The Team NZ boat is phenomenal. I'm not close enough to the team to know who exactly the design stars are. But it is almost inevitable that teams like Oracle will try to pick them off for future regattas, and there has already been the odd unsubstantiated rumour in this direction.
And no wonder. The foils, daggerboards, grinder-cyclors, control systems...they have all turned out to be triumphs. To be honest, I don't fully understand what they have done, even though I live in the match racing world.
Because this is a new frontier. When I stood on one of the America's Cup team test boats just over a year ago, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were wires everywhere, no ropes, and 20 buttons on the steering wheel alone. It was gob smacking. No ropes or strings anymore, replaced by hydraulic rams, arms, and pumps which make these space ships fly.
Team NZ started this revolution by finding a loophole for the 2013 America's Cup to introduce foiling, even though rules were specifically designed to prevent it. They have now gone ahead in amazing leaps and bounds.
We are talking about a group of people operating out of what is effectively a couple of containers with a canopy down at the viaduct, taking on an Oracle outfit backed by Airbus, a major aircraft manufacturer, and of course one of the biggest computer companies on the planet. The Team NZ boat is testament to the Kiwi culture, that the bar is never set too high.
Imagine if Jimmy Spithill had this boat. There has been a lot of talk about Peter Burling and co. being novices compared to the Oracle sailing team. But Team NZ has clearly put a lot of concentration on the boat itself.
Oracle will have worked hard to improve their craft over recent days. This is a wild guess on my part, but maybe they will try something like a new, added grinder-cycling position for tactician Tom Slingsby. But the good news is that it's much easier to improve sailing ability than the boat.
This being the America's Cup, and with Oracle often getting bad publicity in this part of the world, conspiracy theories will abound for the final. But the event authority has been separated from the defender and I don't believe Team NZ will be the targets of any skulduggery.
For example, when the initial attempt at a race today ran into incredibly light winds, the finish line was brought forward, something which favoured Team NZ who were leading at the time. And the wind rules around abandoning races are very specific, and not really open to interpretation.
On the down side, Oracle have been able to observe Team NZ's improvements, while being tucked out of sight themselves. Hopefully, Team NZ did not play all their cards against Artemis.
Team NZ's chances in the final would also be helped if one of the eliminated teams agreed to practice with them before racing starts on Sunday. But that is unlikely to happen. The other teams signed a pact with Oracle agreeing to keep this class of boat for the future, while Team NZ were holdouts. Simply put, the others want Oracle to win.
•Chris Steele, from Devonport, is a world top-10 ranked match racer, and the only Kiwi to have won a world Optimist title.
