America's Cup: Jimmy Spithill admits bow stunt was calculated move

Jimmy Spithill has admitted yesterday's bow stunt was a calculated move to wind up the Team New Zealand camp on the eve of the America's Cup match in Bermuda.

Two Team Japan crew members were yesterday spotted carrying two shiny red bows from the Oracle compound next door to the headquarters of the Japanese syndicate. The implication was that Oracle, as they are permitted to do under the Cup rules, were putting together a second boat using Team Japan's hulls.

Speaking at the traditional pre-America's Cup skippers press conference, Spithill said it was all a clever ruse to mess with the heads of Team NZ, and apparently the media, who he claimed to have "missed dearly" during his 10-day downtime in between official appearances.

"I think it just shows you guys will fall for anything, last time it was a stability augmentation system called 'Herbie'. This time it was no coincidence that we saw the spy boat out there, I just can't believe you guys fell for it again," said Spithill.

Despite claiming the bows were just a prank, Spithill would not confirm or deny that Oracle had a back-up boat at the ready should their race boat sustain damage.

Asked how the second boat was coming along, the two-time America's Cup winning skipper responded:

"I'm hoping not to need it. I think we're expecting very aggressive, very tight racing. The teams are at at very high level and you'll see us pushing very hard and for either of us pushing too hard and going over that line can have big consequences," he said.

"You'll just going to have to wait and see. We've got our race boat and that's what we're planning to race. I think it's a very, very competitive boat. The guys have done a lot of work, a lot of upgrading and we feel we'll be competitive."