How Team NZ made Spithill sick
Jimmy Spithill admits his first experience on a simulator made him sick with envy at Team New Zealand.
Spithill says Team New Zealand’s use of the artificial racing tool was a key to their America’s Cup win in Bermuda in 2017 where they trounced his Oracle Team USA in the Cup match.
Now with Italian syndicate Luna Rossa, Spithill has been maximising the use of their simulator, realising what he missed out on at the last Cup.
The Italian simulator has been constructed with the help of some of the engineers who were in the Team New Zealand camp last time and Spithill admitted to American publication Sailing World the first time he used it he left feeling sick.
That had nothing to do with motion sickness it was because he ‘‘realised how far behind the rest of us were by not having this tool last campaign, and instantly regretted not pushing harder to develop one then’’.
Team New Zealand was the only syndicate to use a simulator last time, now all their major rivals have them.
‘‘There’s a tremendous efficiency to the simulator as well,’’ Spithill said.
‘‘In the past, you look at just how much time, money and effort goes into getting on the water and sailing in the America’s Cup. It’s no different this time; we need a crane, a heap of people, chase boats. It’s a huge operation, and by the time you get out there, you may get only a few hours of quality sailing.
‘‘In the simulator, we go until we’re brain-dead. If you make a mistake on the water, you lose so much, but on the simulator, we can just stop and do it again, setting up different scenarios.’’
Spithill said the Bermuda loss still burns at him after he helped Oracle win the 2010 and 2013 editions. ‘‘I don’t ever let any loss go,’’ he told Sailing World.
‘‘Defeat is nothing but education. We were too conservative [in Bermuda]. Sometimes success can do that to a team. We were going for third win in a row, and it was a trap we fell into that we were not aggressive enough with our approach.
‘‘Their campaign was anything but conservative. Personally, I didn’t go with my instincts enough, on or off the water, and we made key decisions early on in the campaign that affected the end result.’’
Spithill says he is relishing ‘‘just going sailing’’ with Luna Rossa after heading the Oracle campaigns and being so busy in other commercial areas.
He is sharing the wheel with Italian Francesco Bruni.
‘‘It actually works pretty well because I have the ability to step off the boat and have a look. I get to see different styles and techniques, which is a great way to develop the boat and grow,’’ he said.
He described the new foiling 75-foot monohulls as ‘‘awesome’’ and can’t wait to get them in racing situations for the first time after the world series regattas in Sardinia and Portsmouth were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
That first time they will race each other now will be – health conditions permitting – in Auckland in December in a warmup event before the real action starts in January.
‘‘I’m not sure anyone can really say what it’s going to be like,’’ Spithill said.