America's Cup: Will Jimmy Spithill race against Team New Zealand tomorrow?

Jimmy Spithill fronts the media following two defeats to Team New Zealand today. Photo / YouTube @americascup

Jimmy Spithill is refusing to rule out a change at the helm as Oracle Team USA seeks to save match point and claw their way back from 6-1 down in the America's Cup match.

Oracle's quest for the "three-peat" is hanging by a thread with the defender needing to win all six remaining races to successfully defend the Cup.

Of course Spithill and his team have faced steeper mountains before, with Oracle famously pulling off the greatest comeback in the event's long and storied history at the 34th Cup match in San Francisco, overturning a 8-1 deficit to go on to claim the series 9-8.

Spithill's father, Arthur, joked to the Herald "thank goodness we only have to win six straight races this time".

A major factor in the 2013 match was a crew change on board Oracle, with Ben Ainslie taking over as tactician from John Kostecki.

Asked whether his place at the helm was under threat from Australian Olympic gold medallist Tom Slingsby, the team's tactician, Spithill responded:

"Anything's on the table. Every single team member in Oracle Team USA will do whatever it will take to help the team to win. That's my attitude to it, and that's the attitude of the entire team," he said.

"If we think the team has a better chance with me on the wheel, clearly I'll be on the wheel. If we think the team has a better chance with me off the wheel - no problem.

"The team we think will give our best chance of being out there."

Just bumped into Jimmy Spithill's lovely dad Arthur, he says "thank goodness we only have to win 6 in a row this time" #AC35

— Dana Johannsen (@djohannsenNZ) June 25, 2017

Spithill has come under pressure from Peter Burling in the startbox this series, with Oracle trailing at the first mark in all but one of the eight races to date.

He once again made two crucial mistakes in today's pre-starts, misjudging the time and distance to the line in the opening race to allow Team NZ to get a jump on them and power down the first race, while in the second, Burling managed to hook Spithill and force the Oracle boat to slow to just 4 knots.

The Oracle boat also picked up a penalty in the first race for going outside the boundary. After complaining of software problems on board for a OCS penalty yesterday, Spithill put his hand up to claim responsibility for today's issues.

"If you're asking for why mistakes happen or someone to point the finger at, you should point it firmly at me," he said.

While Oracle sailed poorly today, it seems counterproductive to make a change to the helm at this point.

The US team have made a string of changes to the boat over the past week in an effort to address a speed deficit against Team NZ. The changes have worked on one level, with the Oracle boat showing more pace around the race course. But those speed gains have come at the expense of stability.

It has put the crew under huge pressure in terms of the manoeuvrability of the boat, and putting someone new at the helm would likely only add to that pressure.