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After two losses from their past three races, Team New Zealand will today get a final chance to get things right before the finals of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.
The Kiwis today face BMWOracle Racing in their last official race before this weekend's finals.
With Team New
Zealand guaranteed a place in the finals, they dip out of the regatta following the conclusion of round robin two, while the remaining teams battle it out to decide who will challenge for the title.
Team New Zealand will be looking for a confidence-boosting win against the American syndicate, after suffering a narrow loss to Ben Ainslie's Team Origin crew yesterday. It was their second loss in gold fleet racing, having also gone down to Damiani Italia earlier in round robin two.
Although Saturday's abandoned race against Alinghi was chalked up as a win in Team New Zealand's column, as the Swiss failed to show up on the startline, the only real win for the Kiwis in the second round robin came against Luna Rossa.
But Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker was not panicking after yesterday's loss to the Brits, which he put down to a wrong call made on the startline.
"Our plan was to start to the right, which we got, but unfortunately for us the left was a bit stronger than we anticipated and they got the initial advantage."
Team New Zealand battled hard to keep the race close and give themselves passing opportunities, closing down hard on the Brits in the final run home.
"We did some pretty nice work on them on the last run and closed right in, but the race track wasn't just quite long enough," said Barker.
"I'm sure we can bounce back tomorrow, it's not a big ask. It's not as if we're sailing terribly it's just today things didn't go our way on the first shift."
Barker said he was pleased to get the opportunity to test themselves in pressure situations. "I think the biggest thing for us is that today and tomorrow are our last opportunity to do any racing before the final, so we're really just looking for pressure races and it is good to learn how to keep races close and give yourselves opportunities when you are behind."
Alinghi's decision to forfeit against Team New Zealand robbed the Kiwis of a precious opportunity to get in some tough match-racing.
But Barker said he was still confident his team would be sufficiently battle-hardened for the finals.
"We've done enough racing that we are sort of pretty confident in our ability, and now it's just a case of putting it all together.
"It's about getting the plan at the start and making sure the plan and the strategy is right, so we'll work hard on that and try and do a better job tomorrow."
Alinghi managed to make it to the startline for yesterday's match against bitter rivals, BMWOracle Racing. The race was the first time the two warring syndicates have gone head to head on the water since their legal feud erupted over 18 months ago.
In what BMWOracle must surely hope is not a sign of things to come in the courtroom, Alinghi came out on top of yesterday's battle, winning by a delta of 32 seconds.
After racing was delayed several hours after a lack of wind, it was Alinghi which seemed to switch back into game mode more quickly, snaring control of the match from the outset. Alinghi won the favourable right-hand side and with the course very one-sided Oracle were left with few opportunities.
The race committee were able to get the first race of the day off on time, with Damiani Italia beating fellow Italian team Luna Rossa. The remaining teams in the gold fleet endured a lengthy wait out on the course in the intense afternoon heat as organisers waited for the conditions to stabilise.
The sea breeze did not pick up until the early evening, with the second race between Alinghi and Oracle starting just before 5pm. But the wind then dropped once more, causing further delays to the start of the final race.
