"I think [Oracle skipper Jimmy] Spithill's rattled," he said.
"We'll do it in the start again and win it from there. Win that first mark, we'll be right. As long as nothing breaks and you don't get yourself into a patch where there's no wind."
He said bringing it back to New Zealand would be a big boost for sailing.
Club captain Stewart Thomas said TNZ's performance at this regatta had been impressive.
"Our team presentation is absolutely spot on," he said.
"They all know what they're doing, there's no arguing. It's easy sitting in an armchair watching it but out on the water there's a helluva lot more that we don't see."
Mr Thomas has sailed against TNZ skipper Glenn Ashby in the past so knows first hand what it's like to be left in the dust.
"We did a nationals in Tauranga with him and he just came over and went out and sailed and at the finish he was 300m ahead. We were way back."
Meanwhile, in Taihape Yvonne Hall has been watching with interest as she did five years ago when her grandson Joe Sullivan won rowing Olympic gold in the double sculls at the 2012 Games in London.
Now a cyclor for TMZ, Sullivan was on board for Monday morning's second race which TNZ won to move to match point.
"He's done well for himself," Mrs Hall said. "He seems to give everything a go."
She would be up on Tuesday morning to see if her grandson could help finish it off.
"We're just hoping aren't we?"
Meanwhile, grandfather of Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling, Jim Wallace, who lived in Whanganui for some time, was basking in a dominant day on the water on Monday.
"That was good today wasn't it? A very exciting start in that second race, it was very pleasing to see that today."
But like everyone else he wasn't prepared to say it was over just yet.
"One never knows. That boat of Spithill's has certainly changed so you never know. You don't temp fate."
