Emirates Team New Zealand wave to spectators after finishing their round robin 2 match of the Louis Vuitton Cup against Artemis Racing who were not sailing. 14/7/2013 Chris Cameron/ETNZ
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As expected, today’s opponents Artemis did not make it to the start line and Emirates Team New Zealand sailed alone around the shortened course.
Opponent or not, any sailing time on the race course is time well spent for encounters ahead and Dean Barker and the crew drove the boat hard from start to finish.
The team’s chief operating office Kevin Shoebridge says the team does benefit from 'racing' solo.
'We treat it like a real race. Full on. Every day improving as we must if we are to do well when it really matters.'
He has one eye permanently on the clock. 'Time is going very quickly. By the end of July we will be running out of time to make improvements. So right now every day counts.
'We keep the development programme running by using these days as race practice and developing systems, manoeuvres and crew work generally.'
This day-to-day improvement motivates the crew, says Jeremy Lomas. 'Today we worked on things that we didn’t do so well yesterday when we raced Luna Rossa. It’s important that we make these incremental changes for the the better every time we take the AC72 out – racing or not.'
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