Yachting: Team NZ getting start timing right

Team New Zealand strategist Ray Davies believes his team are getting on top of their starts heading into the business end of the 12th America's Cup pre-regatta in Valencia.

With just one race sailed yesterday, Team New Zealand were scheduled to race BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi last night in the final round robin races.

The teams are then divided into groups of four depending on their placings in the round robin and will sail semifinals and finals.

With Emirates Team New Zealand, Alinghi, Luna Rossa and Oracle the top four teams, the semifinal matches are going to be colossal battles.

The statistics collected over the past 12 regattas make for interesting reading.

In the seven times Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa have raced, Team New Zealand have won five times. Although the statistics do not indicate who won the favoured side of the line, Luna Rossa have the better pre-start record, crossing the line ahead of Team New Zealand four times. One start was even and Team New Zealand won the other two.

In six of the races, Team New Zealand led around the first mark, which indicates better boat speed.

Team New Zealand have raced Alinghi and Oracle six times and have a 50 per cent winning record against each team. Against Alinghi, three of the starts were even, Alinghi won two and Team New Zealand one.

Oracle have beaten Team New Zealand over the start line four times. But again Team New Zealand led Oracle around the first mark in four races.

In this regatta, Team New Zealand have appeared a lot more aggressive in the pre-start, their only glitch so far against Luna Rossa.

In sizing up their opposition, Davies said Alinghi helmsman Peter Holmberg is "pretty consistent" while Oracle's Chris Dickson can be a little "erratic" .

"I think Dickson can be a bit more aggressive. In the important races, he tends to throw it around a bit.

"We have seen him cop a couple of penalties but he has had a couple of good prestarts where he has controlled people.

"We just have to make sure we don't give up any stupid penalties and we keep it clean."

Light shifty conditions meant only one flight was completed yesterday. Team New Zealand scored a 30s win over Shosholoza but in the fickle breeze it was anything but comfortable.

In the match of the day, Luna Rossa rolled past Oracle on the last run to claim an 8s win.

Oracle were in tune with the breeze and led until two thirds of the way down the final run. The breeze then swung in favour of the Italians, who had split off to the right, which allowed them to edge past.

Oracle navigator Peter Isler said they felt they couldn't keep playing the "covering game" .

"We had first choice and we chose starboard advantage and the left side of the course, which looking downwind is usually good at 6pm in the afternoon but not today."

Three time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts believes it is too early to judge who will win the challenger series and the right to race Alinghi in next year's Cup.

It has been widely reported that Coutts was backing Luna Rossa to win the challenger series.

However Coutts said yesterday it was too early to say who is most likely to line up against his old team in a year's time.

"Luna Rossa are looking stronger than they have ever done and are real contenders, he said.

"They have an excellent sailing team but so does Team New Zealand."