Team UK tactician still defiant

Ineos Team UK tactician Giles Scott has explained why he believes his team can revive their hopes in the Prada Cup final.

The British team are 4-0 down in the first-to-seven series, with Luna Rossa needing only three more wins from a possible nine races to seal passage to the America’s Cup match.

Aside from the intimidating scoreline, it’s the manner of the defeats that will have caused concern for Sir Ben Ainslie’s team.

They have yet to win any of the 24 legs sailed so far in the match and have lost three of four starts.

On the one occasion they were even off the line, the Italians gained ascendancy at the vital first cross and never looked back.

The British are facing a team who have recorded eight straight wins, and seem to be improving with every outing, while the suspicion remains that Luna Rossa’s boat is now a shade faster, especially upwind.

But Scott, whose on-board chemistry with Ainslie was seen as their point of difference in the round robin series, remains defiant, believing a comeback is still possible.

“I don’t think too much has changed [since January],” Scott told the Weekend Herald. “In the round robin, the boats were pretty well matched, and they are still pretty evenly matched.

“In those round robin races, we sailed better, and the races so far in the final, we have fallen on the wrong side of it. It has come down to small errors. We have made a few of them and we need to iron them out.” Last Sunday was a case in point. Wanting to take the initiative in the first race, Ainslie and Scott overplayed their hand in the prestart, looking for a potential hook move that wasn’t there, and lost that duel.

Before the second race, Britannia reared violently out of the water — as the crew lost control of the foils for a moment — which condemned them to another deficit from the start.

It has been quite a change. During the round robin, Ineos Team UK trailed in only five of 28 legs against American Magic and Luna Rossa and won all three races against the Italians, by margins of 28 seconds, 18 seconds and 33 seconds.

The biggest deficit they faced in any race was 19 seconds.

Back then, it felt like superior crew work was the difference, and Scott is adamant the human factor will again determine the outcome as the series resumes today.

“It inevitably will do, as the boats get closer and closer,” said Scott. “It has been great for the sport in that, in the windier conditions, we are evenly matched.

“As a sailing team, we are not going to hide behind that; we have a boat that is capable of winning races up range, like we had in the last two races. It comes down to small errors; we made a few and we are going to do whatever we can to rectify that.

“We are ready, raring to go and we want to get back out there on the water and rectify the wrongs that we made last time.”