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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: Team New Zealand have their challenger for the thirty seventh

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Speaker 2: America's Cup off the coast of Barcelonatania rules the waves

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Speaker 2: the Mediterranean A seven for victory. DAF we talked and

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Speaker 2: we'll meet Emirate Tea New Zealand. Yes, Aeos Britannia will

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Speaker 2: attempt to pry the old mug from the kiwis. After

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Speaker 2: beating Luna ross A seven to four in the Challenger

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Speaker 2: Series final, the Sir Ben Ainsley led boat needed just

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Speaker 2: the one victory overnight to seal their spot in the

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Speaker 2: Cup match, winning the first of the two races planned.

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Speaker 2: The Cup match is scheduled to begin next Sunday. New

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Speaker 2: Zealand time. Let's bring in former New Zealand and world

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Speaker 2: champion sailor Team New Zealand member and now Professor of

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Speaker 2: Sport and Recreation at the Auckland University of Technology, Professor

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Speaker 2: Mark orams Mark. It was four all in the race

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Speaker 2: to seven very even, but Ineos Britannia won the last three.

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Speaker 2: So what changed?

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Speaker 3: Yes? I just think that any Ospretanna has been the

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Speaker 3: team that's shown the most improvement over this entire series,

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Speaker 3: and in fact they're a bit average right back in

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Speaker 3: the preliminary Gadter sort of six weeks ago. But what

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Speaker 3: they've managed to do is to be the most improved team.

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Speaker 3: And while it was certainly a battle all the way

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Speaker 3: through the first part of the Slubton Challenger Finals, once

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Speaker 3: they really got the advantage, they just pressed a home

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Speaker 3: and actually, looking back on the career of Sir Ben Ainsley,

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Speaker 3: this is a pattern for him. He is really ruthless

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Speaker 3: and when he gets his tail up, he is very,

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Speaker 3: very difficult to stop, and that permeates throughout the entire team.

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Speaker 3: So the boats were incredibly evenly matched. But those last

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Speaker 3: three races, Syven Ainsley as the star, but at Helm

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Speaker 3: dominated the start and then got the first cross and

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Speaker 3: then just shut down the race from there for three

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Speaker 3: straight wins to close it out.

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Speaker 2: Apart from dominating the start, Spetter, where did the other

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Speaker 2: main improvements come Across the last couple of months or so.

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Speaker 3: They've introduced a few new pieces of kit, but nothing

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Speaker 3: remarkably different. What they've learned to do is just to

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Speaker 3: actually sail the boat better. They've focused very much on

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Speaker 3: just trying to get their moting right. They changed a

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Speaker 3: few of their routines in terms of their mark roundings

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Speaker 3: and they've just slowly incrementally improved and that's been a

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Speaker 3: remarkable thing to watch. Actually, I certainly see them as

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Speaker 3: a team that's well worthy of taking on Team New Zealand.

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Speaker 3: And it's not just their improvement, of course. The other

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Speaker 3: advantage that they have is the momentum of and the

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Speaker 3: race readiness they'll have of seventeen pretty tough races over

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Speaker 3: the last two and a half weeks well meanwhile, Team

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Speaker 3: New Zealand's had none. So it's going to be interesting

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Speaker 3: and a big challenge for Team New Zealand, who come

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Speaker 3: in a little bit cold in terms of race readiness

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Speaker 3: next weekend. Whereas Anyos Britannia's nailed down a prestart routine.

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Speaker 3: They've shown that they've got the ability to make the

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Speaker 3: correct key decisions at critical moments to shut down a race.

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Speaker 3: If they get their nose in front, they're going to

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Speaker 3: be pretty hard to get past.

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Speaker 2: All right, I want to talk more about the America's

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Speaker 2: Cup match in a moment, just on Lunarossa mark. How

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Speaker 2: will they reflect on their regatta.

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Speaker 3: I think in many ways they'll rue the gear breakages

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Speaker 3: they had. Two races were handed to Britannia because the

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Speaker 3: gear breakages on Lunarossa at this level, that's enormously disappointing

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Speaker 3: for them. In contrast, Britannia's had an incredibly reliable boat

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Speaker 3: that they've just had complete faith in, whereas Lunarrossa not.

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Speaker 3: So I'm not saying they would have won those races,

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Speaker 3: but certainly you hand two points like that in a

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Speaker 3: really even series, that's not something that anybody would want.

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Speaker 3: I'm incredibly impressed with the way that they've sailed, and

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Speaker 3: perhaps it's worth reflecting because Jimmy Spittle has announced his

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Speaker 3: retirement overnight from America's Cup Sailing. An amazing leader, what

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Speaker 3: an amazing competitor he has been, and over twenty years

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Speaker 3: in the sport, and his calm presence on board, his communication,

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Speaker 3: his evenness no matter whether they are in front or behind,

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Speaker 3: or whether something had gone wrong or not, deeply deeply impressive.

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Speaker 3: And I know that as key, we love to hate

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Speaker 3: an opponent and we remember the sort of heartbreak of

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Speaker 3: San Francisco and cast Jimmy Spittle as a villain then,

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Speaker 3: but actually he's a decent guy, great sailor and an

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Speaker 3: extremely good leader that he's developed into over the years.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, all right, let's look at the America's Cup match.

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Speaker 2: You talked about Team New Zealand potentially going in cold,

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Speaker 2: having not had any competitive racing since the early stages

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Speaker 2: of the Louis Vuitton, which of course didn't really count anyway,

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Speaker 2: but they at least they got out on the water.

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Speaker 2: How do they negate that, because, as you say, any

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Speaker 2: Ospritannia are coming.

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Speaker 3: In hot, Yeah, they sure are, and that's quite difficult

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Speaker 3: to negate. So first things first is they need to

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Speaker 3: concentrate on ensuring that they get the pre start and

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Speaker 3: the start right, and they will have been doing a

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Speaker 3: lot of homework around that, so they need to have

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Speaker 3: a playbook so if they do this, then we do that,

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Speaker 3: and if they respond here, we will do this. So

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Speaker 3: they pre planned all of that out and that they

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Speaker 3: have that playbook and routine or the choreography really clear

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Speaker 3: in their mind so that they don't go into it

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Speaker 3: having to react and respond to Sir Ben Ainsley's aggression,

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Speaker 3: because that's what he will want if they go in

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Speaker 3: in that sort of situation, they'll get owned. So they

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Speaker 3: need to really get their routines and playbooks sorted and

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Speaker 3: to implement that and to have the ability to actually

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Speaker 3: take the initiative as opposed to respond. What they want

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Speaker 3: is at a minimum to get off even to get

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Speaker 3: clean and even off the line, and then they will

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Speaker 3: have confidence in Team New Zealand that tye hood of

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Speaker 3: their boat will have at least even and possibly a

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Speaker 3: speed edge. So if you can get off the line clean,

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Speaker 3: if you can manufacture that first cross in front, then

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Speaker 3: you have the ability to close down the race. What's

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Speaker 3: going to be much more difficult is if they're behind.

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Speaker 3: With the boundaries in these Mouldern America's Cup courses and

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Speaker 3: how short the races are they're around twenty minutes in length,

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Speaker 3: it's really difficult to manufacture a pass if the opponent

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Speaker 3: in front of you doesn't make any mistakes. So beyond

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Speaker 3: the priority of the prestart and the start and trying

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Speaker 3: to just get your nose in front, they'll need to

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Speaker 3: also have a playbook about how they if they're behind,

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Speaker 3: don't try and roll the dice and take a high

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Speaker 3: risk early on and fall further behind, but just to

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Speaker 3: keep it close, keep chipping away and look for the

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Speaker 3: opportunity to manufacture a pass. So they know all this

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Speaker 3: the challenge of courses. They haven't had the chance to

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Speaker 3: implement it in quite some time and as you pointed

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Speaker 3: out in the round robins, it counted for nothing for them,

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Speaker 3: so very different when the pressure is on. So composure

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Speaker 3: will be a big focus for the Team New Zealand

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Speaker 3: crew over this America's Cup series.

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Speaker 2: Just for reference, Michael on that on that difficulty in

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Speaker 2: passing movements during the race, how often during the whole

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Speaker 2: regatta have passes been successfully implemented by any of these boats.

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Speaker 3: Well, and certainly in the finals less and less so,

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Speaker 3: And that's because the boats were so evenly matched. Interesting

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Speaker 3: that any OUs Britannia and Lunarrossa Prataparelli actually quite different

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Speaker 3: boats design wise, their foil packages different, even where they

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Speaker 3: position their sailors and foil flight controllers on the boat

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Speaker 3: is different. And yet they were so incredibly even in

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Speaker 3: terms of their boat speed across a wide range of conditions.

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Speaker 3: So that's what really surprised me. But when you've got

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Speaker 3: really even boat speed, as is tradition and match racing,

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Speaker 3: sailing the start and the first cross is incredibly important,

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Speaker 3: but it's different if you have speed differentials. So earlier

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Speaker 3: in the comp and the round robins, when we had

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Speaker 3: greater differences in speed, then you did a number of

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Speaker 3: passes where a slower boat that was in front managed

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Speaker 3: to get a good start, eventually comes under pressure and

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Speaker 3: the trailing boat who's a little bit quicker can crack

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Speaker 3: them and then when they get past them, they stretch.

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Speaker 3: So Team New Zealand did that a couple of times

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Speaker 3: in the round robin. So it's still a boat speed race.

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Speaker 3: So Team New Zealand has been busy, even though they're

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Speaker 3: not race ready, they've been busy developing their boat further.

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Speaker 3: They had old sales on during the round robin, they

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Speaker 3: didn't have their final foil configuration, so they will be

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Speaker 3: hoping and perhaps have some confidence that the package that

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Speaker 3: they've developed is going to have an edge and they

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Speaker 3: will if stay and make that stick and they can

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Speaker 3: get good start and not end up getting owned by

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Speaker 3: Sir Ben Ainsley in the pre starts, then I think

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Speaker 3: that's their best shot.

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Speaker 2: Team New Zealand against any Ospritannia. From Nick Sunday, New

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Speaker 2: Zealand time for the thirty seventh America's Cup. Mark love

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Speaker 2: chatting sailing with you. Thanks so much for your.

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Speaker 3: Expertise, pleasure Piney.

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Speaker 2: Thanks mate, No, thank you mate. That's Mark Orams, Professor

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Speaker 2: Mark Orams with some real deep understanding of sailing obviously.

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Speaker 2: So it's Ayos Britannia up against Team New Zealand starting

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Speaker 2: next Sunday morning, New Zealand time, same format as the

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Speaker 2: Louis Bitton A best of thirteen series. So the first

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Speaker 2: boat to claim seven race wins will claim the America's Cup,

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Speaker 2: first contested back in eighteen fifty one, the thirty seventh

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Speaker 2: running of the America's Cup, Team New Zealand against Inyos Britannia.

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Speaker 2: And as you heard Mark Orum say during that chat,

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Speaker 2: Luna rossa Coe helmsman Jimmy Spittel, a larger than life

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Speaker 2: personality in sailing circles, has announced his retirement from sailing.

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Speaker 4: This is definitely my last one as an athlete. I

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Speaker 4: meaned I skip it. My first team at nineteen in

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Speaker 4: nineteen ninety nine, and I've driven a boat in every

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Speaker 4: Cup up until now. And if you told me this

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Speaker 4: is where the sport would be back then when I started,

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Speaker 4: I mean, I probably would have driven you to the

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Speaker 4: mental hospital myself.

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Speaker 2: So a slight correction has ret i'ment from America's Cup sailing.

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Speaker 2: We may well see Jimmy Spittle do other sailing, but

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Speaker 2: that's it for now anyway, And again who knows, But

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Speaker 2: of course we'll always remember him for steering Oracle Team

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Speaker 2: USA to that stunning victory over Team New Zealand back

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Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, coming from eight one down to win

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Speaker 2: it nine to eight, one of the great comebacks of

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Speaker 2: all time in any sport.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio