Percy praised for lifting Artemis into play-off final

Some calming words from Britain’s two-time Olympic champion Iain Percy, telling his Artemis crew to “trust their guts”, were behind the Swedish challenger’s comeback win in the semifinals of the America’s Cup Challenger play-offs.

Artemis won the right to take on Emirates Team New Zealand in the first-to-five challenger play-off final – the first three races took place in Bermuda yesterday – after coming back from 3-1 down to seal a 5-3 triumph against Japan on Friday.

And Nathan Outteridge, the Australian helmsman, said Percy’s tactical calls and advice to keep things simple had paid off in spades.

“The main thing is that we have simplified our racing slightly,” Outteridge said.

“It’s really easy to get caught up in the battle and forget the details that are required to sail well. Iain Percy [team manager and tactician] had a few words to the team and just reminded us to trust our gut, and to sail the boat to our capabilities.

“On top of that, we have made a nice improvement to the boat, and when you have confidence in your boat, you are able to really push it hard.”

New Zealand – whose grinders sit on static bikes rather than use conventional arm-grinding pedestals – are still heavily fancied to make it through to what would be a grudge match against defenders Oracle USA for the 35th America’s Cup in a week’s time.

Four years ago, the Kiwis let slip an 8-1 lead, going down 9-8 to a team that included Sir Ben Ainslie, and New Zealand have been fixated on winning back the Cup ever since waging a bitter war of words with Oracle in the interim.

They are the only team who have refused to sign up to the so-called ‘framework agreement’ – which would make the Cup into a biennial event with a beefed-up World Series featuring a boat that could be modified from round to round – and no one is quite sure what they will do with the Cup should they win.