The speed and manoeuvrability of Team New Zealand’s boat mean Luna Rossa will need to be aggressive out of the box in today’s opening America’s Cup races, according to sailing commentators Peter Lester and Phil Robertson.
Lester told Breakfast this morning that his intel had the Team NZ being seven per cent faster in a certain wind range.
“If you’re in that 14 to 15, 16 knot ranges, that is massive on the upwind legs,” he said.
Lester said the manoeuvrability of Team NZ’s boat also caught his eye while watching them train yesterday.
“They were spinning it on a sixpence.”
The speed was the reward for a number of changes to sails, masts, foils, and rudders, Lester said.
“Each change is a little gain, altogether it’s a chuck,” Lester said.
That speed would mean vastly different approaches from challenger and defender in the start box.
“I think you’re going to have an aggressive Prada team coming out of the box, I have a suspicion they know they’re a click off the pass, that means they’ve got to push pretty hard to get off the line in front and push their elbows out and protect their lead,” Robertson said.
Lester was confident Luna Rossa Prada would get no advantage over Peter Burling and co in the start box.
“You watch out, we talked like this before Bermuda in 2017 with Emirates Team New Zealand, ‘oh they’re vulnerable pre-start.’ What happened, they went out and smacked them, I think the Kiwis will be very, very competitive in all facets of the game.”
Team NZ’s speed also meant Robertson was less concerned about a lack of match practice for Burling’s crew.
“If you’ve got pace it doesn’t really matter, and the word on the street is they [Team NZ] have got speed to burn, so they [Team NZ] are probably going to take it a little bit conservative, especially in race one.”
The very open Course E between between Maratai and Waiheke would also make for some quick racing, with both teams having spent so much time training on it so there was no real home advantage for either team.
“It’s flat water so the boats are going to be powered up and quick,” Lester said.
“The teams like it out there.”
The best of 13 America’s Cup series starts this afternoon, with coverage on TVNZ1 starting from 3pm.
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