There are some real positives for Oracle after they won their first race against Alinghi yesterday.
For them, it must have felt like their second win. They don't have two points, but after leading Alinghi in the third race but losing through a penalty, they must think the score should be
2-2, not 3-1 to Alinghi.
Psychologically, the morale must be high and in team talk you'd say "just keep it going".
They have now also got the back of the boat working.
With Peter Holmberg steering the boat and Chris Dickson as tactician, it looks like the afterguard are complementing each other well.
In the last two races, Dickson has done a darn good job calling the shots - and he may be better there than helming.
It looks good.
In terms of competing, Holmberg and Dickson are in the league of Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth on Alinghi.
Oracle still made a couple of mistakes yesterday, but they created the opportunity to win and took it.
On that first downwind leg there was a big separation between the two boats.
Alinghi had been ahead after the first mark but the boats were almost 1.2km apart across the course and sometimes when a boat is a long way behind, it is hard to cover them.
Oracle got the pressure and they were off.
There was a defining moment on the second beat when Alinghi got back to within two boat lengths, but Oracle bounced them off and took advantage of a right-hand wind shift.
The key is they had to create an opportunity, and they did.
The afterguard looked as if they were in their true positions on the boat.
They had a bit of luck, some self-belief and the sailors used their intuition.
Once Oracle got on a roll, they were always in the first pick of the new wind.
* Peter Lester is Yachting New Zealand's high performance manager.
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