America’s Cup 2021: Navigating a ‘minefield’ – New Zealand team lives on the edge

The New Zealand team has been living on the edge for the past three days, but that’s part of the long-term plan ahead of the America’s Cup next March.

Saturday’s races in the Copa América World Series continued a pattern familiar to Te Rehutai: lots of pace and power, even if it lacked precision and polish at times.

The New Zealand team fell behind in both starts yesterday, although they came back well each time, to overtake American Magic (1:19) and Luna Rossa (0:16). But they did it the hard way, especially against Luna Rossa, with several mistakes in the admittedly difficult conditions, which Jimmy Spithill described as a “minefield”.

But helmsman Peter Burling revealed that his boat is currently tuned to the limit, a high-spec machine, as his goal is to test the extremes of what it is capable of.

“We’ve said all along that we’re targeting a lot for March 6,” Burling said. “We’ve put a lot of pressure on our package so it’s relatively difficult to navigate. [But] that’s exciting and it means we have a lot to improve in the next three months. “

Burling wasn’t thrilled with his starts yesterday, a definite Achilles heel right now, as Dean Barker and Spithill both gained early lineups.

“He definitely didn’t have the best,” Burling said. “We were happy with our strategy in the first one, but obviously there was a pretty big shift to the right, so it was a little tactical error.”

“For the second, the breeze dropped a lot more than we thought, so we couldn’t get the pin. [But we are learning] what can and cannot be done on these boats, we have been trying some more complicated strategies in the starts and we are learning a lot trying to push ourselves hard. “

But the 29-year-old is confident in March, even though his potential rivals have more experience in match racing.

“I’ve done quite a bit now, along with a lot of the other guys on the team,” Burling said. “We showed in Bermuda that we also learn quite quickly. We are looking forward to seeing these ships start, [then] go check out our strategies and try to do some better ones when the Cup comes. “

Burling was particularly pleased with the victory over Luna Rossa. They made up an 800 meter deficit at one point, returning to their foils first after both boats found themselves caught on hiatus.

“We just got back to frustrating and being able to perform a frustrated jibe at that limit, and then frustrating all the way back, past where Luna Rossa was sitting in the water, it shows you how difficult these races are going to be to be in the air. light.

“We think Luna Rossa is quite optimized for light air so we’re happy to be able to compete well with them on those light things and have a good indicator of where they are.

“We were able to keep the game tight and choose our chances to try to pass. In both races we showed that the boat is fast enough; obviously we made some mistakes on the track too, but to come out ahead with a win, with the fact that so many people cheering us on was very special. We are very excited about what summer has in store for us. “

Enjoy a smooth sailing to the Cup with Auckland Transport

• Avoid traffic congestion and parking problems and download the AT Mobile app to plan your bus, train or ferry trip to race venues before you leave home.

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• For more ways to enjoy race day, visit at.govt.nz/americascup