Paul Cayard
Disclaimer issued
Writing a column even a little way prior to issuance, during an America’s Cup, in a new class of boat with a lot of development being done every day, is challenging. I watched the same preliminary races in
December and listened to the same inter- views as all of you. I have seen the first
round robin of the Prada Cup. The saying ‘It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings’ couldn’t be truer.
A few initial thoughts:
l The racing is closer than most of us expected. l Match racing skills will matter. l Upwind starts create the opportunity for more ‘wins’.
Ineos Has there ever been a bigger turnaround? Maybe Oracle in the 2013 AC finals. I assume that the Brits were not sand- bagging, using the worst foils they owned, in the AC World Series event in December. I hear that there was a total makeover of Britannia to make GBR the leader here at the out- set of the Prada Cup. That is impressive work from the technical team and the very
talented sailing team that has more gold medals onboard than any other competitor. Not only did they observe and study the performance of all the boats in December, but they then assessed what was working and how to incorporate it into their own boat. Then they built it, installed it and trained with it! That is one hell of a lot of good work in three weeks. And that experience in December tested another very impor-
tant thing: it tested their sole as a ‘team’ and it looks like the Brits are solid. That will be as valuable as speed as the event progresses. American Magic is now being offered that opportunity, to
34 SEAHORSE
show how solid they are as a team. Heading into the Prada Cup as the favourites, the Americans went 0-3 before capsiz- ing and badly damaging Patriot. Could there be a worse start? But it’s not the start where they count the points. In December the team appeared to be in the hunt with the
Kiwi’s and still remain the only team to have beaten them… in the very first race of the AC World Series. Amazing how fast things change. Now American Magic is at
the bottom of the heap, or so it appears. As shocking as this seems, it is early days in this fast-paced technological game. One could argue that it is better to race in the Prada Cup Semis… that qualifying straight to the Finals isn’t the path to wining this game. More racing allows more opportunity to learn and develop. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Etc. Looking at the whole picture, the Americans will probably take
the rest of the initial series and get Patriot back to 100 per cent. Strategically Terry Hutchinson has made a lot of high percent- age decisions: partnering up with Airbus, first to ride a mule, first challenger to get to Auckland. He will manage this ‘oppor- tunity’ well and the team will ultimately come out stronger. Prada Their foils and everything else about their boat look very refined, reminiscent of classic Italian design. Spithill is a master on the starting line and schooled Burling in their two World Series matches. For some reason they have not scored that well so far. Maybe more so than the other two chal- lengers, the boat seems competitive in all conditions, and plenty of potential to improve over the next couple of weeks. They are set up for battle with two helmsmen who don’t
have to switch sides. That might have been very handy for American Magic on 17 January. It will be interesting to see if any other team moves in this direction. ETNZ are still the standard but there are more chinks in their armour than in Bermuda. Burling looks vulnerable on the start-
VAN DER BORCH
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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