Final is too close to call: Artemis

It was pretty much the first question Ashby faced, and he produced his usual mix of cheek and commonsense to answer it when he was quizzed how often the team had gone back over that defeat.

‘‘If I had a dollar for every time it’s been talked about I probably wouldn’t be having to sit here to earn a crust,’’ Ashby joked.

‘‘We debriefed heavily after San Francisco and the lessons we learned out of San Francisco have absolutely made us a stronger team going forwards.’’

Ashby felt the commercial fallout from that 2013 had actually hardened the resolve of the team as they battled for survival in this Cup cycle.

‘‘Only a couple of years ago the team was looking down the barrel of having its doors closed.

‘‘For Emirates Team New Zealand, who have been involved in the America’s Cup for such a long period of time, to have that happen would have been a real tragedy,’’ Ashby said.

‘‘A few people got together and managed to keep the doors open and that whole team has effectively been rebuilt from the ground up.

‘‘What has been able to be created is, I think, is a much stronger unit looking back at those lessons, than what we were in the last campaign.’’

Ashby is the only survivor from the San Francisco crew with Team New Zealand investing in a new breed of sailing talent for this cycle, headed by Olympic stars Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.

Ashby said they wouldn’t lack for motivation in trying to be just the second New Zealand team to win a challenge for the Cup after the 1995 heroics in San Diego.

The belief in their equipment and innovations, like they had last time with a jump in the foiling department, had them pumped for this opportunity.

‘‘The motivation going forwards is definitely there. We didn’t need much on our side last time to be successful and I think we are in that same position now where we don’t need a lot to go our way to definitely be in the hunt.’’

Asked about Team New Zealand’s incredible consistency with their Cup campaigns dating back to 1987, Ashby laid that success with the work on the design table as much as the country’s proud history of producing world class sailors.

‘‘It’s the passion to be aggressive in design and innovation ... that is what has stood Emirates Team New Zealand apart from the other teams over the years,’’ Ashby, an Australian, said.

’’This campaign has been no different in pushing the boundaries of what is possible. The cycling side of things is just one part of our programme that is different to our opponents.

‘‘But we knew that being in New Zealand sailing by ourselves we had to be aggressive to have a chance of being successful here in Bermuda.’’ Artemis Racing team director Iain Percy says the battle for the America’s Cup will go down to the wire but warned Team New Zealand that they must fix their starts if they are beat Oracle.

The Swedish outfit’s campaign ended yesterday as Team New Zealand completed a 5-2 series win in the challengers final.

Percy says that with both boats similar in speed the outcome will be decided by pure sailing ability and who handles the pressure best.

‘‘You can’t assume anything and we went out there today knowing anything can happen on the day,’’ Percy said.

‘‘There won’t be enough speed differences for one team to win without sailing well,’’ Percy said.

‘‘So I would say have real attention to detail, realise the details of each individuals’ performances on the water will ultimately define the result.’’

Percy, a double Olympic champion for Britain and America’s Cup veteran, said Team NZ’s strengths lay with their talent on board the boat and the boat’s ability to thrive in light winds.

But up until Monday Kiwi helmsman Peter Burling was dominated by Artemis counterpart Nathan Outteridge in the starts.

Ultimately Sweden could not make them pay but Percy says it could be a different story against Jimmy Spithill and Oracle.

‘‘To be fair to Team New Zealand that’s more a testament to the skill [Outteridge] has developed as a match-race starter.

‘‘None of the other helmsmen like racing him against him either in the pre-start but truth to be told it was quite a whitewash there,’’ Percy said.

‘‘And that’s probably the biggest one of all because these boats are quite hard to pass in.’’

Artemis was the only team to beat Oracle in qualifying, stunning the Americans in both their races, but like, Percy, Outteridge could not pick a winner for the finale.

Much has been made of Team NZ’s pedal-powered grinding system.

But while Outteridge said the ‘‘cyclors’’ certainly gave the Kiwis an edge in hydraulics, it was not the main reason why they lost.

‘‘I think it comes down to more finer details of foil development and control systems and things like that,’’ Outteridge said.

‘‘I know everyone likes to talk about how magical the bicycles are - I’ve not sailed the boat so I don’t know exactly how their boat works - but I don’t think that was the main reason.’’