Professor Mark Orams takes a look at what we learned from Day Two of the America's Cup.
1. Team New Zealand is learning quickly. The tactical mistakes from Day 1 were not repeated and they were able to manufacture passes from being behind in the race early. They were then able to protect the lead through to the finish. The team has not done a lot of racing in these AC50s, and very little sailing in Bermuda compared with the other teams, so they need to learn from this racing and to improve. Today they showed that is exactly what they are doing. The sailing crew will have had a solid de-brief with their coaches Ray Davies and Rod Davis after day one. They will have recognised the need to adopt more traditional match-racing tactics. This was evident in their decision making today and they reaped the rewards of this. A solid day which was good for the confidence
2. Composure. Team New Zealand's mistake of entering the start-box area early in their race against Team BAR and copping a penalty from the umpires as a result was a rookie error (assuming it was not a deliberate ploy to dissuade Team BAR from engaging them in the pre-start). Often such an unforced mistake is something that can compound into a poor performance as the silly mistake plays on your mind. Not so in the race today, Peter Burling and the team showed great composure to put the mistake behind them, minimise the loss and execute a pass on the second leg. Pete looks very relaxed, his body language, his communication onboard all suggests a man who is enjoying himself - critical for a strong performance.
3. This is a sailor's regatta (at least so far). The wind on the Great Sound is quite unstable and the puffs and lulls and the shifts in wind direction make a huge difference on the race track. Boat speed is sure a big help - but the win by Team France - widely acknowledged as the slowest yacht in this regatta, shows that good decisions on the race track are more important than being the fastest out there.
4. Oracle continues to look strong, they are especially good at coming back from behind in a race to overtake - this is something Team New Zealand can look at carefully and learn from. Give respect where it is due, Oracle are very strong and are never out of it. That said, today shows they are beatable and Artemis sailed a fantastic race to put them away for their first loss.
