TEAM NZ KEEP IT COOL
The AC75s produce drama at lowest end of wind scale and Team NZ ace holds his nerve to lift the summer’s first trophy. Duncan Johnstone
TEAM New Zealand showed a cool approach to claim the first piece of silverware of the summer yesterday.
Wins over American Magic and Luna Rossa earned Peter Burling and his crew the America’s Cup World Series title in Auckland.
Burling replaced his flamboyant tactics with a far more calculated game plan to finally get the better of Dean Barker and then held his nerve to see off Jimmy Spithill.
On a difficult day in winds at the bottom end of the racing allowance, the vulnerabilities of the AC75s were exposed as all the teams found themselves struggling to stay on their foils at times.
It’s not a great sight but it can be as equally dramatic as the high-speed action. And Burling and his crew never panicked.
He got the better of Barker in a decent wind and eventually saw off Spithill in the dying breeze as racing pushed well past the 6pm cut-off.
There was plenty at play here apart from the trophy.
Don’t forget Barker had beaten him in practice and upset him in Thursday’s opening round.
Burling tried a couple of radical moves then and came unstuck, paying the price.
Yesterday it was back to basics and the rewards came – eventually.
There was no panic as the Americans took a lead off the line and held that for the better part of three legs.
Burling was happy to sail his own race to grind down the Americans and eventually force Barker into a costly error.
One mistake is all it takes in these boats and, once ahead, Team New Zealand never looked back.
The subsequent win over Luna Rossa had the double edge of the winning of a trophy and denying Spithill some bragging rights.
Another loss on the start line didn’t bode well, nor did an alarmingly long time on their hull at the other end of the course.
But with Spithill finding the same problem, Burling managed to win the battle to get back on the foils.
Once in front, he got the grunt from his grinders and the skills from wing controller Glenn Ashby and flight controller Blair Tuke to stay there.
Mission accomplished – just. But that’s the America’s Cup.
At the other end of the table, it was a double disaster for the British after they showed a bit of promise on Friday.
They had an embarrassment against Luna Rossa and were no better against American Magic, failing to finish both races.
How they find improvements between now and the January 15 start of the Prada Cup challenger series is the multimillion-dollar question in a campaign that has already cost them $220 million.
One step forward, two steps back isn’t the way to build an America’s Cup challenge.
Ainslie’s struggles at Bermuda 2017 were nothing compared to what the Olympics’ greatest sailor has on his hands right now.
Yesterday’s cringe reconfirmed a couple of things – they have no speed in light winds and they are horribly slow through their turns even in a better breeze, regularly losing 10 knots of speed during tacks and gybes. That’s when they were staying on their foils.
Similar conditions are forecast for today when the Christmas Cup is up for grabs.
Expect the same for the British.
The bigger question is, can Team New Zealand do the double in their final day of racing against the challengers before the Kiwis reappear for the America’s Cup match starts on March 6?
It takes a cool head to claim victory in this game and Burling appears as cool as the winning champagne right now.