America's Cup: Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling ribs rival Jimmy Spithill over win

Emirates Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling surveys the action during the America's Cup final against Oracle Team USA. Photo/Gilles Martin-Raget

After a laconic performance throughout the America's Cup campaign to date, Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling was able to land a couple of verbal jabs to the ribs of rival Jimmy Spithill in the wake of Oracle's first finals win.

The American syndicate still trail 4-1 in the race to seven points over this series, but may have turned momentum their way with victory in today's second race, winning their first start and converting that into a final 11-second margin.

That result gave Spithill his 14th America's Cup finals victory, tying him with Sir Russell Coutts for the most wins.

But Burling did his best to remain calm, even as the spectre of his team's capitulation in San Francisco four years ago rear its head ... again.

"It was great to see a little bit of fight out of these boys," he quipped, although no-one could quite tell whether he was being condescending or simply tongue-in-cheek.

"It's only just beginning, mate," responded Spithill, as the post-race press conference erupted into laughter.

"We're excited," continued Burling. "We've made no secret we're set up for a good battle and we feel like we've got one.

"It showed today that there was great racing out there - there were plenty of lead changes in the first race and we were really happy with how we fought back into that second one.
"It was a bit of a shame, probably my fault with the shifts up the top, to give it back to them, but whoever sails their boat better will win."

No-one among the Emirates Team NZ outfit, their supporters or anyone in the sailing world needs reminding that the Kiwis were in command 8-1 against Oracle four years ago, when Spithill took advantage of a lay day to turn the match around and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

If anyone had forgotten, they were, of course, reminded at the press conference, where Burling face a question on his team's state of mind after their first lapse.

"We're pretty happy with it," he replied, reverting back to form somewhat. "We felt like the boat was going really well, but we obviously had a few issues like everyone did.

"We're happy with the speed. When we put the boat in the shift - it was incredibly shifty out there today - it went really well and it was a bit of a shame we threw away that last race after having a pretty good lead halfway up the last beat."

Spithill returned fire, hinting that the Kiwis had been complacent over the rest days.

"We worked pretty hard this week, obviously," he said. "We saw these guys take days off during the week and we made a commitment inside the team we would use every single one of them to make the boat faster.

"I think we all saw today that the boat is faster."

The counterpunch from Burling ...

"I find it a bit funny when people say we had days off last week. It was a great opportunity for our shore crew to get on top of a job list.

"It's no secret we've faced a lot of adversity to get here, we capsized our boat under three weeks ago and we're still just getting on top of everything.

"We've made some pretty big steps forward, but I don't think we sailed very well today, to be honest.

"The whole time these boats have been relatively similar. We obviously had a pretty good edge last weekend, but it shows you, with how you sail the boat and how you mode it for particular wind strength, you can make the boat go significantly faster or slower.

"We feel like we've got a good yacht race on our hands now and we're excited to get back into it again tomorrow and keep chippng away."