With the 34th America’s Cup match racing final less
than two weeks away, the anticipation is palpable—who is faster? The
well-seasoned Kiwis who have made so few mistakes in their conquest of the
Louis Vuitton Cup, while also charming the pants off the sailing fans and
spectators with their slick maneuvers and team spirit?
Or will it be the Americans, who’ve had the good
fortune of ample resources throughout their campaign, but who are now knee-deep
in muck over allegations of cheating, which could cost them races and top
crewmembers? It doesn’t seem to matter who you talk to, the answer’s the same:
Race 1 will tell all.
We check in with John Kostecki, one of America’s
most highly regarded sailors and the tactician for Oracle Team USA, to see
what’s been going on at the Oracle camp:
What did the challenger racing reveal to you? What
did you learn?
JK: ETNZ is impressive. They look
really strong in their crew maneuvers. They seem to gain a lot there. We study
those moves to try to learn and improve. We look at different helicopter shots
and shots from on board; we study those as much as we can. Things that they’re
doing well we want to learn why and try to apply that to our sailing.
What particularly impresses you?
JK: Their jibing and their tacking.
As you’ve seen, you can gain hundreds of meters in one jibe. They're very consistent
out there. Probably we still have a ways to go to catch up to them in that.
Do you really think so?
JK: Yeah, I think so. In some
conditions our consistency isn’t quite as good as theirs at the moment. They’ve
had the same group of sailors for a long time. We have a big group here. Just
recently we’ve gone with more of a racing team and a back-up team, splitting
that onto the two boats, so we’re still learning each day when we’re out
together. That’s a little bit of a factor. I’m not saying we can’t get there,
we still have up to seven more sailing days. Hopefully, we’ll do a few two-boat
days also.
Why wouldn’t they all be two-boat days at this
stage?
JK: Logistically, it’s really hard
to sail, maintain, launch. It’s a major drain on the whole team to do that.
Ideally, every day would be a two-boat day, but logistically it’s hard and
tiring; resource-wise maintaining two boats is really hard. Maintaining one
boat is really hard. We need to do it, but it’s hard.
Local knowledge is your expertise. Tell us how
conditions will be different in September here versus what we’ve seen in the LV
Cup?
JK: It’s pretty far out to predict
precisely, but at this time of year, San Francisco starts to change normally.
Yesterday [last day of LV Final] was a different day already. We start going
into a more fall-type of pattern: lighter air with less sea breeze. The first
four days of racing are going to be in a more flood-type of current, which will
bring the winds down some and make it more time upwind than average and less
time downwind on average than a normal slack tide. Lighter breeze and smoother
water.
You got to observe ETNZ in a range of conditions:
lessons?
JK: Only yesterday did we get to see
them race in lighter air. It’s all been pretty heavy breeze, so we were happy
to see them in one light race to get a feeling of our performance against
theirs. The initial look is encouraging for us that way. They look really good
in a stronger breeze. I would hope that we have an advantage in lighter wind.
You’re more optimized for lighter breeze then?
JK: Well, yes and no. Now with the
lower windspeed limits plus or minus current [23 knots for the match], we’re
trying to optimize within 8-20 knots [laughs] which is a pretty wide range. That’s
what we’ll get during the Cup, and I’m sure that’s what the Kiwis are optimized
for. I don’t think any team has a huge advantage either way—maybe we’re a
little towards lighter air and they’re a little more towards the higher breeze.
Have you been able to get much light air training
in?
JK: Not really. We haven’t really
seen code zero conditions, but we’re hoping we do between now and the Cup so we
can get a few training days in with the zero. There’s a really good chance
we’ll see at least a few legs—it could be less than half the regatta—where
you’d be using the code zero. We’re trying to use it more and get comfortable
with it. The crossover for the code zero is around 10-12 knots, and anything
over that you’re not on it.
How do you collect and understand data from ETNZ?
JK: The racing data is good because
we have their boatspeeds and all their speeds—its GPS speeds so its over
ground—then you have to calculate the current, etc. We do that ourselves and
have a pretty good idea of what their performance is like through the racing.
The racing’s been good to watch, as it’s harder when they’re on their own and
not racing to get a really good idea of what they’re doing.
Have you emulated the speeds ETNZ have reached?
JK: I take some of that really lightly
because I don’t have the hard facts because it might be speed over ground. I’d
say what’s been broadcast over TV is speed over ground. If you’re going
downwind at 40 knots, you have 3 knots of flood—there’s 43 knots right there.
I’d really need more information to believe they’ve done 48 knots, but I think
we’ve been close to that for a top speed.
Do you have a sense whether ETNZ still have
something in the bag?
JK: No, I don’t think they have
anything that’s big—there’s always little things, and they’ve been working on
upwind foilin,g and they’ve seen us upwind foiling so it's no real surprise,
but I think they’re trying to keep it quiet. I think they were a little
disappointed that way back when they started foiling downwind they leaked that
as quick as they did. I’ll bet they wish they’d held that closer. Now with the
upwind foiling, I can tell anytime we're around them they don’t do it, they try
to hide it. But it’s pretty obvious they’re doing it, and we’re doing it. I
think you’ll see some of it in the race if it’s the right conditions.
Photo Credit: John Kostecki, by Guilain Grenier/Oracle Team USA
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