Cup sails into calmer seas for first race

Believe it or not, there’s a fun factor to this America’s Cup despite it starting on Monday against the far too familiar backdrop of legal wrangles.

The worried brows of syndicate bosses Grant Dalton (Team New Zealand) and Patrizio Bertelli (Luna Rossa) mightn’t reflect that joy as they get set to face the jury with their protests.

Nor does the stress of fellow challenger Paul Cayard, as he tries to get his sinking Artemis Racing outfit ship-shape again after the training death of crew member Andrew Simpson.

Oracle chief Sir Russell Coutts is hardly all smiles as he tries to get the defenders up to speed with their foiling while fending off criticism that the controversial changes are helping him in those endeavours.

Spare a thought, too, for affable Australian Iain Murray, the regatta director trying to hold yachting’s biggest spectacle together amid all these strains.

This 34th America’s Cup might be oversized in terms of hype, budgets and the sheer scale of the controversial 72-foot catamarans that are at the root of its problems, but some values do remain – it’s still a regatta where the sailors remain at its heart and will certainly be a key to who lifts the Auld Mug some time in September.

So when the Kiwis and Italians power across the start line on Monday morning, Dean Barker and his crew will be doing what they love and know best – how to get a boat around a race track quickly, rather than worrying about the legalities of what they or their opponents are sailing.

Barker’s right-hand man on board is tactician Ray Davies and he describes sailing the monster cats ‘‘as fun as it gets’’.

‘‘These boats have been challenging in such a number of levels and just learning every day different fundamental characteristics of these boats . . . they are nothing like we have experienced before,’’ Davies said, with the Kiwis widely accepted as leading the disappointingly small fleet in the buildup with their teamwork and design success.

‘‘It’s been amazing to see the evolution of these boats, too. Just from the early days of foiling in the first test boats and then doing it on the full scale and now pulling off foiling gybes.

‘‘It’s just been a real buzz to be part of this campaign.

‘‘It’s been a small group of us in the bigger scheme of things and I just thank my lucky stars to be involved because it has been a real blast.’’

Davies admits the boardroom battles are a distraction, but feels the sailing crews handled that well. They concentrated on the boat and their systems and are itching to get under way.

‘‘Hopefully we don’t have any more major situations along the road and we can just get some good racing under our belt.

‘‘We really need to be on form because whoever the challenger is needs to have a good challenger series to have a good crack at Oracle.

‘‘The air around the camp is more of excitement than stress. ‘‘It’s great to be finally under way. ‘‘We have been working towards this date for a bloody long time now. It’s finally upon us, it’s time to show what we have been up to.’’

Like everyone on board, Davies’ job has changed because of the sheer speed and dimensions of the boat, as well as the shorter races that will be between 30 minutes and an hour. Every task is magnified because the times have been marginalised.

Davies is involved in planning the race strategy then reacting once they are under way, ‘‘working closely with Dean, primarily putting the boat in the right spot relative to the opponent and getting as much out of the boat as we can’’.

He respects the dangers but he loves the speed of his job and the boat, comparative to the old monohulls.