Yachting: From Optimist to NZL84 at the top of its form

VALENCIA - Around 20 years ago a young Ray Davies sat in his little Optimist Lazy Daisy in Auckland Harbour waiting for the arrival of the round-the-world yacht race fleet.

With flowers painted on it - he got the boat from a family friend who had built it for his daughter - and a turtle sticker on the back that said "I may be slow but I am ahead of you", Davies began to imagine a career in sailing.

Today with two round-the-world races behind him and two America's Cups, Davies finds himself sitting in Team New Zealand's slick black boat NZL84 in Valencia.

Competing in the final match racing regatta before next year's cup Emirates Team New Zealand raced Shosholoza and Alinghi overnight.

They meet BMW Oracle Racing tonight in their final round robin match. The teams are then divided into groups of four, depending on their placings in the round robin, where they will compete in semis and finals.

Davies, who grew up on the North Shore, is the strategist on the boat which means it is his job to help conjure up a game plan with the other afterguard members and the weather team.

"It is a difficult venue. People would look at it saying it is just a sea breeze blowing in and it looks very straightforward. There are a lot of subtleties out there, the breeze is shifting through 15 to 20 degrees at a time.

"You have to understand what time of day is the maximum wind speed and when it is going to go left or right from there and the influence from the clouds."

Having spent the last two summers training in Auckland, Team New Zealand haven't spent as much time in Valencia as the other teams however Davies feels they have a good understanding of the venue.

"We have got some good analysis software which the guys have written. We have got all the weather buoys out there so on a daily basis we look at what is happening on the course.

"We just keep attacking it from different angles. We are still going to make mistakes out there, you are not going to get every call right," said Davies, who can be found kitesurfing, travelling and playing his bass guitar with the team's band of Davies, Tony Rae and George Jakich on rare days off.

Part of the syndicate's weather team in the last cup, Davies said they have developed a clear communication system between the weather team, the guys on the boat and traveller Adam Beashel up the mast.

"One of the problems we had in the last cup was the helicopter noise and the message actually getting to the race boat that we wanted. We have eliminated those problems this time around."

Going into last night's matches Team New Zealand were the only unbeaten team. While they were still to face heavyweights Alinghi and Oracle they are clearly a lot sharper than they were in last month's regattas, more relaxed and focused. "We are seeing the fruits of our work."