Bring it home, boys
Ray Davies has been here before — in San Francisco — but thinks the crew are up to it
Match point. After San Francisco, you would think those two words would be enough to send shivers down the spine of Emirates Team New Zealand.
Ray Davies, the team’s performance coach, who was the tactician on board the Kiwi boat in 2013 when Oracle saved match point in eight straight races to reclaim the America’s Cup, isn’t frightened by the position Team NZ find themselves in.
He knows through bitter experience that this America’s Cup is not over yet.
But he also knows his team, and backs his young charges, and contemporary Glenn Ashby, to get the job done.
“This one has a very different feel to it. It’s a very different set of circumstances — conditions-wise, the boats, the people,” said Davies.
“But we’ve learned some very good lessons from that last Cup, and it’s not over until you win that last race. Who knows what is around the corner?”
Davies is confident of one thing, however, that helmsman Peter Burling and crew will rise to the occasion over the coming days. With four Olympic medallists on board at any one time, Davies says the crew all know how to perform under pressure.
“It’s not really a nerves thing, it’s a big, big event and, yeah, there’s a lot of pressure, but this is what the team does. We put ourselves under a lot of pressure at events all the time,” said Davies.
“Obviously the younger guys in the team have also been in pressure situations a lot — that’s what worldclass sport is.
“It is just another day’s yachting for us and, yeah, there’ll be huge consequences if we can pull it off, but you just have to rise to the occasion.”
Davies was part of the weather team in 2003 when the Cup left New Zealand shores and has remained with Team NZ over the past 14 years as they sought to have it return.
He had been agonisingly close to pulling it off in San Francisco. Now, with the Auld Mug once again in reach, Davies said Team NZ would be doing everything they can to ensure they can convert match point today.
After two convincing wins over Oracle yesterday to take a 6-1 lead in the series, Team NZ remained out on the water after racing to try and “refine a couple of things’’.
Davies said the crew would also be out first thing in the morning to ensure they were sharp come race time in the afternoon.
“There’s a lot to go over with the data — we’re always trying to make the boat go better.”