Job not done yet, says Burling
TEAM NZ 3, ORACLE 0
Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling has made it clear they won’t stand still over the next five days and sit on their lead in the America’s Cup.
The Kiwis have shown a stunning speed advantage over defenders Oracle Team USA to win the opening four races in Bermuda.
Team New Zealand now lead 3-0 on the scoreboard as the teams wait until Sunday to resume action.
Jimmy Spithill has talked up his team’s ability to make changes to get competitive but Burling insisted Team New Zealand have plenty of improvement left in them, despite yesterday’s wins coming via massive 49s and 1m 12s margins.
‘‘Today was a really good day for us, we definitely feel like we improved on yesterday, we tidied up a lot of the errors from yesterday,’’ Burling said. ‘‘We have five days to go back, work over the boat and review our stuff. We have to do that because we know these guys won’t be sitting still.’’
Team New Zealand were guilty of being overtaken by Oracle at the last Cup in San Francisco, with the defenders showing far more development over the lay days that punctuated the middle of that regatta.
Burling said they had long been aware of this five-day gap in the Bermuda programme and were adamant the same mistakes would not be made and that they could make significant gains from here on a boat that has already proven to be a rocketship in 7-12 knots.
‘‘We have put in a lot of planning of what we would like to achieve if we got this far. We already have a massive list of things we want to work on and keep improving on. We have a lot of bits and pieces we want to work on. We have to tick off what we want to do.
‘‘It feels like we were still a long way from where we want to be. We have to win eight races, we have won four so far, we have to keep pushing.
‘‘We are happy with a lot of things we are doing. But I’m sure these guys will come out fighting next weekend.
‘‘Today we sailed a lot better but we also made a lot of mistakes. It felt like we were still a long way from where we could be. You only have to look at where these boats could be in a year’s time to realise we are all on a really steep part of the learning curve.’’
Burling said keeping the boat in order over the opening four races was a bonus for the shore crew who had been working tirelessly, often under extreme circumstances like when they had to repair from the challenger semifinal capsize.
‘‘We are really pleased we have been able to bring the boat back in one piece both days. They (the shore crew) are about the freshest they have been since we have been in Bermuda because the push has been that hard. But they are really excited about that challenge over the next five days of taking that next step on our boat as well ... keeping on pushing the performance moving forward.
‘‘It’s a lot harder for them (Oracle) if we keep doing that. We know if we sit still they will catch us.’’