ORACLE TEAM USA unplugged
by Mark Jardine 24 Jun 2017 21:23 BST
24 June 2017
A happier Jimmy Spithill after ORACLE TEAM USA's race win on day 3 of the 35th America's Cup Match © ACEA 2017 / Gilles Martin-Raget
The American team have clearly been busy during the five days off between races in the 35th America's Cup... very busy. The Kiwi's much-heralded upwind VMG speed advantage would seem to be gone completely as ORACLE TEAM USA have made some significant gains all around the race track.
The day itself saw honours even, with each team winning a race and the overall scoreline moving to 4-1 in Emirates Team New Zealand's favour, but the swing in momentum towards ORACLE TEAM USA was massive as they won the second race on Saturday. Jimmy Spithill had his head held high and a spring in his step as he went around the crew shaking hands and slapping backs.
So what have the American team managed to do to turn what was looking like a potential Kiwi whitewash into a competitive yacht race? All the talk is about a reduction of weight in the boat and making the foil package more extreme.
On the weight front, gone is Tom Slingsby's cyclor station at the back of the boat. I'm sure there are a host of other changes as well, but I doubt we'll ever be privy to what has happened inside the hidden compartments throughout the boat.
On the foils, major changes have been made to the rudders and their elevators (the foils at the bottom of the rudder blade). The main foils also look to be canting further outboard and now have a kink at the end - not as extreme as on Emirates Team New Zealand, but very noticeable.
The trade-off for the speed gains seem to be on the control front. In Saturday's first race the team came off the foils a few times, ultimately costing them the race. It looks like the ORACLE TEAM USA America's Cup Class boat is now a very tricky beast to sail. Changes on these boats take a while to get used to, and Jimmy and his team simply haven't had that time to fully understand the foil package changes.
If an analogy was made to a rock band, ORACLE TEAM USA are now unplugged: gone are the amplifiers and the backing singers, and instead the core group have to get everything note perfect - every mistake can be spotted and punished instantly.
The other major change in today's final race, and one that is long overdue for a skipper and team that pride themselves on their match-racing skill, was ORACLE TEAM USA winning the start. The first race of the day saw them over the line for the second time in the America's Cup Match; once was bad enough, but two is a serious own-goal for a team on the back foot. With the boats far more evenly matched on the race course, not making mistakes is going to become vital and the Americans have simply made too many mistakes.
The great news for the America's Cup itself is that we now have a yacht race on our hands. I for one was predicting a Kiwi whitewash, but I'm very happy to be proved wrong in this respect. With sailing on the world stage, the last thing we want to showcase is a mismatch. While the Kiwis are still in the box seat, we can at least look forward to close racing, more place changing and a real battle on the water.
Jimmy Spithill and ORACLE TEAM USA pulled off the most spectacular comeback of all time in 2013... is it just possible they could do it again?