First pairings

Never underestimate resources of top four teams

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By Matt Sheahan, Yachting World

A week into the first Round Robin and the picture was starting to take shape. Even though two of the top four teams had plummeted in the ratings as internal turmoil took over, it looked possible that a pattern was emerging and a hint of how the pairings might shape up later in the series.

A few days into the second round and plenty of these theories had been turned on their heads.

First mistake -- Never underestimate the resources and depth of experience that the top four teams have.

When things go wrong in the fashion that they appeared to for Oracle and Prada, one thing you can be sure about is that they'll have plenty of muscle to get things back on track, as indeed both did, rocketing back up the rankings when it mattered.

Meanwhile, for the "B" division times are tougher. Many are starting to discover their weaknesses, despite making big improvements in their overall performance. Making your boat go quicker is only one part of the battle and can often look like a step backwards when others start racing ahead.

GBR Challenge in particular seem to be suffering from this at the moment as the talk from their own camp is that the numbers they're seeing aboard Wight Lightning are among the best they've ever seen on this boat. And yet they were beaten convincingly in their last few races.

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There's also a hint that most of the additional performance has been squeezed out of this boat already, which leads on to the next obvious question: Will you be using the second and more radical boat for the quarterfinals?

To this there's no firm answer, probably because at this stage they don't know themselves. What they will say is that if the weather allows, they will be out on the Gulf assessing the relative performance of both boats. In a few days they'll know and so will we, but if they do choose the more radical option, there's little doubt that it will be a gutsy call.

Meanwhile, the team that appear to have been the Brits' closest competition for much of the series so far appear to have pulled out ahead and are now looking relaxed and confident with where they are. Right from the start the Swedes have played an open and simple game and were never afraid to be the first to announce or use their new boats. The strategy appears to be bearing fruit, as skipper Jesper Bank freely admits that getting a new boat up to speed has taken much longer than the team ever expected.

While others rush around to find out more about their second boat and whether to use it, Victory Challenge know plenty about theirs and are well down the track when it comes to tweaking and tuning for the next phase. At the moment at least this approach looks smart and perhaps says more about why it was the Swedes that ended up with the fifth slot.

The irony is that according to the disarmingly frank Jesper Bank, once they'd won the slot, they really struggled to decide who to pick and almost went next door to the Brits to ask their advice.

"It's not really the way to go about these things and ask whether they'd race or not. We should make our minds up, which in the end we did," said Bank.

They say honesty pays, and if the Swedes are anything to go by openness does too.

Courtesy of Yachting World.

 

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