Spithill looks increasingly bereft of any ideas

Races seven and eight in the 35th America’s Cup saw an impressive display from Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand. The cool heads on Aotearoa resulted in two dominant performances to wind up the pressure on Oracle Team USA.

Oracle Team USA have a massive mountain to climb.

The word that sums up Team NZ in this regatta is composure. They have not got too high when successful or too low when beaten (or pitch-poling their yacht). They will approach today the same way, with solid preparation and sticking to their routines. Focus on the sailing and the result will take care of itself.

Oracle will keep fighting but they now have major cracks in their armour. They have improved their speed — but they have not developed anything innovative, new or different. They have simply copied what Team NZ has developed.

Being a follower seldom gets you into a position where you overtake the leader. From the start of the

I don’t think anyone within Team NZ ever listens to a word Spithill says in the media, it simply does not matter.

design process, Team NZ has been bold, imaginative and very smart.

Jimmy Spithill’s bravado and talk now looks hollow. Without deeds to match his words, it is difficult to take him seriously. To be honest, I don’t think anyone within Team NZ ever listens to a word Spithill says in the media, it simply does not matter.

Peter Burling absolutely owned Spithill in the starts yesterday. In the first race he got Spithill out of sync with five seconds to go and controlled the start from the right-of-way leeward position. The result was that Team NZ was a length ahead and going faster when the start gun went.

The second start saw a big mistake from Spithill. He tacked instead of gybing and got slow. He opened the door for Burling to get the hook and Burling did not hesitate as he slammed the door open and took Spithill out. The result was five boatlength lead to Team NZ at the start and Spithill’s confidence was gone.

The pressure really got to Spithill in that race and the result was more mistakes. He made an unforced error sailing out of the boundary by a length and got a penalty. Then they got their lay-line to the bottom gate wrong (again) and tried to pull off a tight gybe, fell off the foils and parked the boat. Under pressure, they folded. Composure gone, got smashed.

In contrast Team NZ sailed smooth, clean and smart to claim an easy win.