Yachting: Gear failure not an issue, says Dalton

Grant Dalton

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton is adamant that reliability is not an issue for his team despite gear failure costing them in the 10th America's Cup pre-regatta in Valencia.

The big four teams ended the regatta tied with nine points, but when the tie was broken on a countback, Chris Dickson's BMW Oracle Racing took the regatta title.

Luna Rossa were second, Emirates Team NZ third and Alinghi fourth.

Team NZ edged out America's Cup holders Alinghi in the final day's racing by 16s, but a blown out spinnaker in their earlier race blew their chances against Italian syndicate Luna Rossa, which won by 1m 08s.

The win and loss gave them a 9-2 record in the regatta.

Team NZ suffered gear failure in both races they lost - a torn spinnaker in their match against Oracle and the blown out spinnaker against Luna Rossa, which also resulted in a penalty as shreds of the sail blew on to Luna Rossa's rig.

While there are no guarantees they would have won those races, Team NZ were in a good position in both.

"I don't think reliability is an issue," Dalton said from Valencia.

"To me reliability is about boats breaking - booms, poles and systems breaking. To blow a chute, well I say we are going to look at the fibre and stuff. But I don't see that as a reliability."

Dalton said that against Oracle the light spinnaker they were using caught on a new fitting being tested. Team NZ would review their testing process and when to use new gear.

As for the spinnaker blow out, he said they would look at the material, and possibly whether the red dye used on the sail had affected the cloth.

For Team NZ, the priority in this regatta was to gauge the performance of their new boat, NZL84. By all accounts the boat performed well in the light conditions in which most of the regatta was sailed.

"Certainly we are fast enough now but you are going to have to sail bloody well to win this thing," Dalton said.

"The game is moving up all the time. There is not a lot of speed difference between any of us. There is a click here and a click there in different conditions and upwind and downwind but that's all."

While Dalton was happy NZL84 was on the pace, he could bring himself to give his sailing team a rating of only fair.

"I think we were fair in starting and fair in crew work. We weren't outstanding in either.

"You basically have to sail 100 per cent perfect 100 per cent of the time - otherwise you won't win.

"I think we have come a long way but need to get our racing intensity up."

Dalton said it was a relief to have finally caught Alinghi and SUI75.

"We were comfortable but there was nothing in it, it is not like we sailed off into the blue yonder."

While there has been some debate about how much effort the challengers racing their new boats would put in against the defenders, Dalton said his team raced Alinghi "hard".

"I have no reason to believe they didn't race hard against us either."

Aside from the top four, Dalton said he was impressed with Spain's Desafio Espanol and Italy's Mascalzone Latino.

Team NZ now head into the three-day fleet racing regatta, which starts tomorrow night (NZT).

Oracle were to race +39 last night after the match was abandoned during the regatta. The result will not alter the final standings.

Pre-regattas

Act 10: Match racing regatta, Valencia
Final placings

1 BMW Oracle Racing (USA87)
2 Luna Rossa Challenge (ITA 86)
3 Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL 84)
4 Alinghi (SUI 75)
5 Desafio Espanol 2007 (ESP 65)
6 Victory Challenge (SWE 63)
7 Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team (ITA 77)
8 Team Shosholoza (RSA 83)
9 +39 Challenge (ITA 59)
10 Areva Challenge (FRA 60)
11 United Internet Team Germany (GER 72)
12 China Team (CHN 79)

Next regatta Act 11: Three-day fleet racing regatta, Valencia - starts Friday night (NZT)