Cup legend: We’ll win the Auld Mug
Celebrated tactician Brad Butterworth backs Team NZ for victory — and warns the competition’s survival rests on it
Brad Butterworth believes Team New Zealand will beat Oracle and return the America’s Cup to our shores — a scenario the famous sailor claims is needed to save the event.
In Bermuda to watch the Cup final unfold from tomorrow morning’s opening t wo races, Butterworth was critical of a number of elements of the current regatta being run by his former teammate and fellow New Zealander, Sir Russell Coutts.
In a radio interview with Newstalk ZB sports host Matt Brown to be aired this morning — on the eve of the finals series — the fourtime Cup winner ( twice with Team NZ and twice with Sweden’s Alinghi) fires a number of interesting salvos while backing Peter Burling and his team to secure the Auld Mug including:
The other Cup challengers don’t want Team NZ to win the final and have broken with America’s Cup tradition in not helping the Kiwis.
Team NZ has Oracle’s measure and could go even faster than previously seen in the first- to- seven- wins showdown.
Team USA’s helmsman Jimmy Spithill is wasting his time trying to out- pysch his icecool Kiwi opposite Peter Burling.
But in perhaps his most telling commentary on the Bermuda regatta, Butterworth said he believed the Kiwis need to win the Auld Mug to save it.
“It’s more than just a yacht race, this thing — it’s actually the future of the Cup,” said Butterworth, the tactician onboard Team NZ when the Kiwis won the Cup for the first time in San Diego and then defended the Cup in Auckland in 2000.
“It’s either going to go one way or the other. And believe me there are a lot of people around who would like to see it go back to New Zealand. I think it would be a better event down there.”
Butterworth, who in 2009 published an open letter commenting on the extensive litigation surrounding the America’s Cup, praised Team New Zealand for their courage in refusing to sign the current Deed of Gift, presented by Coutts and agreed to and signed by the other challengers and which binds those syndicates to a definitive future regatta format. “Team New Zealand has been very strong in not signing that agreement,” he said. “I don’t think the agreement is good for any of the challengers. “This has been a massive fight for Team New Zealand. They are definitely on their own here. All the other challengers don’t want them to win which is quite against the way in the past you tried to get the strongest challenger to go up against the defender. “Team New Zealand has done a very good thing, although it’s cost them dearly I think. It’s been tough for them but they’ve been tough, they’ve hung in there and now . . . they’re going to go up against Oracle.” Butterworth was full of praise for Team NZ’s onwater efforts. “It was a close contest but Team NZ looked like they had the measure of everybody,” he said of the challenger rounds. “It was a little bit disappointing that they had to race on a windy day where they hadn’t raced before. That made life pretty difficult when they tipped over. I think they were forced to race that day.
“It wasn’t a great thing for the challengers as a group but they got through with it, they’ve got a good team, they put the boat back together and they wound up winning. They’re sailing very well.”
Butterworth said his confidence of a Kiwi win had been buoyed by Burling’s display and his high confidence in Team NZ skipper Glenn Ashby.
“Overall, if you look at both teams manfor- man, Team New Zealand has a very strong crew. Peter Burling is doing a fantastic job with the rest of the guys onboard the boat. He’s special, that’s for sure. He looks very mature in the way he is dealing with things. I have high hopes.”
Butterworth now plies his time between his plush Waiheke Island property and stints overseas where he acts as a consultant for wealthy clients of privately- funded racing boats.
He said Burling would not be fazed by Spithill, on or off the water. And nor did Team NZ supporters need to worry about Burling’s poor record in starts.
“Psychologically, I don’t think Spithill should go anywhere near Peter Burling,” he said.
“I think he [ Burling] is pretty strong in what he believes, what he can [ and can’t] do.
“And the starting . . . the last start that he had in the final of the Louis Vuitton was an excellent start. I think in the end he’s going to be starting pretty strongly.”
Asked if he was confident of a Team NZ victory, Butterworth was unequivocal.
“Totally, yes for sure . . . I think New Zealand can get there,” he told Brown.
“The crew they have at Team NZ are instrumental in making the boat go fast. They will wind up with a fast boat and I think the fastest boat will win. But it will be because those guys have kept modifying and developing.
“They haven’t been sitting still. I’m here in Bermuda and they’ve been out today. They’ve been out most days and they’re trying hard.”
Butterworth said the weekend conditions in Bermuda would suit the Kiwis.
“Under 10 knots, or maybe under 9 knots, they look really strong, really strong. Light air breezes would be best and the forecast for this weekend is quite light.”
It’s more than just a yacht race, this thing — it’s actually the future of the Cup. Brad Butterworth
Richard Burling wasn’t quite sure what to make of his son’s artwork. At the end of the school year, the students at Welcome Bay Primary School in Tauranga trotted home with their drawings memorialised in a calendar, serving as a year- long reminder of their artistic gifts, or limitations.
Most of the kids had drawn selfportraits, depictions of their families, their animals, or their homes.
Nine- year- old Peter Burling had drawn an 18- foot skiff.
It brought his father both pride and a hint of amusement. As a keen sailor himself, he was chuffed young Peter appeared to have developed a minor obsession with yachts. But he was slightly perturbed by a glaring design flaw. “The bowsprit was as long as the boat itself,” says Burling snr, chuckling.
If the designers at Emirates Team New Zealand had seen Burling’s early plans, they might have had cause to question the young helmsman’s presence in the design offices. That the 26- year- old has taken it upon himself to attend every design meeting has been quietly noted by some in the team, who are impressed by Burling’s desire to understand the thought process behind even the most minute design details on the highly complex America’s Cup Class catamarans.
“It’s his baby, that boat,” says Burling’s mum, Heather, nodding in the direction of Team New Zealand’s sleek 50ft catamaran they hope will carry the Kiwi crew to victory over Oracle Team USA in the coming weeks.
Such a feat rests as much in the hands of the prodigiously talented helmsman as it does in the curve of the foils and twist in the wingsail.
If that thought is weighing heavily on Burling, you wouldn’t know it.
His cool, calm demeanour throughout what has been a testing, and, surely, an emotionally draining, Challenger series has confounded many. The commentators have often remarked on Burling’s apparent relaxed state at the helm, joking he looks asleep at the wheel.
The most humorous example of Burling’s understated approach came in the team’s first day back racing after the devastating capsize during the Challenger semifinals ( more on that later).
Nerves were frayed in the New Zealand camp heading into the day — the boat looked like it was all back in one piece, but, as the commentators continued to point out, who could know what little systems gremlins might emerge during racing?
It looked as though those fears would be realised when, in the prestart of the first of three races that day, Team NZ stopped dead suddenly after their port daggerboard became lodged down. Unable to get up on their foils, Team NZ were stuck deep in the start box as their opponents, Ben Ainslie Racing, tore off down the first reach.
Cue the onboard audio on the New Zealand boat:
“Yeah, nah, it’s not working,” was Burling’s delightfully Kiwi explanation of the event, before the crew were able to wind up the daggerboard, and set about overhauling the 450m headstart they had given BAR.
Compare that to Ainslie’s response three days earlier, when the British had a problem with their wingsail, prompting them to crash down off their foils in the opening race.
“What’s happening!? They’re killing us, they’re absolutely killing us,” Ainslie screamed at his team.
A couple of international journalists attempted to get to the bottom of Burling’s laid back approach at the press conference soon after the Kiwi team wrapped up the Louis Vuitton challenger series earlier this week.
“Peter, you are 26, but you act like you are 52, have you really not felt any pressure during the week?” asked a veteran Italian yachting reporter.
His question elicited a couple of Burling’s now standard “full credit” lines, which have become the source of much mirth among journalists and sailing blogsters.
“I think, you know, it’s full credit to our team as well — we’ve got great coaches in Ray Davies and Murray Jones who can guide us through, and also a lot of guys analysing what we do and giving us feedback on how we can improve.”
Another journalist tried again: “Don’t you ever get nervous?”
Again, Burling deflected the question, referring once more to his team, and how excited they are by the challenge of being in the Cup match.
Perhaps Burling’s mum can shed light on his preternatural composure?
“We’ve watched Peter sailing since he was tiny, and that’s how he sails, nothing really seems to rattle him, he just gets on with it,” she says.
“He doesn’t really do highs, but he doesn’t do lows either. If he has a shit race, he just moves past it and on to the next race.”
If he has a shit race, he just moves past it and on to the next race Heather Burling