can be so crucial on yachting’s biggest stage.
‘‘The boats are completely different to what we have sailed in the past. Everyone has had to learn new techniques and ways to sail- – is for the America’s Cup, affectionately known as the Auld Mug. The world’s oldest international sporting trophy was crafted in 1848 and first raced for in 1851. It is sterling silver and originally stood 68cm but is now 1.1m after two bases were added for the growing list of winners. – is for Bermuda, the British territory in the Atlantic Ocean which American holders Oracle controversially chose to stage the 35th America’s Cup. – is for catamarans. They’re no strangers to the Cup, think Dennis Conner in 1987 against New Zealand’s “big boat” and Alighi in 2010 when their cat was out-gunned by Oracle’s trimaran. But this is the second cycle where they are compulsory. – is for daggerboards, the j-shaped foils that drop through the centre of each hull and are used to control the boat’s lift out of the water. – is for the Events Authority, the slick operation that runs the regatta and is headed by Kiwi Sir Russell Coutts.
F– is for foiling where the boats lift on their daggerboards, clearing them from water resistance and increasing speed. Revolutionised by Team New Zealand for the last cup, it has progressed so far that the goal this time is to complete the course without getting your hulls wet.
G– is for the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the blue-collar San Francisco outfit which backs American magnate Larry Ellison’s wealthy Oracle Team USA. After hosting the last cup, they have seen yachting’s biggest show head to Bermuda.
H- is for hydraulics. Fuelled by humanpowered grinders and “cyclors”, they are key to activating these energy-hungry cats, providing the energy to move the wingsail and foils. Each team races every other team twice in one-onone round-robin racing, scoring one point per win. Even defenders Oracle are involved. The bottom challenger drops out and the winning team will retain one point for the actual America’s Cup match if they make it all the way there. ing the boats and different strategies in the pre-starts. I think Pete has taken that on as well as anyone out there, so I’m not concerned about that area,’’ Jones said.
‘‘The boys haven’t come from a match-racing background but they have come from a really high performance sailing background. They understand the game.
‘‘It doesn’t take too much to guide them at all because they understand what they have to achieve.’’
Burling is a rare talent, a onein-a-generation sailor with the uncanny ability to read conditions, place his boat accordingly and maximise his crew. Jones believes that sort of gift can be transferred across classes as greats like Sir Russell Coutts had proven.
The 26-year-old Burling has already shown a ruthless streak in practice racing, highlighted by the frustration levels he drew out of Britain’s Ben Ainslie, an America’s Cup winner four years ago and the most decorated sailor in Olympics history.
Burling has been winning his starts, a crucial element in these It’s a best-of the top four challengers with two races a day. This is a best-ofthree races scheduled on consecutive days. – is for Iain Murray, the genial and well-respected Australian who will again be regatta director. – is for Jimmy Spithill, the Oracle skipper who has won the last two America’s Cup. He’s nicknamed Pitbull for good reason – he’s aggressive and relentless.
Kquick-fire races.
Jones, who has won with Team New Zealand, Alinghi and Oracle and been inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, predicts this cup to be the closest in his 23 years of involvement.
But he likes where the Kiwis are placed entering the double round-robin phase and, importantly, feels there is room for the development all teams will be seeking as the month-long battle unfolds.
‘‘We are in a good position to – is for KZ7, New Zealand’s first America’s Cup boat whose spirit lives on after a thrilling 1987 Cup campaign in Fremantle. Named Kiwi Magic but dubbed “Plastic Fantastic”, it showcased Kiwi ingenuity as fibreglass hulls were used for the first time. “If you want to build a glass boat, why would you do it unless you wanted to cheat?” complained American Dennis Conner whose conventional Stars and Stripes boat beat the Kiwis 4-1 in the challenger final and went on to thump Australia in the match and regain the trophy he had lost four years earlier.
L– is for leeward, the direction the wind is blowing towards. Get used to your yachting terms. This one will be often repeated as the leeward hull, the one away from the wind that is slicing through the water while the windward hull is elevated by the force of the wind and has the bulk of the crew in it. – is for The Match ... that’s yachting-speak for the actual sail-off for the America’s Cup, the final between defenders Oracle and the top challenger. – is for nautical mile which equals 1.852km. The course, set in the natural amphitheatre of Bermuda’s Great Sound, is up to 12 miles in length, depending on wind conditions. With these boats capable of top speeds nearing 90kmh, the races will be over in around 20 minutes.
O– is for Oracle Team USA, the America’s Cup holders who have radically transformed the scene into a multi-hull extravaganza. They have plans in place to keep this format going and even hope to hold the regatta every two years rather than four. But they might have to win in Bermuda to retain those goals.
Pimprove as quickly, if not quicker, than most other teams,’’ Jones said.
Jones likes the mix of the crew. Team New Zealand have recruited wisely as they went down their radical pedal-powered approach. They have plenty of power in the ‘‘cyclors’’ department with the likes of Olympic cyclist Simon van Velthooven and Olympic rower Joe Sullivan. And specialist yachting talent such as Josh Junior, Andy Maloney and Guy Endean have been willing to sail in lycra. – is for pedal power, the radcial system being used by Team New Zealand to power the hydraulics. Defenders Oracle and the top challenger sail for Four races ar o days and then there’ e-day break for teams to tweak their boats and crew, before resuming. Reasoning that legs are stronger than arms, they have four cyclists on their grinding stations, reportedly generating 40 per cent more power.
QWith a leg-power advantage estimated to be as high as 30 per cent over their rivals’ traditional grinders, the Kiwis have used that to provide stability to their foiling, making them arguably the slickest through their turns and with no shortage of straight out speed.
‘‘There are a lot of new faces there and there is a lot of enthusiasm ... young, clever people, good sailors ... it’s quite an exciting and refreshing group of people,’’ Jones said.
‘‘All the boys in the sailing team - is for the Louis Vuitton qualifying series which is the first phase of racing. It involves all six teams, including the defenders for the first time. After two rounds of round-robin racing the bottom team drops out, Oracle go off to develop their boat on their own, and the top four qualifying challengers go into their semifinals. – is for rudder, the mechanism that helps steer the boats. The catamrans have one at the back of each hull with adjustable winglets at the bottom to improve stability. – is for Sir as in Russell Coutts and Ben Ainslie, the knighted sailors. Coutts oversees the cup event operation as well as guiding defenders Oracle. Ainslie, the most decorated sailor in Olympics history, won the cup with Oracle last time but now has his own British syndicate named after him. Don’t forget Sir Michael Fay, the man who backed New Zealand’s first Cup challenge in 1987. – is for trampoline. That’s the springy mesh that separates the two hulls which the sailors must negotiate in bouncy steps as they cross from hull to hull during turns. – is for under control, a crucial element to winning races in these high-speed cats. They are so over-powered for their six-man crew that’s not always easy. New York Yacht Club (US) San Diego Yacht Club (US) Golden Gate Yacht Club (US) Societe Nuatique de Geneve (Switz) Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (NZ) Royal Perth Yacht Club (Aus) 25 1 2 2 3 1
V– is for velocity made good or VMG, a complex equation needed because a boat often cannot, or should not, sail directly to a mark to reach it as quickly as possible. So it’s a matter of working out the quickest and shortest route based around trade-offs between speed and progress via the number of turns. – is for wingsail. That’s the giant 24m triangle in the middle of the boat that looks more like an aeroplane wing and acts in much the same way. – is for X-factor, the ingredient that inevitably sets the winners apart. Will it be pure speed via design genius, will it be efficiency through tricky moves like foiling tacks and gybes, or will it be a tactician’s gamble?
Y– is for the Youth America’s Cup. New Zealand won the inaugural title last time with Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Guy Endean and Andy Maloney now having graduated to the big dance. The fleet style racing will feature 12 teams. They will race in foiling 45-foot cats.
Zcontribute an enormous amount. Obviously, Peter and Blair have brought a lot in with their experience from smaller boats and it’s working really well ... that coordination between the sailing and design teams which is bringing a lot of results pretty quickly at the moment.’’
But with defenders Oracle showing slick speed and their surrogate challenger Team Japan also fast, there can be no rest for Team New Zealand.
Jones says much of his work during the regatta will be about keeping an even keel to a campaign that is sure to have some rocky moments.
‘‘There will definitely be ups and downs, there will be races we should have won that we don’t win. It’s the nature of these boats,’’ Jones said, pointing to practice breakdowns and results.
‘‘That’s going to happen all the way through. You do one bad gybe and you’ll lose the race. It’s a matter of trying to keep it together and not make mistakes, or less mistakes than the other team. It will be like that all the way through.’’ - is for zero, as in the number of points Team New Zealand, Team France, Team Japan and Sweden’s Artemis Racing start the qualifying series with. Ben Ainslie Racing (GB) have two points in the bag after winning the world series over the past three years and Oracle have one point as runners-up.