“It was a pretty tricky day. I think the team did a really good job of scrambling to deal with the situation the best they could and minimise the damage, but halfway through race two we lost our main tactical display on the wing and never managed to resolve the issue before the end of the day,” he said.
“That meant a lot of [the] load went on Sam [Meech, coach] in the booth. He did an amazing job keeping a lot of information coming to us and Len [flight controller Leo Takahashi] did a great job not being able to use his primary display to keep the boat going fast.
“All in all it was a pretty tough day. Definitely some things to work on, but I think we did some things really well and are looking forward to tomorrow,”
The regatta is the first time SailGP has hosted events in back-to-back weekends, after the teams competed in Los Angeles last week. While the team would have benefitted from the continuity, they were served up very different conditions to navigate.
San Francisco is a tricky venue, with teams having to deal with the current as well as the gusty wind.
While it wasn’t top-end conditions, the teams enjoyed the extra room on the racetrack and more time sailing at high speeds, Canada, Australia, and Spain ended the day in the podium positions.
It got off to a rough start for the Black Foils, as they got too wide in the starting box and were then squeezed out by Dylan Fletcher’s Great Britain and battled with Martine Grael and her Brazilian crew at the back around the first marker.
As has been a strength of theirs in recent years, the Black Foils were able to make their way through the fleet and positioned themselves nicely after a couple of impressive upwind legs.
But it was their final manoeuvre that stole the show as they timed their run to the final turn perfectly, getting there to have right of way as Great Britain and Italy approached. The Kiwis jumped two places with the move and finished in fourth.
The second race of the day saw them almost set up for success at the starting line. But an aggressive move from the French meant the two teams come close together right at the line. The French were penalised and had to drop back, but the Kiwis had lost all of their speed and were again battling in the second half of the fleet.
There was not a lot of ground to be gained, and they ultimately finished in eighth.
In the third race three teams were across the starting line early and had to drop to the back of the fleet, which was where the Black Foils lingered.
They spent the majority of the race in eighth, but again some last turn magic stole them vital points as the they crossed the line in sixth place.
In the final race of the day, it seemed things were starting to come together. They started well and were contesting the race toward the front of the fleet.
While they didn’t sail a perfect race, they recovered quickly when they needed to and secured a strong finish in third.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
