KEY POINTS:
Mind games are such a big part of the America's Cup that it is still not clear whether the Alinghi defenders are as happy with their boat as hints from the Swiss camp suggest - or whether they just attempting to build a psychological edge.
There are noises
being made that the Louis Vuitton final is about the best racing there is going to be in the America's Cup. The implicit conclusion to be drawn from that is that Alinghi have such a fast boat that the eventual final may not be as close as the evenly-balanced struggle between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa.
Consider the following from the UK's Daily Telegraph: "One uncomfortable truth about this Louis Vuitton Cup final for the Kiwis and Italians is that it will see closer racing than we are likely to get when the America's Cup itself is contested.
"Alinghi have been studying, logging and scrutinising the challenger trials and exude a palpable conviction that there is minimal threat to their crown."
But there is another, more sceptical perspective.
Including this week's top-secret, two-race, 1-1 joust, Team New Zealand and Alinghi have now raced six times, with TNZ winning four. In their last two outings in in-house trials, Alinghi have apparently broken down twice.
Even though both sides have been using their second boats and no definite conclusions can be made, this does not yet necessarily suggest that Alinghi have only to turn up to win.
Three-time America's Cup winner, New Zealand yachtsman and Alinghi strategist/traveller Murray Jones is playing it carefully.
In his experience, says Jones, there have always been a lot of technical gains in sails and appendages made in the last two months.
Teams spend a lot of time developing equipment, he says, but it is often not until late in the programme that the whole package comes together.
Alinghi are believed to be testing some new equipment on their race boats. Following their hitout with Team New Zealand, the Swiss have gone back on the water with their two boats, SUI91 and SUI100.
Jones will only say that the last month has been productive for his team. "We've packed in a lot of races, a lot of drills and manoeuvres."
When asked whether Alinghi can gauge how their boat speed compares to that of the challengers, Jones said: "No."
One of the difficulties the defenders face leading up to the cup is trying to ensure they are as match-hardened as the challengers after a gruelling challenger series.
Jones said that six months ago he would have said not competing in the challenger series was a disadvantage for his team. Now he is not so sure.
"The way it has turned out, it might have swayed a little towards us. Some days we go out there, I am 100 per cent sure we have been way more productive than the challengers have been.
"In the challenger series, a strong team can go out there and sail against a weak team, they'll do four gybes and six tacks or something in a day and have a weak prestart, whereas we will have gone out there and had two hard races."
Despite that, Jones said do-or-die racing was difficult to replicate - the kind of racing that Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa will endure during the final. "From the outside it seems it is going to be even in speed," Jones said when asked his prediction for the challenger final. "It is going to be about how well they sail on the day and who sails under pressure better."
Like many, Jones believes sailing will play a bigger role in this cup than ever before. He points out the class has been around for a while and they are now at the "peaky end of the pyramid as far as development is concerned".
However, like his skipper Brad Butterworth, Jones also believes the fastest boat will win the cup.
So have they got the fastest boat?
"We'll find out," he laughs. "I don't know."
For more from Valencia, go to www.desktoptv.co.nz
