Tinkering over, Kiwis back up to speed

TEAM NEW Zealand put their slick America’s Cup catamaran back in the water in San Francisco today, looking for more speed after five days of modifications.

Not required to race until the Louis Vuitton Cup final on August 18, the Kiwis are trying to squeeze even more out of their impressive boat while Luna Rossa and Artemis Racing contest the best of seven semifinal starting on Wednesday.

‘‘We’ve pulled the boat to pieces. A lot of that was about maintenance and reliability but we’ve made some small refinements,’’ Kevin Shoebridge, the team’s chief operations officer said.

‘‘It’s about getting more speed. Every second you can gain is going to be crucial in these boats.’’

Without going into details, Shoebridge described the modifications as ‘‘subtle’’.

It’s no secret that

the

areas

of gains in this rapidly developing class come in the rudders, elevators and foils below the water line and the aerodynamics of the platform as well as the massive wingsail.

‘‘It’s too dangerous to move on from proven concepts now. The performances we are now seeing are the result of decisions that were made months and months ago. So it’s more about tweaking them.’’

The sailing team had welcomed a short break since wrapping up their unbeaten round-robin phase but were now eager to improve their performance as well as that of their boat.

‘‘We are very happy with how it is going but we all know it will mean nothing if we aren’t quick enough when it matters most. That’s why we have to keep pushing and that’s why we felt it was better to take this time now to try to develop the boat more,’’ Shoebridge said.

Their biggest concerns remain with defender Oracle and how fast FOUR: Number of wins required by either Luna Rossa or Artemis in their Louis Vuitton Cup semifinal series starting Wednesday. SIX: Number of world championship 49 er medals Artemis helmsman Nathan Outteridge has won, compared with 5 by Luna Rossa helmsman Chris Draper. EIGHT: Number of days Artemis will have had testing their new AC72 before the semifinal starts. Luna Rossa have had more than 80 days on the water. they are going. The International Jury turned down New Zealand’s efforts to get performance data off the American boats when they used their two AC72s on the race course.

Oracle have the luxury of getting all the data off the challengers when they race but the jury said the Americans have already decided the defender and don’t need to publish data from ‘‘practice’’, even when that’s carried out on the race course.

‘‘It’s a bit strange that all our data goes out but we can’t get theirs,’’ Shoebridge said.

For now, the Kiwis will also need to keep a close eye on the semifinal battle between the Italians and Swedes.

Shoebridge felt Luna Rossa were improving and would start as favourites against Artemis who have struggled to get their second boat ready following the fatal training capsize three months ago.

While Artemis had appeared fast in their initial outings last week, the lack of time on the water was a massive handicap, according to Shoebridge.

‘‘Time is not their friend,’’ he warned. ‘‘Our experience is that it has taken months and months to make the gains with both the boat and crew. Luna Rossa will improve as they go. We’re already seeing that.’’