Taking NZL-82 for a spin

A horn breaks my reverie on the back of the black boat.

For the past hour, Dean Barker, the Team New Zealand crew, a Swiss journalist and I have been tooling around on the Hauraki Gulf.

The initial buzz of hopping awkwardly from the chase boat on to NZL82, narrowly avoiding getting tangled up in some inconvenient ropes, has been replaced by the simple pleasure of being out on the water on a fine day.

I have got used to the boat's menagerie of noises - the deep groan of ropes straining on the winch drums, the rowdy flapping of sails, like a flock of birds rising, going through a tack, and a high-pitched monkey chattering from somewhere up the 32.5m mast.

I have even got used to the disconcerting tilt of the deck - you can't stand up without hanging on to something - as we heel over into a 14-knot north-westerly.

With time to kill as our opponents, back-up skipper Bertrand Pace and the crew on NZL81, fine-tune some gear, we slide around the picturesque course framed by the gulf islands and the East Coast Bays shoreline.

We are sitting on the sailbags at the back of the boat with friendly instructions not to touch any ropes for the sake of our typing fingers. (I have an extra incentive, visualising the headline: "Kiwi journalist snaps Team New Zealand mast: seeks refuge in Geneva").

Under spinnaker, heading towards the Noises, the sun breaks through and it feels as if we should have brought a picnic lunch.

Then the horn sounds and everything changes.

In the starting box, the two black boats twist in seemingly impossible spaces and it's all hands on deck (except ours). Barker turns and we spin like a figure skater. My stomach takes a few seconds to catch up. We swish by the committee boat, almost in touching distance. How can anyone think in this?

Strategist Peter Evans shouts, "He's coming in hard" as Pace charges straight at us from the right and then shudders to a halt alongside.

We peel away and someone starts counting down to the start, a minute to kill.

The dance continues, surprisingly intricate for 25-tonne ballerinas, but we keep the favoured left-hand side of the start-line.

As the gun sounds we are right on the line - it's hard to tell if we are over it, but there is no flag and we look slightly ahead.

The genoa, a blinding silver in the sun, is a taut curve as we head up the three-mile leg. Barker braces himself at the wheel and the crew crouches down as we straight-line with Pace.

At the back of the boat, navigator Mike Drummond keeps an eye on a changing grid of numbers on a portable flat screen on deck, Evans keeps up a commentary on the other boat, and tactician Hamish Pepper talks with Barker about the next moves.

At the crucial first cross, we are ahead by a couple of boat-lengths, but Pace starts a tacking duel which whittles down the advantage to just a few metres.

Barker protects the favoured left side of the course - without Virtual Spectator or an understanding of the instruments I have no idea what part of the ocean we are in - and we stretch out again slightly toward the top mark.

As we turn round the yellow buoy, there is something which highlights the value of racing under pressure. A problem at the end of the spinnaker pole means the huge sail cannot be hoisted.

Someone is swearing as the genoa is kept up until the problem is sorted.

Pace is closing in, but suddenly he, too, has a spinnaker problem, a tangle turning the sail into a billowing hourglass.

Our problem is fixed quickly - Barker says later, the way a team responds to problems under pressure will be a key in cup racing - and we surge ahead.

In a building breeze, Pace closes in again, but cannot make the vital gain to disrupt our wind. We cross the finish line in the shortened race clear by 10 seconds.

The billion-dollar question, is it fast?

All I can say is, it felt like it. Despite the spinnaker problem the crew seemed primed to go.

Will I be invited back as 17th man? No, it's unlikely Team New Zealand will have one, and besides, I've decided to end my America's Cup career. Undefeated.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

Racing schedule and results