America's Cup stalwart Ray Davies is coaching the Kiwi sailors in SailGP. Photo / Getty
America's Cup stalwart Ray Davies is coaching the Kiwi sailors in SailGP. Photo / Getty
One of the stars of the SailGP season so far could be suiting up for Team New Zealand at the next America's Cup in 2024.
New Zealand SailGP coach and Team NZ veteran Ray Davies has praised fellow-Kiwi Phil Robertson — who skippers the Canadian crew in the foiling catamaranF50 series — and says he's on the radar to be brought into Team NZ's setup for their upcoming Cup defence.
Robertson, who was previously with the Spanish SailGP team, has made an immediate impact with the new team, taking them to the final podium race in Bermuda and Chicago and having them second on the points table behind defending champions Australia.
Robertson worked as a commentator during the last America's Cup and has caught the eye of Davies, who is responsible for Team New Zealand's on-water performance in the Cup defence.
"He's done remarkably well and under pretty challenging conditions with a new team there," Davies said. "So New Zealand should be really proud of what Phil's doing. He should be getting a lot of praise because he's sailing incredibly; he just keeps popping out the front and not getting into much trouble around the course."
Phil Robertson's efforts in Sail GP have impressed. Photo / Getty Images
Davies said Team New Zealand would consider signing Robertson.
"Oh, for sure," he said. "We're definitely looking at people out there. We've got plenty of good sailors, and we just have to get the sailors working together as a team and keep all options open. We're all about winning.
"We've made some decisions on what we thought the sailing team is going to be. But all things are on the table, and it's not really 100 per cent my decision, but everything will get talked about.
"It's hard to deny when someone like Phil is really on fire. But we're not in a rush to make any decisions. We're not sailing for a few months yet, and we've certainly got a full sailing team for the first period of our programme."
Davies joined the SailGP campaign led by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke this season and provided a brutal assessment of where the team is at after a dismal final fleet race in Chicago.
"This type of racing is exposing us and there are other teams out there doing it better than us. We're very, very good at aspects of the sport and developing fast boats, but we've got to be also really good at dealing with these tricky, changeable conditions."
The Kiwis have failed to make the final race featuring the top three teams over the five fleet races in every round of the series in which they have competed, 11 in total.
New Zealand SailGP coach Ray Davies. Photo / Photosport
Davies said it's clear where their major weakness is.
"It's pretty obvious our starts have been below par and we have been working on it massively and it's a bit disappointing we didn't follow all of our processes quite as well. We were actually pretty happy with a lot of our approach and lead into the final positioning.
"But we're just sort of stuffing up that final little approach into the line, which is the all-critical moment and we're positioning ourselves where we could have started down the line or up the line if the gap was there but it relies on pretty good timing."
In the final fleet race in Chicago, New Zealand had a six-point buffer over Australia and finishing no worse than sixth would have got them into the final race. But they got their timing wrong when approaching the start, and had to slow down which cost them dearly.
The Australians went on to win the race while New Zealand finished eighth to miss out on the decider.
"We can't just keep making the same mistakes," Davies said. "We need a few more options up our sleeve but it feels like the plan is fairly robust. It's just executing. So yeah, we'll dive into that and see what's going on, why we're just one second early and a couple of those approaches and then having to kill that timing at an absolutely crucial point.
"That six-point buffer was a pretty strong position – you'd take that every day of the week. Then to sort of slip back and have our worst race of the regatta, it's a pretty hard pill to swallow at the moment. It does slap you in the face. And you've got to take a long, hard look at yourself, because it is all about, you know, winning, and striving for that every time we go out there."
