Team NZ boat ‘scary’ — Team UK boss

Team New Zealand’s boat has been described as “scary” by the vanquished British challengers on the eve of the America’s Cup final.

But Ineos Team UK’s famous boss Sir Ben Ainslie is still refusing to predict a result when the Peter Burling-skippered Te Rehutai defends the Cup against Luna Rossa next week.

In a substantial interview with yacht racing life website, Ainslie and Ineos chief executive Grant Simmer were in awe of the Kiwi boat.

Simmer said: “The Italians sailed extremely well in the [Prada Cup] final and their boat is going well through a range of conditions.

“They are very good in light air, yet were also fine against us in that 15 knot range.

“But on the other hand, when we go and watch the Kiwis sail, they can turn on some really impressive performances.

“What we’ve seen of them, their performance is pretty scary. If we’d ended up racing as the challenger, we’d have been quite intimidated.

“Have the Italians bridged the gap? Hard to say. They’ve certainly got a lot better and are racing very well.”

Ainslie agreed with Simmer’s summary but wouldn’t predict an outcome.

“Over 10-11 knots of wind, the Kiwis have an advantage speed wise,” Ainslie said. “The Italians will be match fit and it’s sport — anything can happen.

“You have to sail these boats very accurately — you only have to sneeze at the wrong time and they can capsize. It’s way too early to put bets down.”

But Ainslie said the Kiwi crew were more than capable of overcoming their lack of competitive sailing.

Burling would be helped by the way Ineos tested them in pre-starts during the December warm-up. And Anslie even claimed that as a member of the challenger fleet, it had been a “mistake” awakening TNZ to the extent of their starting issues.

“Watching them, they have developed a lot,” he said. “They can only practice against the chase boat but they’ve done it to good effect.

“They are a smart group. It’s similar to Bermuda, where they turned up quite late and didn’t have the training of the other teams but worked it out pretty quick. In this case, they haven’t got much time but they are very talented sailors who can deal with it.

“The Italians will give them a hard time,” said Ainslie. “But TNZ’s straight-line pace is going to be pretty hard to match, certainly in the medium-to-stronger wind range.”

The Brits confirmed they had no interest in assisting Luna Rossa with practice racing, as had occurred between challengers in past America’s Cups.

The interview did not raise the issue of a breakdown in relations between the Kiwis and Italians, the Challengers of Record. TNZ is lining up the Brits as future partners. This means any British help for Luna Rossa could be construed as a conflict of future interests.

“It’s not been the easiest of Cups off the water,” Ainslie said.