Beyond the Cup - Ineos Team UK Flight Controller Leigh McMillan and Grinder Freddie Carr look back on the failed British campaign, following their premature exit from America's Cup contention. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
The opening race of an America's Cup is like no other. All the unknowns will be answered.
We will know quite quickly, where the strengths and weaknesses of both Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa lie.
It feels like the old days, when the boats came off the linein race one of the Americas Cup match, the time when you got a feel where everyone was at.
The two big factors are going to be the starts and boat speed around the course.
Both teams will be very anxious about the match-up. Without question Luna Rossa will be very strong around the start line. Just doing 18 more races than Team New Zealand have done in the last couple of months is going to make them stronger.
They'll make fewer mistakes I'm sure in the start area. I know Team New Zealand will have been working very hard on their boat handling and their boat positioning. But doing it against your chase boat is never going to be like racing another team. So I expect Luna Rossa will be in a stronger position at the starts.
Emirates Team New Zealand Te Rehutai and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli approach the start line during the opening race of the ACWS Christmas Regatta. Photo / Dean Purcell.
However, because Luna Rossa have done so many starts, they've developed a clear pattern of what they do on a port entry, where they turn up, how they manoeuvre off the boundary, and where they lead back and the amount of time to kill.
Equally when they are starboard entry they have a pretty clear plan of what they do to react to what the port entry boat does. There will be a little bit less unknown for Team New Zealand because I don't imagine Luna Rossa is going to change their style dramatically. Team New Zealand will have a predetermined play to counteract Luna Rossa's style which will be interesting to see.
Team New Zealand I'm sure will have been experimenting with different starting techniques, maybe something a little bit different that jumps out during the racing.
When it comes to boat speed Team New Zealand is the great unknown. It's very hard with the constraints that one boat could have a massive speed advantage in all conditions but it's a development class and there's some very good people at Team New Zealand. Given we haven't seen them since December so it's going to be really interesting to see how much they've stepped on.
Amongst the challengers everyone was close in different conditions and all had strengths and weaknesses. Team New Zealand, right from the Christmas Cup have looked to be strong and certainly looked to have made progress from what you see and hear.
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli AC75 and Emirates Team New Zealand AC75 Te Rehutai practice racing on the Hauraki Gulf. Photo / Dean Purcell.
If Team New Zealand are significantly faster, then winning seven races will be relatively straightforward. If the speed advantage is minimal then it will be a lot more difficult if Luna Rossa get the early advantage in the races. The way Luna Rossa are sailing, they close races down and when they get control they do a very good job maintaining it. It's going to be very interesting to see how things develop leading into race one.
Both teams have to nominate their configurations on Monday. There's no forecast that exists that can provide strong long range accuracy. As we know Auckland is a very changeable venue so to have high degrees of confidence beyond the first weekend would be very difficult. Luna Rossa wouldn't have had time to make significant changes with confidence. They will stick with something very similar to what they used in the Prada Cup finals.
