America's Cup: Team New Zealand backed to be at '100 per cent'

Team New Zealand racing in the Louis Vuitton America's Cup Challenger semifinals. Photo / ACEA

Team New Zealand chief operations officer Kevin Shoebridge says the Kiwis' boat will be "100 per cent" when it sails the opening races of the America's Cup Challenger final tomorrow morning.

Shoebridge told Newstalk ZB sports host Tony Veitch he was confident there were no lasting physical or psychological damage remaining from Team NZ's spectacular mishap in Bermuda earlier this week.

"Yes,"Shoebridge told Veitch emphatically when asked if the boat was "100 per cent ready" for the showdown with Artemis.

"The concern is the boat has a lot of electronics and hydraulics which went under water," Shoebridge acknowledged of Wednesday's pitch-pole incident.

"Although we have pulled everything apart and checked it and checked it, there's always the possibility of something going on there.

"But we feel we are in pretty good shape. Everything else is fine....all the daggerboards, the rudders, the spare wing.

"We should be going out there tomorrow with a boat that is basically 100 per cent."
"That extra day (Thursday) was really helpful. We would've made it out onto the course but we wouldn't have been anywhere near our top condition.

"So we were lucky to get those two races done and get into the final.

"And having today to fine tune while the others teams have been out there battling in high breeze has been pretty beneficial and we're starting to feel a bit more settled than we were three days ago.

"It's been pretty stressful. When we saw it go over like that and once we knew the guys were OK, the boat just looked destroyed.

"A lot of it was superficial but it doesn't look that way when it's blowing down the harbour at five or six knots.

"It certainly crosses your mind over whether it's possible to recover from this.

"But we got it onshore and pulled it all apart and launched into some pretty strategic planning.

"It was amazing to see the turnaround within a 36-hour period of what can be achieved if you had to.

"We had people sleeping on the floor here at the base that night and continuing to work.

"There was a huge amount of pride and a never-say-die attitude within the team that really came to the fore."

Shoebridge admitted concern that Team NZ must race Artemis three times tomorrow in the first-to-five-wins challenger showdown.

"Reliability is a big part of it now," he told Veitch.

"With three races against Artemis, you have a breakdown or problem with an untried part in race one, you will lose three races and it's just about regatta over.

"So it's a fine line we are treading."

Shoebridge said the team has accepted the three race schedule.

"If we had a choice, we wouldn't want that many," he said. "We did three races in a day yesterday for the first time and it all worked out OK in the end.

"But our biggest issue is that if you have a breakdown or problem that the regatta could get decided purely by the other competitor not being able to show up.

"Personally, we think three is probably too many but that's the format, that's what was decided a long time ago and we're happy to work within those restraints."

Shoebridge also confirmed Team NZ expects to see Dean Barker and Team Japan practice racing with Cup defenders Oracle Team USA now the boat is out of the running.

But he said he was unconcerned.