America's Cup: Jimmy Spithill remains coy bout what changes Oracle made to boat

Oracle Team USA skipper and helmsman Jimmy Spithill, left, celebrates with teammate wing trimmer Kyle Langford after winning the sixth race of America's Cup. Photo / AP.

Jimmy Spithill is saying little about what changes were made to the Oracle boat over the past five days to bring about the team's remarkable turnaround in performance when today's racing in the America's Cup match resumed.

Oracle appeared to have made noticeable speed gains since the opening weekend of the match, when Spithill and his crew slumped to four straight losses.

The races were shared today, with Emirates Team New Zealand claiming the first-up race of the day, before Oracle notched up their first point in the series in the second race.

Despite Team NZ taking the opening race by more than two minutes, the US-flagged boat was able to better match the pace of the Kiwis, but a penalty followed by a couple of costly mistakes allowed Peter Burling and crew to charge to another dominant win and move a step closer to the magical seven-point mark.

In the second race Oracle were able to cut down on the errors. When asked what work had been done to improve the Oracle boat, Spithill was coy, claiming there were "too many to go through".

"It was five very, very long days. It was 24 hours shifts for the guys on the shore, and the good thing was we were able to reward them with the win. And for the sailors they've now got confidence in the tool - and that's the most important thing," said Spithill.

One very obvious change was the removal of Oracle's pedal-grinding set-up at the back of the boat, that had been used by tactician Tom Slingsby. It appears Oracle have now abandoned their "hybrid system", which only added weight to the boat and created windage.

The usually verbose Spithill was again reluctant to go into the reasons behind the change, saying the decision was made "because we felt like it".

During the pre-race chat with America's Cup TV Spithill was a little bit more descriptive, saying they have taken a "whole heap" of stuff off the Oracle boat to make it lighter.

The speed gains have come with a trade-off however, with the Oracle team struggling with their stability at times during the racing.

"In these boats there's always a compromise. Typically what is fast is very challenging to sail and usually unstable," he said.

"We know we can do a better job technique wise, clearly we didn't do that in the first race. But on the other side, that's pretty exciting that there's quite a bit more left on the table.
"It was important to get that win today, but I believe there's more speed left in the tank."

Spithill was once again quick to remind everyone of the parallels with the San Francisco regatta in 2013, when Oracle clawed their way back from a 8-1 deficit to take out the first-to-nine series.

He said the crew have made huge gains on the water over the week, with the team all committing to putting in the extra hours to learn to sail the boat better. Today's win in race six, Spithill, said was a huge psychological boost for the crew.

"It does remind me of San Francisco when once the guys get buy-in and they see the boat is faster, then we start building some momentum."

After wrapping up today's press conference duties, Spithill returned to the Oracle base to suit up again for another training session.

"We've got another thing we want to try - it's a good position to be in. There's more on the table, but the boat is getting quicker."