At home in a relaxed environment there is less pressure and more time to talk it through while reviewing the videos and onboard data.’ Davies said the discussions were candid and sometimes blunt


– complete with warnings about early exits and unacceptable standards. ‘It is not personal. It is analytical. But run well you can be really clear in an atmosphere that is quite informal. There are lots of learnings going on.’ As the man in the hot seat, much of the spotlight falls on Burling.


‘He cops it on the chin,’ said Davies, ‘but often the issue lies elsewhere. There could be a hardware issue, or information that is not clear enough, or the data is inaccurate, or they are relying too much on the instrumentation. It all comes with the territory.’ Or, equally, it could just be that they ‘sailed like a bunch of


spanners’, as Ashby described one of the two races they lost to Ben Ainslie in the challenger semi-finals. ‘You have to be brutally honest about these things.’ Burling absorbs it all, extracts the lessons, filters out the


unimportant and sheds the negative baggage of recrimination and blame. It is a rare strength, particularly in somebody so young. His focus is also helped by the particular set-up of the New


Zealand boat. With Ashby’s prodigious multihull talent and expe- rience right alongside trimming the wing, and Tuke attending to the boards, Burling can focus on speed and tactics. Probably as part of the psychological games that are always in


play at the America’s Cup, other skippers have criticised Burling’s double role as helmsman and tactician. ‘These boats are incredibly difficult to sail,’ said Nathan Outteridge. ‘They are quite twitchy and for the helmsman to do the tactics as well is a big ask.’ Burling disagreed. ‘It frees me up to get my head out of the boat


and make good decisions,’ he said. Certainly, he never seemed overburdened as he lounged back behind the wheel, peering around. As casual as a Sunday outing driving Miss Daisy. Ivor Wilkins


THIRD TIME IS A CHARM – Terry Hutchinson So Emirates Team New Zealand really did what many believed to be the impossible. ETNZ, led by Grant Dalton, Kevin Shoebridge and Matteo de Nora and helmed by Peter Burling with skipper Glenn Ashby, 49er ace Blair Tuke and a band of cyclists, who are without question impressive athletes, nailed it in a David vs Goliath event! Plain and simple, in a calculated dismantling of Oracle, Burling


and co displayed a level of ‘ice water in their veins’ that was just impressive. Quite frankly I could not be happier for Dalts and Shoeb as they have endured a lot. They are both good people and it is good to see third time is a charm! Now what? That is a great question. In the coming months I am certain there will be debate about what


is the right course of action. This is a tricky situation for ETNZ. As the newly anointed defender they have many agendas at play. For the better part of six years the New Zealand government


supported ETNZ. While they did not go hard this time round, there is an element of doing what is right for the country. So the next item is capitalising on the gain. I believe the 2000 and 2003 Cups were worth roughly 1.2 per cent to the New Zealand GDP. That is a lot of coin so to truly capitalise ETNZ have to have a regatta that both attracts people and lasts more than four weeks from start to finish. Boats. One hull or two? I am in favour of one! Why? Pretty simple


really. The America’s Cup is the pinnacle of our sport. With all due respect, I would not hop into a Formula One car in Monaco and win. If I did, then Lewis Hamilton should not be paid what he is; that is a level of skill only a few possess. My point: it is impressive to see the out of the box thinking of the cyclists on the boat and the Kiwi hydro system. At the same time is it really the pinnacle of the sport when the first time that you ever race a sailboat is in the America’s Cup and you win? Using the F1 analogy, I don’t believe it is, as I am certain that,


while incredible athletes, our America’s Cup-winning cyclists are self-admittedly not great sailors. As the pinnacle of the sport, the Cup needs to lead, advance our sport and allow this to filter down to the everyday racer, sailor and cruiser. In a time when the sport is shrinking we need to appeal to our audience… sailors.


The viewing experience of this Cup was pretty darn good. Stan


Honey is a genius with the graphics and the work his team have done is awesome! None could argue that, but quite frankly when all you watch is tacking, gybing and grinding or cycling it can be pretty hard to stay engaged. When sitting in the Clipper Bar in Porto Cervo and ETNZ won


some of the early races it was met with half-hearted applause. But not one sailor said ‘Wow, couldn’t wait to do that racing.’ In terms of cost I would advocate a one-boat programme. While


Oracle absolutely brutalised Alinghi for suggesting racing with the challengers in an effort to control cost, they suddenly had no problem with it when it came to them. The good thing of course is it set a precedent. ETNZ could and should, in a measure to keep cost down, set another platform that has them racing all the way through to the challenger semi-finals. But from there, as part of the require- ments for the challengers, teams should have to stay and race against the defender through to the Match. I am certain Oracle raced better after a few good training days with BAR or SoftBank. Nationality will be a sticky one for ETNZ. Actually… I would advo-


cate open rules on nationality. If you take an open approach it helps New Zealand, it helps teams who already race with mixed-nationality crews and it gets back to supporting the whole sport. But this will be a tricky subject – it will be interesting to see what transpires. Final thought: I am happy for ETNZ and all who endured a long


road to success. The one thing that money cannot buy is heart and ETNZ’s heart was always 100 per cent on display. Well done.


TRADITIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY – Jack Griffin The most fundamental America’s Cup tradition is alive and well: the fastest boat wins. The Kiwis’ unique talent for thinking outside the box paid off handsomely. The cyclists were the most obvious of their innovations, and provided more efficient power generation allowing a more sophisticated control system for the wing, dagger- boards and rudders. The more aggressive light-air boards they could run with these better controls let them get up into foiling mode quickly, yet still performed well further up the wind range. The combination of foil shape, control systems and crew work


allowed them to literally hurl their boat through tacks and stay on the foils all the way around the racecourse. They kept their bicycle grinding under wraps until they launched their raceboat, knowing other teams would not have time to re-engineer all their systems to make a late switch to pedal-power worthwhile. It was a textbook example of how to mount a successful America’s Cup campaign and harked back to the clean sweeps of 1995 and 2000. The tradition of first-time teams needing to gain experience also


held true. Groupama, BAR and SoftBank were first to go. Artemis showed tremendous progress since their first campaign in 2013. Iain Percy’s men were the only team to beat Oracle in the round robins and were robbed of a win against the Kiwis when a rare umpir- ing error went against them. After dispatching SoftBank in the semi- finals Artemis won twice against the Kiwis in the Challenger Finals. The high-speed foiling catamarans delivered surprisingly good


match racing. We saw a variety of pre-start moves, including dial- ups, hooks and timed runs for fast starts. On the course the leader was often able to cover his opponent. In the 19 races of the 2013 Match there was only one lead change after the windward gate. This year we saw dial-downs and close tactical moves late in races. In the Challenger Finals Artemis even threatened to chase down


the Kiwis on the last leg to the finish line. We also had a spectacular Kiwi pitchpole at the start of a semi-final race against BAR. Three of their cyclists literally went over the handlebars. Thankfully there were no serious injuries. Miraculously the boatbuilders repaired the ugly-looking damage to the fairings and wing and the unseen damage to electronics and systems. The boats are seductively fast, but top-end speed was not the


objective. Lift-off speed and manoeuvrability were more important than trying to hit 50kt. Teams seemed to have chosen a top target speed somewhere above 40kt and then sailed (unexpectedly) deep angles on the downwind legs – up to 160° off the true wind. Keeping with tradition, the weather played havoc with the


schedule. Strong wind and rain delayed the first day of racing and SEAHORSE 11


w


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