Under 10 days to go and Ben’s trying hard…

US journalist Jack Griffin is the best we’ve seen for outlining which teams are doing well and which aren’t in the lead up to the upcoming America’s Cup contest.

According to Jack, all six teams have been running practice races this week, one of which offers a shot of Land Rover BAR running into the back of ETNZ (watch the video). But hey! That’s racing…

But I do get a trifle concerned when Russell Coutts is offering the thought that these boats are rapidly approching speeds of 50kts… The thought of two of these boats getting together at closing speeds of 50kts plus alarms me enormously.

The potential for huge damage to boats and – more alarmingly, people – worries me.

But back to Mr Griffin, practice sessions from May 15 – 19 shows ETNZ had completed two races, defeating both LR BAR and Groupama Team France.

Oracle Team USA has been testing a pedal powered grinding station behind helmsman Jimmy Spithill. They have had mixed results in practice racing – usually, but not always, beating SoftBank Team Japan. They have not beaten Artemis Racing in either of the last two practice sessions.

The ETNZ Kiwis are probably very fast but we haven’t seen it yet since they have not raced much. Their “cyclor” grinders have drawn a lot of comment. In practice races in April they defeated Artemis easily before losing to Japan. This week they shredded their rudder on Monday and could not race, but ended up beating both Land Rover BAR and Groupama Team France.

Artemis Racing is currently the acknowledged form team, but did not race on Monday and won their race with Team France on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if they line up against the Kiwis this week or not. When the round robin starts, we will need to wait for the fourth day of racing to see them race the Kiwis for real.

Land Rover BAR is still struggling with straightline speed. On Monday they won the start in both races, against Oracle and Japan but lost both races. On Tuesday they lost to Japan and New Zealand, but beat Team France.

Their crew work and manoeuvres are sharp, but they will need to wring more performance out of their boat. They will also have to take more care about getting a little too close to the competition…

Groupama Team France has the smallest budget and the least time on the water, so it’s not surprising tthey are the weakest team in the field. Their boat is fast enough to be competitive but, being short on resources means the team has not had time to master their boat.

They will continue to improve their crew work, but even so, they are at risk of being the team eliminated at the end of the Qualifiers. They are really preparing for the next Cup cycle, so one or two race wins in the round robin would be a good showing for them.

SoftBank Team Japan have, in helmsman Dean Barker and wing trimmer Chris Draper, a strong sailing team. They bought their boat design from Oracle and designer Nick Holroyd has probably made sure they have fast foils.Nick explains about foil design and tradeoffs in this video. In practice racing SoftBank Team Japan has taken wins from Oracle and the Kiwis.

You can get a subscription to Jack’s regular AC35 updates at  jack.griffin=cupexperience.com@ckmail2.com

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