America's Cup 2013 - Press Conference Day 1

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 8 Sep 2013 Emirates Team New Zealand Glen Ashby Wing Trimmer and helmsman Dean Barker, Oracle USA James Spithill and tactician John Kostecki talk about Race 1 and 2

The Kiwi skipper Dean Barker led his crew to victories of 36 and 52 seconds in 15-20 knot winds.

'It’s still way too early to draw conclusions, but I think we saw two boats that are incredibly even in performance,' said Barker. 'There’s certainly not a lot in either direction in the conditions we saw today. I’m sure we’ll learn more as we get different conditions as the series goes on. But as we expected, there’s not a huge amount between the two yachts.'

Oracle Team USA skipper, who won the 2010 America's Cup regatta Australian Jimmy Spithill showed aggression in the pre-start. Both times he tried to hook Barker and force him into a penalty. But Spithill didn’t pull off the move in the first race and in the second the umpires green-flagged an incident that might’ve included contact between the boats.

In both instances, however, Emirates Team New Zealand won the starts, accelerating quicker off the start line to lead at the first mark.

'In the first race we didn’t get as tight as we would’ve liked and they got over us on the reach,' said Spithill.

'In the second one we got tighter, went in for the hook and thought we’d get the penalty.
'Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. Those guys did a good job and didn’t make many mistakes. There weren’t a lot of passing lanes out there.'

Here is the full press conference.