Sailing: How New Zealand crew plan to navigate new SailGP season ahead of opening event in Bermuda

New Zealand SailGP team in action during a practice session ahead of the Bermuda SailGP event this weekend. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / SailGP

Heading into the new SailGP season, New Zealand coach Ray Davies is under no illusions of where his team sit.

The New Zealanders had good moments in their debut on the circuit last season, but were unable to consistently string together strong performances on their way to a fifth-place finish.

For much of that season, they were dealing with crew changes as most of the team had Olympic commitments, and they approached their debut campaign without a coach.

It was a decision that some questioned and now, with the well-credentialed Davies joining the team in that role, many have tipped the Kiwis to be the big improvers.

Davies had his first taste of the role at last season's final event in San Francisco in March, and said he saw plenty to work on in the new campaign.

"These boats and the type of racing is pretty crazy in the sense there's a lot of randomness that can happen," said Davies. "Having really good communication and a lot of clarity on who looks after what onboard the boat is really important so you're making smart decisions.

"When there's huge amounts of pressure on, you've still got to make smart decisions – sort of like a Formula 1 race but there's no track and the cars can just go anywhere they like. It's pretty high speed and different to the America's Cup – instead of just one opponent you've got eight others. It's pretty packed in there and things can change. You just can't afford to make mistakes.

"Trying to limit the unforced errors and have good communication, those two areas are probably the main work-ons, and then just a lot of detail around other areas to get better and better.

"They're definitely trying to step it up in all areas, and coaching is just part of it. Hopefully the results show a change, otherwise I might not be here for long."

Ahead of tomorrow morning's season opener in Bermuda, the Kiwi group have been training alongside two-time winners Australia in a bid to gauge just how far off the competition front-runners they are.

Australia, led by Tom Slingsby, have been a force on the circuit in its first two editions, coming to terms with the F50 catamaran and navigating their way through the at times congested fleet.

It will only be more packed this year, as two new teams have joined the fray. For the first three events of the year, nine teams will be in the starting box, with a 10th to join them at the fourth stop on the circuit. Nathan Outteridge's Japanese team will miss the first three events due to a lack of available vessels.

Davies said it had been good to get out on the water with the Australians, but there were some things you can't prepare for on race day.

"We won most of the races we were doing, but that's not always a good sign. When you're winning the practice races, you're out in clear air and it's kind of an easy race once you're ahead," he explained.

"You'd rather have a day where you've made some huge gains through the fleet coming from back in the pack. You can't rest on your laurels because you've had a good training day; you've got to put it together and deal with some pretty horrendous situations at times in the race and not crumble; turn some setbacks into still some good results.

"There's always pressure, but we tend to enjoy a bit of pressure."