America's Cup - Hard lessons from Super Sunday for Emirates Team NZ

by Emirates Team NZ on 11 Sep 2016 Super Sunday at Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Toulon, was not so super for Emirates Team New Zealand, at times being their own worst enemy in conditions that were already so brutally difficult.

Small mistakes, so often absent from the team, and too many manoeuvres on a day of light air where every manoeuvre cost so much essentially came at the expense of a good result in the penultimate event of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series.

“The same conditions as yesterday, bottom end of what these boats can sail in.” explained helmsman Peter Burling.

“To be honest in the first two races, we didn't sail all that well and got a little unlucky at times but bounced back in the last race to get a second which went a small way to salvaging an otherwise pretty tough day for us.”

There was certainly no lack of trying all day by the kiwi crew, which had to deal with ongoing challenges attempting to make gains through the fleet, after getting caught back in the pack.

“In the light air it is really hard to fight back places once you are back a bit,” said tactician Ray Davies.

“We tried, but that was probably one of the problems, we were trying to hard, too many things and it didn't quite work out.

In saying that, in the last race, we did a really nice job of doing just that, finding our way back through the fleet just by keeping things simple.”

While disappointed, skipper Glenn Ashby was quick to take the positive from the weekend, in that Emirates Team New Zealand have closed the gap in the overall standings on Oracle Team USA, who finished six points behind the kiwis.

“Realistically, we are still in the hunt to win the series overall if we have a really good regatta in Japan. Right now we are only three points behind Oracle in second place, which is six points closer than we were two days ago.”

“Looking at the overall series so far, it is pretty clear to see that the inconsistencies in results of all of the teams across the eight events shows just how high the level of competition among the America’s Cup teams truly is and it’s up to us to bounce back strongly in the final event of the series.”

The team now has plenty to work on before the final event in Fukuoka, Japan in November. In the meantime focus shifts firmly back to the testing and development program in on the AC45 turbo boat in Auckland.

Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Toulon Leaderboard:

Position. Team (Race Finish Positions) – Total Points

1. Artemis Racing (1, 1, 3, 1, 3, 5) – 76 points
2. SoftBank Team Japan (5, 4, 5, 2, 4, 1) – 71 points
3. Land Rover BAR (6, 6, 1, 3, 1, 4) – 70 points
4. Groupama Team France (4, 3, 2, 6, 2, 3)– 68 points
5. Emirates Team New Zealand (2, 2, 6, 5, 6, 2) – 63 points
6. Oracle Team USA (3, 5, 4, 4, 5, 6) – 57 points

Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Overall Leaderboard

1. Land Rover BAR – 437 points
2. Oracle Team USA – 423 points
3. Emirates Team New Zealand – 420 points
4. SoftBank Team Japan – 399 points
5. Artemis Racing – 391 points
6. Groupama Team France – 360 points