America's Cup: The telling point that suggests Team New Zealand are favourites against Britannia

Saturday, 12 October 2024

Sir Ben Ainslie reacts to a rousing haka at the final press conference before the America's Cup got underway.

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There are great unknowns on the eve of an America’s Cup final between the defending boat and the top challenger to emerge from weeks of intense match racing.

Who will be faster? What’s the wind forecast? Whose boat will perform better? Which of their design differences will count?

Team New Zealand and Britannia’s duel on Barcelona’s waters for the 37th Cup will start on Sunday (1:10am, NZ time), as the Kiwis take on a British team aiming to win the Auld Mug for the first time in their nation’s history.

Determining which crew is favoured to succeed has become more apparent in the week’s low-key build-up. There hasn’t been much noise from either team, nor many revealing interviews, to gauge exactly what they’re thinking ahead of sailing’s biggest occasion.

That’s the nature of the America’s Cup, with teams keeping their boat’s secrets hidden until hitting the water for race one.

Peter Burling will be aiming for his third America’s Cup win in Barcelona.

Britannia co-helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie made it clear they see themselves as underdogs for his country’s first match race since 1964.

“We're coming up against incredible defenders who are going for a third win in a row,” Ainslie said at the Cup’s main conference on Friday (local time).

“We know that it’s the ultimate challenge. In a way for us, there's nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Ainslie, his co-helmsman Dylan Fletcher, and Team NZ helms Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge were on stage in Barcelona’s World Trade Centre, either side of the massive, old silver trophy, 24 hours before their opening race.

The nature of the Cup’s rules, which are written by the defenders, leaves the challengers’ design teams in their own race to catch up and develop an AC75, a high-tech 75ft foiling monohull, to even compete with Team NZ.

From left to right, the rival co-helmsmen from Team New Zealand, Nathan Outteridge and Burling, and Britannia, Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher.

Ainslie also made a telling point about the benefits Team NZ would have gained from watching the challenger series over five weeks. His crew had to battle away to beat Luna Rossa in a relentless Louis Vuitton Cup final, the watching Kiwis always close by.

“Who's got the advantage? For sure, it’s Team New Zealand, being able to take weeks to look at the configuration of their boat against the data of the other boats,” he said.

Peter Burling and the Team New Zealand crew have not raced in Barcelona for five weeks.

“There's one team here who really knows the line-up of the competition, it’s Team New Zealand, it's not us.

“That's what we're up against, but we came through one incredible final. We're up for one more.”

After Team NZ dominated when contesting Barcelona’s opening regattas, Burling said they had long planned for their five-week absence from racing.

“Well, it's always been on the schedule,” Burling said.

“I think in our programme we've been balancing and involved in the evolution of the boat.

“We've been trying to push our boat forward. We do a lot in-house to make sure our racing skills are sharp as well.”

Team NZ co-helmsman Nathan Outteridge, left, will race in the America’s Cup match for the first time with Peter Burling, right.

The design teams have done their job in a three-year campaign in which millions of dollars are spent to engineer the fastest boat possible. The AC75s are cracking top speeds of about 100kph.

The sailors are tasked with maximising its performance under pressure, knowing a small mistake could be costly. Winning the start, too, remains fundamental because there hasn’t been much overtaking in Barcelona.

Outteridge, readying for his first Cup match as Burling’s co-helm, said the starts would be more significant than Barcelona’s unpredictable wind conditions or the sail choices.

“We’ve been watching pretty closely what Ben and Dylan and the team have been up to, trying to study their moves, trying to understand counter moves. I’m sure they’ve been trying to guess what we’re going to do as well,“ Outteridge said.

“The boats are incredibly close in terms of the performance. The starts are going to be really critical.”

Britannia haven’t yet beaten Team NZ’s AC75, Taihoro, in a completed race in Barcelona.

Fletcher, their co-helm also contesting his first Cup decider, said their close battle with the Italians was the best preparation they could have had for Team NZ.

“Hopefully, we'll have a faster yacht and start better.”