America's Cup - Emirates Team NZ's rookies show the new AC way

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ on 21 Jun 2017 Not losing a start and leading around every mark for the first four races of the 35th America's Cup Match is more than even the most one-eyed Emirates Team New Zealand fan could have envisaged.

Sitting on a 3-0 points score doesn't seem like a just reward for such a scintillating and dominating performance in the opening stanzas of the contest for the premier trophy in sailing.

While it is unfair to single out any one team member, there is no doubt that Emirates Team New Zealand's helmsman Peter Burling has more than risen to the occasion.

At the first media conference for the Regatta, Burling understandably looked like he was treading water. Of the six sitting at the top table, four of them had previous America's Cup experience. His now-opponent Jimmy Spithill is now on his sixth America's Cup campaign, having been an America's Cup helmsman for almost half his life.

Burling was surrounded by some formidable talent, but he has seen four of them exit the competition, and unless Oracle Team USA can pull a very large rabbit out of the hat, Spithill will be next to go.

The rise of Emirates Team New Zealand is the talk of Bermuda.

People are searching for answers which are very difficult to find. What has happened in the last three weeks, just should not have been possible given the inexperience of the Kiwi crew. This should really have been a launching pad for a serious tilt in 2019.

With one exception (skipper Glenn Ashby), none of the crew of Emirates Team New Zealand has any previous America's Cup experience.

At least two of the sailing team had never sailed in a yacht race before this America's Cup.

They are a young team - the average age of the team is around 28 years - cranked up by the 39-year-old skipper. To underline the relative youth of the New Zealand crew Peter Burling is just one year over the age limit to be competing in the Red Bull Youth America's Cup, being sailed in Bermuda.

A clue lies in the fact that five of the nine sailors who appear on the daily crew list are Olympic medalists - covering three sports. Oracle Team USA has just one Olympic medalist in their nine-strong sailing team.

The strength of the Emirates Team New Zealand team lies in its chemistry. These are guys who enjoy sailing together. Four of the nine are from the NZL Sailing Team - essentially the New Zealand Olympic Sailing Squad. Four of the nine were in the winning crew in the 2013 Red Bull Youth America's Cup in San Francisco.

Despite their youth, they've fought many battles together. The chemistry is very good.

This America's Cup cycle is the first in the 30 years of NZC/TNZ/ETNZ's existence that there has been any form of partnership between Yachting New Zealand and what is now Emirates Team New Zealand.

Numerous strategic reviews by Yachting New Zealand and its funders highlighted the fact that the national sailing body New Zealand didn't have any relationship with the New Zealand America's Cup team. That's a situation akin to the New Zealand Rugby Union not having any relationship with the All Blacks.

That situation changed in January 2014. Emirates Team New Zealand wanted one of YNZ's top properties - 49er crew Peter Burling and Blair Tuke - in its America's Cup team. But walking away from a potential Olympic Gold medal, was a big ask - and in the end, a way was found to work in the 2016 Olympic 49er campaign with the 2017 America's Cup.

That then set a precedent for other members of the NZL Sailing team to work with Emirates Team NZ. In fact the relationship has been so successful that it has been extended to other sports with Olympic rowers and cyclists joining the America's Cup team.

While it seemed to be a juggling act at the time, the four NZL Sailing Team members have had the benefit of an intense Olympic build-up before moving into America's Cup mode.

Maybe it is no coincidence that the other helmsman and crew of the Finalist in the Louis Vuitton Trophy did the same joint AC/Olympic program.

Oracle Team USA's sailing squad have been America's Cup focussed without the 'distraction' of the Olympic Regatta and work up. They have been in Bermuda since April 2015, with families and all.

The New Zealanders arrived in Bermuda two years later in April 2017, lean and focussed on their mission.

Emirates Team New Zealand has an air of cautious confidence, having now achieved the milestone of being able to beat the defending America's Cup Champion - which they were unable to do in the Qualifiers. There Spithill looked to have the measure of the Kiwis.

Most importantly Burling and friends look like they are having fun sailing in the 2017 America's Cup - to the point of treating it almost as just another regatta.

Yep, ETNZ has had some dreadful days here in Bermuda. Like when they tossed away a near-certain win against Jimmy Spithill's Oracle Team USA on the opening day of the Qualifiers. The error in the Semi-Finals when they pitch-poled at the start, and a couple of near misses.

Burling and his crew can have a bad performance, go ashore and analyse it, and then bounce-back the next day with that error erased from their repertoire.

That's a sign of good coaching, and having people who are coachable.

Most sailors get where they are by their talent.

It doesn't happen in other sports, particularly sports like Rowing and Cycling - where you won't get out of the age-group competition without being coachable. Maybe this is the quality that the non-sailing Olympic medalists have brought to the America's Cup sailing squad.

One of Napoleon's great quotes was 'I know he is a good General - but is he lucky?'

Peter Burling is definitely lucky - there is no doubt about that at all. Good sailors also make their own luck, and at 26 years old, Burling is a great sailor.

A number of marginal situations have gone his way in this regatta.

Burling and his crew seem to have the ability when caught out badly, to get out of jail by the narrowest of margins - and live to fight another day whilst pocketing the point from their narrow escape.

By contrast, their opponent in the Challenger Final, Artemis Racing are an unlucky team. Time and time again they had marginal calls go against them - and at a time when a point from a win would have been most useful, put a spring in their step and a confidence in their camp.

The Emirates Team New Zealand America's Cup team is the front end of a very sharp operation that has been through more than its fair share of battles since San Francisco and September 2013.

They haven't had the time, money and toys of the better-heeled teams. But they have come up with a boat and design package that no-one has been able to better in the last fortnight - backed up by an excellent and very professional management, shore and design crew.

Those who have followed Emirates Team New Zealand fortunes in detail over the past 14 years, since the 2003 America's Cup loss, will be well aware that the team's re-build has not been a walk in the park. Often they have faced salvos from their competitors while having to duck the 'friendly' fire domestically.

It was not until Day 2 of the Challenger Final here in Bermuda, that Emirates Team New Zealand looked like they could go the whole way.

That was the day when Emirates Team New Zealand lost their first race to Artemis Racing, after selecting the wrong daggerboards in the 17kt breeze. They got back into Artemis Racing in the next race - with the Swedes pulling out due to system failure. Then in the third race, the Kiwis got out of jail after a botched final mark rounding, winning by just 1.3 secs.

Those final two races seemed to be the first time that Emirates Team New Zealand had worked out a race strategy or two, and then executed.

The final day of the Challenger Final was the closest we've had to light weather - the Kiwi's targeted condition.

All Artemis Racing saw was Emirates Team New Zealand's transoms - the same sight that Oracle Team USA has 'enjoyed' for the first four races of the America's Cup Match.

While the 35th Match looks very promising for Emirates Team New Zealand, there is still a long way to go - and an awful lot can be achieved in a five-day break.

The NZ team will be treating the score as being 0-0.

While the long-range weather forecast is for more in the 9-11kt range, as we saw in 2013, Oracle Team USA are masters at the 'copy and improve' process. They could well pick up an extra couple of knots of boat-speed, or figure out a ploy to counter Burling's unusual but instinctive tactics in the pre-start box.

Right now Saturday and the re-commencement of the 35th America's Cup Match seems to be a log way away. Anything could happen.