Peter Lester: Decisive decision-making key to race

The key moment yesterday was 50 seconds before the start, when Russell Coutts took the right side of the line.

A couple of minutes earlier the call had come off Alinghi that if they didn't get the left, they could live with the right.

Team New Zealand's weather team called for the right, but the sailors on the boat went left.

Even though Team New Zealand were late to the line - and it turns out at the wrong end - they had the option of tacking and going right but they didn't do that either.

It seemed to be indecisive communication. It's all about decisive decision-making but unfortunately it eluded them at that time. For me that was the winning and losing of the race.

I think the guys have got it in their heads that they're going to win because of a faster boat. Well, they're not.

They have got a boat that is at least even, and over the regatta might turn out a smidgen better. But what we've seen so far is in an even boat, Alinghi are a better unit.

That's just because those guys on Alinghi are so good.

Russell Coutts has won 12 America's Cup races in a row with many of these guys, since 1995. He's never lost, and that's a record winning run for a skipper.

Brad Butterworth has won 13 - he sailed with Dean Barker for Team New Zealand in that last race three years ago. The addition of Jochen Schuemann to the back of the boat has made them even more potent.

He's a triple Olympic gold medallist with one silver, and he's got that East German style. He's very measured, very conservative, very ruthless.

We're privileged that we can sit here and watch the best in the world operate, they're at the peak of their powers.

But the Team New Zealand sailors do still have a boat that is even, and there wasn't a boat in the challengers series that managed that.

NZL82 is a darn good boat but what they've got to do is change the mix. I do think probably they should look at a crew change, and I do think they should look at changing their style.

Starting second off the line is not going to cut it. It might show off the scoreboard that they were first off the line, but really in the three starts so far, they've been second.

If you look seven minutes up the track, that first crucial cross or the projecting ahead, Alinghi have won that every time.

I think Team New Zealand have to be aggressive in the pre-start, they have to have a goal of actually being ahead, not just crossing first. There is a difference.

Barker can do that.

I don't think they're any slower, but the conservative game they seem to have played suggests they were thinking they were faster, and that was all the pre-regatta talk.

They have the choices of changing the mix with the people they've got, or bringing new people on. I wouldn't take Dean out of the mix, he just has to show something different.

He could take that as a challenge and get into it. They might bring on others, perhaps a tough nut like Tom Dodson or Joey Allen.

They're such a quiet crew, and that's what they're like as people.

Yet Brad Butterworth for Alinghi is so decisive. It's never discussion, it's always the positive.

He says this is what we will do - never, what do you think.

If Team New Zealand doesn't change the personnel, then maybe change the style.

Show a different picture to Alinghi, because the picture they're showing at the moment is not going to cut it.

* Peter Lester is Yachting New Zealand's high performance manager.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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