KIWIS DOMINANT
WELLINGTON: Two more wins yesterday took Team New Zealand to match point in the America’s Cup series.
Helmsman
Peter Burling outmanoeuvred and outpaced
Jimmy
Spithill’s
Oracle in light airs on the
Great Sound to in Bermuda give Team NZ a 61 lead in the first to-seven series.
Burling nailed two sharp starts yesterday, narrowly edging the
Americans on the start line in race seven and going on to seal a tense
12sec win.
In race eight, the Kiwis were even more dominant, completely outfoxing Oracle in prerace manoeuvres to take a 14sec lead over the line.
They built on that with a flawless performance, racing on their foils all the way for a comfortable 30sec win.
The wins put Team NZ back on the front foot after it suffered its first loss of the series on Sunday, when Oracle managed an 11sec win.
Spithill had no difficulty pinpointing the reasons behind his team’s latest losses.
‘‘These guys sailed better — they made fewer mistakes, and they deserved to win two races. We clearly just made too many mistakes today.
‘‘Clearly the plan wasn’t to be in this position again, let me tell you, but we’re here so now it’s up to us to respond and react.’’
Burling said Team NZ had been learning with every race, particularly when it came to prestart tactics, where input from coaches such as Ray Davies and Murray Jones had been key.
‘‘We feel like we’re on such a steep part of the learning curve, but we’ve got some great guys in the background that allow us to keep progressing.
‘‘As a younger bunch of guys on board, we could really adapt and we felt like we did a lot better job today than we have through this whole series so far.’’
Burling, who at only 26 could also unseat Spithill as the youngest person to helm a winning America’s Cup team, has exuded a disarming calm on and off the water.
He won Olympic gold in Rio last year in the 49er skiff class with fellow crew member Blair Tuke and has brought a youthful confidence to New Zealand’s campaign to regain the Auld Mug, which was first won by the schooner America in 1851.
If Team NZ triumphs, many will put it down to the revolutionary cycling system developed to power the hydraulics needed to control the catamaran’s foils, which lift it out of the water, and the vast wing sail which drives it along.
Its cyclors, including an Olympic cycling medallist, have kept their heads down throughout the contest, pedalling furiously to provide enough oil in the system to allow the boat to perform almost balletic pirouette manoeuvres on the water.
But while the America’s Cup is as much a design as a sailing race, with tens of millions of dollars invested in the racing boats, psychological games are also crucial.
The charismatic Spithill has more expertise in match racing, the sailing equivalent of a boxing contest, and the benefit of nearly two decades of America’s Cup experience.
Even after losing two races yesterday, Spithill was not in any mood to give up, vowing to come out fighting again today and take one race at a time.
None of this seems to have rattled Burling, despite a capsize in a semifinal race which nearly ended the Kiwi dream. — NZN/Reuters