Yachting: Setting sails for greatness

Team NZ skipper Dean Barker (left) and syndicate boss Grant Dalton with the Valencia Act 12 trophy. Picture / Reuters

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton says the next eight months will determine whether his team can go from being good to great as they build towards next year's America's Cup.

It is the day after Emirates Team New Zealand's win in the 12th cup pre-regatta in Valencia which also claimed them the title of 2006 season champions. The base is empty apart from a few designers, a few administrative people and Dalton.

Many of the sailing team have already set off for their next competition, a TP52 regatta, an hour's drive away in Castellon. The team celebrated their success at the base with their families: a few beers and pizzas.

A pink doll's pram and a pair of kids' sneakers on the floor are the only objects out of place a day later. Across the port, Alinghi had a posh party with about 600 guests.

There is no escaping the fact Team New Zealand is a Kiwi team and there is no chance of them going overboard with this win. "Being Kiwis we realise we had a good regatta. We put some things right but we don't think any more than that," Dalton said. "Our feet are very firmly on the ground."

They will continue training in Valencia until the middle of August and then return to Auckland.

Their second new boat will be launched around December and they will return to Valencia in February.

"What we do next is very important. The advantage, and really the only advantage of being where we are at this stage, is that it allows you to continue the path you have planned rather than having to go back and say: 'We have got this major issue. We have to deviate'."

Team New Zealand's success in this regatta was the result of several factors: good crew work, good boat speed, spot-on weather calls and a confident performance by skipper Dean Barker and his afterguard.

Those factors did not come together in the first two regattas of the year, in which sloppy crew work in particular let them down.

"It would be hard to insult a Kiwi yachtsman any more than by telling him his team was the fourth best in crew work, which is what happened in the last regattas. It was something we had to go away and work on."

Criticised for his tentative approach in the last regattas, this time Barker was the hunter rather than the hunted. "When we lost that one against Oracle [in the semifinals] Dean was dirty, he really hated it.

"Then he came out in the second race and smacked them.

"I think he has grown for sure but so have [tactician] Terry Hutchinson and the rest of the afterguard. It will be close next year and now we know how to win close races. We didn't know how to win close until this regatta."

The performance of NZL84 will give them plenty of confidence. While there is no doubting there is little between the top boats, there is also no doubting that the lean NZL84, with its fuller bow, has plenty of punch in the right conditions.

"It is good enough," Dalton said. "It is pretty hard to be special. It gives us confidence we have got a platform looking ahead to the next boat."

Dalton's said his opinion of BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa remains the same in that they are extremely solid teams.

And Alinghi - a team who are still competitive although they are racing a 2003 generation boat?

"SUI75 is a quick boat 13 knots and above; in the light air it falls off a cliff.

"But looking at their new boat shape, our general feeling is that it is that is a down-range [wind] version and probably plugs that light air hole that they have got.

"All we can hope is that it is not a major step on. But we have got another new boat coming too; we'll take another step."

While Team New Zealand appear happy, Dalton rejects suggestions they are putting too much pressure on themselves so far out from the event. "I think we have got less serious. That is something that came out of the last regatta ... that we were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. I think we have lifted that."

The team have created a social club, which is headed by grinder Chris McAsey. A "fines" system to fund the club has been put in place in which team members are fined for various wrong-doings.

Even Dalton doesn't escape, but he is disputing his latest offence.

He was nabbed putting a dirty dish into a load of clean dishes in the dishwasher.

He has launched a protest which could be upheld. He is well known for his tidiness; so much so that his 40th birthday cake was in the shape of a Jif bottle.

"How could I get fined for having something dirty?" he asks. "I am taking it to the jury."

Joking aside, Dalton is pleased with his team. "We are a good team but we are not a great team," he says. The next eight months could change good to great.

Cup Countdown

April 1: Skirts off. All teams, including Alinghi, are required to reveal their yachts.

April 3-7: Fleet racing regatta, the final cup pre-regatta.

April 18-June 12: Challenger series

June 23-July 7: America's Cup.