What's up Down Under?

GBR Challenge builds for future despite disappointment

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By Matt Sheahan, Yachting World

As it turned out, the first start of Monday's final race may have been the very start that didn't matter in the end. But the sight of Wight Lightning stalled on the line with Stars and Stripes sailing around her had many asking whether the recent mode changes had stripped GBR-70 of her agility.

Such apparent problems seemed to go along with the team's reasoning for having Ian Walker take the wheel for the pre-starts instead of Andy Beadsworth. According to Walker himself, the reason for the change was that the modifications had made the boat more tricky to handle at slow speeds and he was the most experienced in handling the boat under such conditions.

Yet whatever the real effect of the changes, their penultimate race seemed to prove that even without the close-quarters combat, Wight Lightning wasn't quite on the pace in a straight line up wind. As Walker said only the day before, "Most of the matches we've won, we've come from behind to win."

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Few would argue that some superb sailing and crew work got the British back in the match on several occasions. And if there's one thing in particular that the British are admired for down here, it's their sailing ability, of which boat handling, tactics, trimming are all part.

So was it really the boat that let them down? I doubt it.

"There are 30 elements to being successful in the America's Cup," said Stars & Stripes navigator Tom Whidden. And he should know, having won the Cup three times and having sailed with Conner on seven occasions.

As anyone who has witnessed it will confirm, the America's Cup is played at an incredibly high level where every element of a campaign plays a crucial part and where a fast boat is just one of the details that has to be right. Frequently the time differences around the marks on the course distorted what had really been going on between the buoys.

Monday's race was a perfect example, where on the second beat, after halving the distance on the downwind leg, the Brits began to pull back on the upwind leg too. But a wind shift to the right when they were just to the left whipped the carpet from under their feet and by the top mark the deficit had grown to over one minute.

On the face of it Wight Lightning was a dog and Stars & Stripes a weapon. Yet closer inspection suggests that her main problem is that she doesn't like turning corners when pushed.

Beyond this it's easy to take for granted how far the British effort has come, going from a cold start to a credible campaign in less than two years. Not long after the training boats first arrived in Cowes there was talk of the team barely being able to get them back to the dock in one piece. Today their boat handling is as good as any at the event, and having witnessed how powerful and difficult to manage these boats are at first hand, I can vouch for this achievement.

But perhaps the most important point of all is that this has always been the starting point for GBR Challenge. They came to Auckland to find out more about what was required for the long term. They now have a much better idea and I bet that when Walker and his team sit down with a blank sheet of paper over the next few days they'll produce an impressive plan for the future, in the kind of detail that was impossible two years ago.

That's progress -- that's success.

Courtesy of Yachting World.

 

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