Jimmy Spithill's America's Cup Confidence Returns: 'Here We Go'
Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill says its been around-the-clock work from his team to improve their Americas Cup cat. As Jimmy Spithill tells it, his Oracle team have been working hard and Team New Zealand have been taking a breather.
When racing in the Americas Cup match resumed on Sunday (NZ time), Oracle Team USA had clearly improved from last weekend, where they fell behind Team NZ 3-0 in the first-to-seven series.
Weve worked pretty hard this week, obviously, said Spithill in the post-race press conference, after his crew had notched their first win to leave the score at 4-1 in Team NZs favour.
Jimmy Spithill and Oracle have won their first race in the 35th Americas Cup.
We saw [Team NZ] take days off during the week, and we made a commitment within the team that we would use every single one of them, and we wanted to make the boat faster.
I think we saw today that the boats a lot faster. Obviously were not sailing as well as we should be, I think thats pretty apparent. We had a few issues in the first race, and even in the second race..
Oracles improved speed was notable in the first race of the day, even as a couple of penalties and couple of errors handed Team NZ a big win.
They were then able to make it count in the second race of the day, leading at the start before holding off a strong fightback from Peter Burling and co. The Team NZ helmsman took umbrage at the suggestion they had relaxed over the extended break.
I find it a bit funny when people say we had days off last week. It was a great opportunity for our shore crew to get on top of the job list, he said.
Its no secret that we faced a lot of adversity to get here. We capsized the boat under three weeks ago and we are still just getting on top of everything.
Oracle were much improved after the five-day break. We feel like we have made some pretty good steps forward. While Oracle may have been hard at work during that break, they arent letting up now that racing is back underway.
Right now, as soon as Im done spending a great time with you guys [the media], were going back out on the water, said Spithill. Recap: Americas Cup helmsmens news conference - Cup final race day three.
Weve got another thing we want to try, and thats a good position to be in, where you know theres more on the table.
Spithill said there were just too many changes for him to list, not that he was ever likely to go into any great detail.
It seems Oracle have shed a bit of weight off their boat, and they may have also looked to emulate Team NZs rudder design.
It was five very, very long days - 24-hour shifts for the guys on the shore - and the good thing is now were able to reward them with the win, said Spithill.
For the sailors, weve got confidence, and it does remind me of San Francisco [and the last Americas Cup, where Oracle came back from 8-1 down to win 9-8].
Once the guys get buy-in and they can see the boat is faster, then you start building some momentum. It was important to get that win today, but I believe theres more speed left in the tank..
Increasing the speed of their boat does mean making sacrifices elsewhere, however. In these boats theres always a compromise, said Spithill. Typically whats fast is usually unstable, and very difficult to sail. It goes both ways.
These guys are sailing well out there on the racecourse, but we know we can do a better job technique wise. Thats exciting, for the guys to know theres quite a bit left on the table..
Whats clear, is that Oracle are feeling pretty good, even while theyre still three wins behind, and you could sense that in the aftermath of their win on Sunday, as Spithill rallied his troops with three simple words.
Petes personal touch Peter Burling continues to impress with his personal touch in Bermuda. Sailing Illustrated magazine reports that Burling is said to know the names of everyone connected with the team, as well as their spouses and even kids.
The magazine reported that at meals he sits with the engineers, not just the other sailors (or gets the sailors to join him), and has a constant back-and-forth with the engineers on how things really work, and what ifs.
Less is more Team New Zealand also seems to be doing a good job keeping a lid on an area that brought them undone in San Francisco four years ago.
There are plenty who will tell you that Team New Zealand overdid the sponsor fulfillment programme to their detriment. It is noticeably quieter in that area in Bermuda.
The whisper is Peter Burling and Blair Tuke convinced team leadership to take a page out of their Olympic playbook and minimise distractions.
Russells olive branch The international sailing media is reporting that Sir Russell Coutts has patched up his fallout with Alinghis Ernesto Bertarelli.
Coutts is said to have extended an olive branch to Bertarelli who is in Bermuda to watch the Cup finals. The pair had a chat during a quiet reunion of Alinghi sailors onboard Bertarellis super-yacht.
Coutts continues to suggest this could be his last Cup. Kiwi fans dominate The Americas Cup Event Authoritys popular dock-out shows, so popular in San Francisco in 2013, have been dumped in Bermuda.
The reason? The obvious imbalance of fan support for Team NZ and Oracle.
Sailing Illustrated reported that Team New Zealand were getting a strong turn-out of rabid, flag-waving fans (including many locals) for the race-day dock-out shows, while the number of Oracle supporters was embarrassingly small.
Quote of the day It was great to see a bit of fight out of these boys. Peter Burling has a subtle dig at Oracle and turns the tables on Jimmy Spithill.
Tweet of the day From a panicky Kiwi: In the future, Bermuda will be a lesson taught in New Zealand schools over retaining humility. Get up for the Cup Todays Team New Zealand sailing action starts at 5.12am.
The second race will be around 5.57am. The team is on the water at 5am or thereabouts.
Listen live to sailing guru Peter Montgomerys call of the Team New Zealand race on Newstalk ZB or Radio Sport, and join us for live blog coverage - and all the news that follows - to stay up to speed with whats happening on and off the water.
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