Team NZ lose precious practice time with race on to o
Chris Rattue chris.rattue@ nzherald.co. nz
What do you hope to see from Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton in Bermuda, considering his controversial hands-on approach at the last America’s Cup? I will be delighted if we don’t see Grant Dalton until he is receiving the cup. Dalts needs to lead from behind . . . I know that those conversations have already happened.
He’s been kept on a pretty tight leash by the board and had all the coaching, and I think he understands it himself now, intellectually. But it is very difficult for a person like Dalts with his dominant personality to resist the temptation.
Like everyone he has his strengths and weaknesses. But as soon as you see him fronting press conferences, leading from the front, I think we have a problem.
Distraction is a massive issue in any sporting event. And the hook will be baited.
They will know Grant Dalton will not be able to help himself. [Oracle boss] Russell Coutts will plant that seed, [skipper] Jimmy Spithill will press that button. TNZ have to completely ignore that sort of s***.
Dalton’s the CEO, not the skipper. The skipper is Glenn Ashby, we’ve got a multiple Olympic medallist helmsman, one of the most talented sailors in the world. They know how to win yacht races.
Where did you see Russell Coutts in the last America’s Cup? Not one press conference. Not one comment in the media. He was the rock, making the critical calls, keeping Spithill and the sailors in the game. He is incredibly astute, the most determined, competitive bastard you will ever meet. He knows the importance of staying focused. We would be stupid not to look at how he does things. How does Team New Zealand rate against the rest? We have the most talented sailing team in Bermuda. If we had even boats and luck, I would back our guys to win. But that’s not how yachting works. There’s a whole bunch of other factors. What about the Peter Burling-Blair Team New Zealand will likely miss the rest of this week’s America’s Cup practice racing as the shore crew put in massive hours to get the damaged Kiwi boat back out on the water.
The team’s preparations for this month’s America’s Cup went from bad to worse on Wednesday, when they were rear-ended by British team Ben Ainslie Racing in a pre-start collision during practice racing. I’ve been watching [helmsman] Burling since he was 13 or 14 — he’s got that x-factor. You go ‘oh my gosh — how did he do that and make it look so easy?’ They are yin and yang. Peter is more of an introvert, [pilot] Blair is very out-going, charismatic. Blair has built Peter’s confidence, in himself and his sailing.
Peter works incredibly hard . . . I heard some stories from the moth world championships which highlight his fastidiousness. The quality of the foils is absolutely critical but it’s easy to get a bit lazy about that, overlook it. The designer of his boat told me he could not believe how absolutely immaculate Pete’s foils were every day. After a full day of competing you are tempted to collapse into bed. Pete was re-sanding, filling, sanding again, so they were absolutely perfect. That’s the approach Peter and Blair have — no compromise. Will they handle the pressure? Blair has a great sense of humour, and that is really helpful in the intensity of a contest like this. These guys, in their mid-20s, were the first double flag bearers for New Zealand at the Olympics, undefeated for four years, with all the medal expectations.
For them to dominate the way they did was amazing. That’s a good sign — they are not fazed by expectation. You could almost see the weight of the world on Dean Barker last time. Stuff will go wrong. It can tip you into a downward spiral if you are not careful. The form guide says . . .?
The hull of the Emirates Team New Zealand boat was punctured during the incident — a setback the team could ill afford with racing set to get under way in the America’s Cup qualifiers in nine days.
Since the team returned to the dock, the shore team have been working around the clock to patch up the hull and are in the process of putting the boat back together. The foiling revolution has turned America’s Cup into a new sport . . .? They are incredible machines. I’m really enthusiastic about a sport I’ve loved all my life and where it can go. We have crafts flying above the water on something that is 2m long, half a metre wide. People have been experimenting with foiling since the 1950s but the level now is remarkable. No longer is this a pedestrian, plodding, unfolding, slow motion, tactical chess game. This is balls to the wall . . . what’s going to happen next? It’s awesome, and TV might not even do it justice. What is it like to be on these flying machines? Very different. Traditionally the faster you go, the more violent the motion, the more salt spray in your face, the louder the noise. In foiling boats, it’s smooth. You get this whistling in your ears, and you have to hold yourself with the G-forces as you turn. It’s so quiet but man you are going so quick. The sensations and feelings are counter to your instincts and you don’t realise how fast it is until you pass something stationary. They even use aeronautical terms — banking into turns, stall rates, angle of attacks. The New Zealand boat doesn’t have a rope on it. It’s all hydraulics, done with press buttons, a whole new world. Many are supposedly turned off the America’s Cup by the big business aspect and a history of rule twisting. I know it takes a lot of bagging, but the people on that boat are ordinary Kiwis. Yes, Oracle have screwed the scrum in their favour, but that’s the right of the defender. We’ve got to let that go. A prediction? Pure speculation at the moment. It will depend on how quickly Oracle improve.
Team NZ boss Grant Dalton said the team are unlikely to be back out on the water until Sunday.
“Since the collision [on Wednesday] the guys have been working straight. It’s a pretty decent whack. In a perfect world, you would replace the entire inside back of the boat in a new mould and make a whole new piece of boat, but we’re not in that environment now — we’ve run out of time,” said Dalton.
“They’re putting it back together. It’ll be fine, but we won’t be back on the water until the weekend, so we’re still a few days off being on the water.”
While the boat is in the shed, the team have taken the opportunity to move a scheduled maintenance day forward to put in some planned upgrades.
Their time lost in the boat shed has been mitigated by the cancellation of