Plenty of chores for Team NZ

By JULIE ASH

While Alinghi may be given the afternoon off, next door at Team New Zealand it will be business as usual today as they try to work out a way of stopping Russell Coutts' Alinghi from getting their hands on the America's Cup.

Today is the first lay-day in the cup match, with race three scheduled to start at 1.15pm tomorrow.

Down 2-0, the situation is becoming increasingly worrying for Team New Zealand.

"Tomorrow is another day as per usual," Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker said. "We have got a bit of work to do on the boat. We'll look at the day and decide whether to sail or not."

Alinghi grinder John Barnitt was hoping for a bit of rest and relaxation.

"We are trying to get [strategist] Jochen Schuemann into letting us have a little later start," Barnitt said.

"Normally we are in the gym at 6.30am, but we are trying for a 7.30am start."

Barnitt said the team would "do some maintenance, check our gear."

"We might have a debrief and discuss what we can do better and what we learned. Then we might get tomorrow afternoon off.

"The way we continue to approach it is that we celebrate today for a little while longer and then we'll forget it, go right back and work up to the next one.

"To be two up . . . we have seven chances to win three and they have seven chances to win five. Now it becomes more and more difficult for them."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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