Peter Lester: There's little between the big three challengers

Opinion

Now that they have checked in their new boats, the top three challengers for the America's Cup will be looking for areas where they can make incremental gains.

The most interesting aspect to come out of Act 10 was how close the three new boats were - Emirates Team New Zealand's NZL84, Luna Rossa's ITA86 and Oracle USA87.

We are not seeing the difference of performance we saw in Auckland, and there are two reasons.

The first is the venue. Conditions in Valencia only range between 8 knots to 11 knots and lack waves of any magnitude, making it significantly different from Auckland, where you could face any condition on any day.

The second is the shorter courses, which are negating the speed differences and making the start even more important. The short courses continue through the challenger series. It is not until the challenger semifinals, final and then the America's Cup that the longer courses return.

Team New Zealand will come away from Act 10 satisfied. Their focal point was checking in their new boat, NZL84.

The designers and builders have given them a very good boat.

In the light conditions it looked fine, it looked okay manoeuvring in the starting area, and downwind it was even with others. If the boat has a strength, it appears to be a powerful craft upwind.

I can't imagine they'll have to change the concept much for their second boat.

They will, however, have to decide whether to build a clone or go for something different.

Although the three new boats are similar in performance, they are quite different.

The BMW Oracle Racing boat is the most intriguing. It appears highly manoeuvrable and seems to be able to accelerate after tacks. That would be something to do with the different set-up underneath.

Oracle haven't got a jump on Team New Zealand in hardware, but they have a slight edge overall.

During the regatta Team New Zealand had some shining moments and some not so great ones.

Starts would have been an area of debate in their debrief. It would need to be. In this regatta the starts were mixed. It could be the new boat is different and it probably reacts differently. But you can get a good start only if the opposition will let you.

It was interesting that the backup helmsman - three times Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie - had his first Cup race during the regatta. Whether that was to put pressure on the existing afterguard or was a token, I don't know. But when you have an asset like that sitting there you can't help but want to check it in.

Reliability is another aspect the New Zealand team will be looking at. Seeing two spinnakers fail when no one else's did would have been frustrating. Also, a head foil broke in one race and a halyard clip failed in another. But they are easily solvable problems.

Grant Dalton prides himself on reliability and, given his round-the-world experience, he is good at it.

All the challengers have to be concerned about Alinghi. The yacht they used, SUI75, had an old number but it was pretty much a new boat. It certainly doesn't resemble the boat that was in Auckland or the one that was here last year.

The defenders are in a strong position - privileged because of the rules which allow them to sail against the challengers' new boats. That is a huge threat to all the challengers.

Two distinct divisions mark the competition. Whether that will change once more new boats come on line I don't know. But I feel the teams that have not used new boats in this regatta have lost an opportunity.

The Spanish team, Desafio Espanol, impressed me although they tend to be a bit hot and cold. Their new boat looks good and they could be competitive.

The fleet racing regatta, which started last night, doesn't really have any relevance.

I expect Team New Zealand and those racing new boats will be bit gun-shy ... the last thing they will want to do is get hit. I would not be surprised if Alinghi win because they can afford to bang their old boat around if they want.

Looking ahead to next month's last match-racing regatta before the real challenger series, I expect the big three challengers to use their new boats again. I don't think anyone has stepped out enough not to use them. I also think you'll see other teams introduce their new boats.