Spithill spooked since Burling starts getting jump on him
Peter Burling's conversion rate in the starting box is one of the most staggering developments of this America's Cup final — and a key reason why Jimmy Spithill now seems spooked.
The anxiety the nation was experiencing after Burling and Team New Zealand seemed to be below par in the starts wasn't misplaced.
The starts in match racing are a fine art. The more you do, the better you get.
I know what a bit of rust can do for you as a helmsman and a crew.
My concern wasn't about Burling’s ability to come up to the level of somebody of Spithill's calibre when it came to match racing. It was more about whether he had the time.
Yet here we are two racing days into the America's Cup final and the Kiwis have swept Oracle in four straight races and lead the first-toseven final 3-0.
Burling has now won six starts on the trot — four against Oracle and last two against Artemis in the Louis Vuitton final.
Before that, his conversion rate for winning starts in the round-robin challenger series was 20 per cent.
To go from that to winning six on the trot is a massive turnaround.
And when you've got a boat going as fast as Team New Zealand's is, when you get in front, nobody can haul you in.
People keep asking me if Burling has been foxing until now.
Were the Kiwis holding back? I'm not too sure but I don't think so. There is that possibility. But I think it's more likely that regular competition has played a huge role in the turnaround — that plus Burling is such a superb sailor that he adapts faster than anybody.
In my area, we're doing 30 match races every event. But these guys have had to do a bunch of stuff on the simulator before turning up in Bermuda to race against teams who have been competing against each other for six months.
Or 18 months as is the case with SoftBank Team Japan and Oracle.
Everybody is playing their part in this campaign so far, from the designers and builders whose vision is being vindicated to the onshore and onboard crews.
But Burling's starts against what now appears to be a shaken Spithill have been critical in Team New Zealand's early jump in this final.