ETNZ needs just one more win…

Emirates Team New Zealand need one more win to reach the 35th America’s Cup finals

After another three races yesterday, ETNZ helm Peter Burling said: “We were really happy to walk away from the day 4-2 up. We were expecting it to be lighter than it was and to get our boat round the track in the way we did and manage to take those couple of ones is full credit to the whole team and just what they’re willing to give to get the job done here.

“We were pretty nervous, probably getting a bit of a run at a heart attack at that last mark. It was really my mistake, I missed the lay line to the other gate, but the way the boys ground the board down…

Photo: Richard Gladwell www.photosport.co.nz

“It’s full credit to the design we’ve got with the bikes and the power to get it down and just hold on to the lead.

He added: “It was probably a bit windier than we thought it was going to be, but it’s full credit to the team for backing the decision that had been made and getting on with the job.

Burling went on to say: “Artemis definitely had quite a different configuration than what we had today, so we didn’t change our tactics, just made sure we were in the game at the bottom mark and then chipping away from there.

“We were pretty happy with the way we got back into all the races. We definitely had an opportunity in that first race, half way up the last beat to get a bit of a rumble on as well.

Burling then paid credit to the Artemis team: “Full credit to the way the Artemis guys sailed the race just to keep their nerve and hold us off. We’re really happy to bounce back with two ones.”

Artemis Team’s helmsman, Nathan Ouitteridge, replied, saying: “Obviously our forecast was a bit different to Team New Zealand’s, so going out there it was gusting 15/16 knots, so we were quite happy with the configuration.

He went on: “But, on a day like today where the weather is quite unstable, it can change quite quickly and the boat was going really nicely in the first race and we were able to hold the lead and win that one but, in the second race, again another good start, but it went a bit softer and you could see Team New Zealand had a click of extra pace on us upwind.

He added: “So we had to go into aggressive tactics mode and they were able to pull off a nice high mode right on our hip and hold on.

“And the third race was probably somewhere in between the first two,” Outteridge offered. “So, in the third race the boats were pretty evenly matched. I think we had the edge in the first race and they had the edge in the second race.

He wen on to outline: “These boats are pretty complicated and there are lots of buttons and bits and pieces in the boat and probably, with the rain we had earlier in the today, one of the buttons started misfiring and latching on, so we were struggling with our control system.”

“That’s what happened in that tack when they came flying at us, or we were flying sideways at them.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to fault find that before the second race began, and during that second race the fault presented itself to us again. We had a better understanding of where it was coming from, so instead of pushing away to the finishing line, we decided to stop and fix that problem so we were good to go for the third race.”

Never a crew to be downbeat, Outteridge said: “We saw in the semi-finals that anything’s possible, so we’ll just keep chipping away.

“For us we won’t change any of the way we’re tackling the starts or the first mark approach. We’re six from six now so that’s been doing us really well. So it’s more about what we’ll do in the upwinds to try and keep them behind us.

“Today we managed it really nicely in race 1. In the second two races we weren’t quite able to do it. I think what it shows how incredibly close the racing is out there and how you really need to be perfect in your decision making if you want to win races”

He ended by saying: “So we’ll review the footage from today and probably yesterday as well and come out fighting with a new and improved game plan.”