Quotes of the Day- Race Day Four

by America's Cup media on 6 Jun 2007 Quotes Of The Day: Louis Vuitton Cup Final, Race Day Four.

Ray Davies, Strategist, Emirates Team New Zealand, on being confident on the left coming good: 'We were confident that there would be more left to come than what we started off the line with. It was not a bad shift, and it was going to be a tricky day and shifty conditions. We were happy to start at pace but not with a huge amount. It didn’t go our way in the first half of the beat and Luna Rossa did a good job of sticking to their guns and got fully into that right hander. It was not a good first half for us.'

Ray Davies, Strategist, Emirates Team New Zealand, on the Italians tacking to leeward on the second time together: 'I can understand their reasoning - it was a left-hander, and the way it played out I’m sure they would have done it differently in hindsight. They would have wanted to get back in phase and drag it out to the layline. It was a pretty tough day; with the wind direction the left can be very strong at times. But today we got the first part wrong, and we got lucky from there. It shows that things can change quite dramatically. We can’t rule out anything with the fickle conditions we are having. It’s hard to make clever calls all the way up, and both teams made mistakes today.'

Don Cowie, Mainsheet Trimmer, Emirates Team New Zealand, on their boat’s acceleration out of tacks and gybes being the fundamental advantage: 'It’s interesting, I’ve been telling the guys at the base that it’s called the ‘mainsail’ because it’s all about the main! They are finally catching on! I think we have a boat that goes quite nicely in those conditions, we are happy with the way it’s going - it tacks and gybes nicely. It’s definitely all about the way the mainsail’s trimmed!'

Torben Grael, Tactician, Luna Rossa Challenge, on not getting closer on the second cross:'We definitely could, but we felt we were on a leftie and wanted to defend the right side which we thought was good, and take which position we thought was safe. They hung out with a nice leftie with pressure and made a huge gain in a short period. From then on it was quite difficult for us to come back because we weren’t in a strong position to do so. It’s hard to predict those things - the right came, but it came late, and we couldn’t benefit from it. Knowing what happened now I would have got closer, but it’s a hard situation there, you have to decide right then on the information you have, and with what I had, I felt I was doing the right thing. I trust my weather team completely, we have done two Cups together, and we have a wonderful relationship. It’s up to us to use their calls and sometimes we use them right and sometimes we don’t.'

Torben Grael, Tactician, Luna Rossa Challenge, on the second cross being the turning point of the race: 'We had a very good call from the weather team, we got what we wanted at the start - we had a big separation with a nice shift and only managed to get a small lead. They had very little separation, not a big shift but got a bigger cushion on us. It’s quite disappointing but they are sailing really well, there is not much we can say except congratulate them for sailing well.'

Jonathan McKee, Mainsheet trimmer, Luna Rossa Challenge on changing conditions making a difference to come back into the series: 'If there is anything obvious we would have tried it already and that is not ruling out that we might make a technical change - that certainly is a possibility. They are going well, especially in that wind range - they always have been fast in it, and it’s not a surprise to us. We seem to be a little bit more competitive with more wind that probably pays into our hands a little bit more but besides that they are sailing very well. Our hats off to them they have out-sailed us so far in this series and that is all you can say. We are not going out with a do or die strategy with our boat, with the wind conditions expected, but going out to sail smart and fast the way we have up to now. I don’t think you’re going to see a radical change in strategy or whole different approach. Obviously we haven’t won the races so far but that doesn’t mean we have sailed the wrong way.'