Dean's Diary- Two wins on Day 2 in a more moderate Naples

by Dean Barker on 13 Apr 2012
Dean Barker, Emirates Team NZ skipper and Director of www.kiwiyachting.co.nz!Kiwi_Yachting_Consultants_Nexus_AB, reports from Naples, Italy from the America's Cup World Series, in which he helms Emirates Team NZ .

12 April 2012:

Day 2 in Naples

Today was a very good day for us out on the water at Naples. In a stark contrast to yesterdays conditions, today we raced in much flatter water and a steady 8-12 knots.

In both races we had good starts and led around both bottom gates which is very important in securing a strong position. Normally the boat that leads around the bottom has a pretty good opportunity to set up a good result. In both races today we were able to extend all around the course with good speed and some really nice crew work.

As always though we come off the water with a long list of things we would like to improve and I am sure there will never be a day where there is not something we could do better.

Tomorrow the breeze should be up a click on today and getting breezy later in the afternoon. We start the day with our match racing quarter final against Artemis. This is sudden death - a win sees us through to the semis, a loss and we are given 8th place so certainly important!!

I can't say I agree with this format as there is no real advantage in being top qualifier. Once we are done with the match race we are into two more fleet races to count for the overall fleet regatta.

Dean

To read earlier editions of Dean Barker's blog http://www.kiwiyachting.co.nz/dean-barkers-blog!click_here