KEY POINTS:
For a lot of people, backing into a parallel car park is a tricky manoeuvre. You'd be safe to assume Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker is not one of those people.
Especially after his performance in the pre-start against the Spanish yesterday when he spun his 24-tonne yacht around, displaying a stunning piece of boat-handling and judgement. It was Barker at his best - and a performance should go some way to silencing his critics.
Entering the pre-start on the disadvantaged port side, Barker turned inside the Spanish in the dial-up and seized the right, nullifying the starboard entry advantage.
However, rather than starting on the right, Barker then got a hook on his opponent by slipping his bow underneath the Spanish transom - forcing them to tack away.
The result? New Zealand powered over the line at speed on the left and, at the first cross, had their bow forward enough that they were able to bounce their opponent out to the layline.
They rounded the top mark 25s ahead and extended their lead on each leg, to win by a comfortable 42s.
Team New Zealand strategist Ray Davies acknowledged the work of his skipper in the pre-start. "Dean did a fantastic job in the pre-start and gave us about a four-second advantage off the line. You can have some funny things happen in the first half of the start, but that doesn't matter - it's the last 20s that matter.
"Dean and [bowman] Jeremy [Lomas] and [navigator] Kevin [Hall] did a great job to have the boat rumbling when we hit the line. We were happy with the line-up that we had off the line, the boat was going well and the team was rock solid in the tacking duel. The crew work was faultless. It was a good day for Team New Zealand."
They now led the Desafio Espanol 3-1 in the best-of-nine race semifinals. Davies said the team have considered the fact they are just two wins away from making the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
"It is good place to be and we are very happy with the way the team is performing at the moment. It is close, tight racing and we know they can easily take another race off us, so we have to be on our game. The team is rising to the occasion."
When asked how his team will psychologically prepare for their next race against Team New Zealand, now they are 3-1 down, Desafio Espanol's navigator Matt Wachowicz's answer was greeted with a round of applause from the audience.
Wachowicz admitted they were a young team and as a result had set their objectives realistically. "We accomplished our objective, to get to the semifinals. The day we did that, we sat down and decided to set a new goal. That was to go out and win a race in the semifinals.
"We accomplished that. Then we needed to set a new goal. It is not as simple as saying the new goal is to win one more race. Our goal is to win more than one more race."
He said because they are a young team they do have holes in their programme. As a result, they had to take into account their resources and prioritise what they could do to improve their performance.
