Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill and team manager Grant Simmer have a chat on the dock after the US team's fourth straight loss to Team NZ. Photo/PHOTOSPORT.
Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill and team manager Grant Simmer have a chat on the dock after the US team's fourth straight loss to Team NZ. Photo/PHOTOSPORT.
The America's Cup action appears to be happening in the boatshed today, with no sign of Team New Zealand or Oracle on the Great Sound.
After the opening four races over the weekend - all dominated by Emirates Team New Zealand - the teams have a five-day break beforethe next block of races in the first-to-seven series.
The break has come at an opportune time for Oracle Team USA, who have struggled to match the pace of the Kiwi boat, and find themselves down 3-0 on the scoreboard (Team NZ started the Cup match at -1).
Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill yesterday described the five-day gap between races four and five as the most important period of the team's defence. The team appeared to be hunkering down in the boatshed today devising ways to eke out speed and performance gains in the Oracle boat.
"I think it's pretty obvious these guys are faster and we need to make some serious changes," said Spithill after the team's fourth successive loss in the finals series.
"There's no two ways about it, we will look at every single thing we can. We've got an incredible team on the shore - the boatbuilding team, design, engineering.
"We've been here before," Spithill added, referencing Oracle's incredible come from behind victory in San Francisco.
The Team NZ base in the heart of the America's Cup village was also quiet today, with most of the crew given the day off to rest ahead of what will be a demanding week ahead.
But behind the tented doors of the boatshed, the shore crew were hard at work making refinements to the New Zealand boat.
Peter Burling and crew are expected to be back out on the water tomorrow fine tuning their boat handling and systems ahead of the resumption of racing on Sunday.
"We've got a massive list of things we want to work on and improve on," the Team NZ helmsman said.
"We're all still on an incredibly steep part of the learning curve. We're just trying to keep learning and keep improving. Nothing changes for us."
