October 11, 2024 • 11 mins
It's the eve of the America’s Cup and Emirates Team New Zealand is preparing to defend the Auld Mug against challengers INEOS Britannia.
The first two races are scheduled for early Sunday morning, the teams taking to the waters of Barcelona.
Helmsman for Team New Zealand, Ray Davies, joined Piney to discuss the team’s plan to claim victory on the water and keep their grip on the Auld Mug.
“We've got quicker, they've got quicker. We don't really know until we actually come off that start line who's gonna have the advantage.”
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalk EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The thirty seventh America's Cup matches almost upon US. Emirates
Team New Zealand have their challenger. Britannia are on course
to make the match, and they will attempt to achieve
what no other British challenger has done and win.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
The Old Monk, after his one hundred and seventy three years,
have heard the wake might soon be over.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Britannia rules the waves of the Mediterranean with a sevenfoth victory.
You win the Louis Witton Cup and we'll meet Emirates C.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Indeed they will, and he asks Britannia have earned the
right to challenge Emirates Team New Zealand in a best
of thirteen race series off the coast of Barcelona for
the America's Cup. They become the first British boat to
contest the Cup's decider in sixty six to oh sixty years,
the last time nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The first two.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Races early tomorrow morning, New Zealand time, a scheduled time
of one am New Zealand time for Race one, then
two more races Monday morning before a break, racing resuming
on Thursday and then on until we have one of
these two boats with seven race wins, they will win
the America's Cup. Hugely experienced and successful sailor and now
(01:24):
Emirates Team New Zealand coach Ray Davies is with us
out of Barcelona. Ray, can we start with your challenger
inny Ospritanna it is? Did you expect them to come
through and be your challenger?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Looks to be honest.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
No.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Earlier on in the regatta they were struggling a bit,
but as the regatta went on and on, they just
came into their own and as we saw in that final,
they were sailing really really well and pretty much blew
part or away. So look, it's great to have Britain
back in the America's Cup. We know all of their
(02:01):
players on their team and we just know how you know,
passionate around the America's Cup and the sport and being
in the final, it's going to be absolutely huge. It's
going to a proper battle.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
What did you learn about your boat, Tayto during racing
in the preliminary regatta and in the round robin stages
of the Louis Vauton.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, look, we learned. We learned that we were fast,
but we have to bear in mind that we raced
against the Thames in the early stages and we saw
them improve. And we've since sped our boat up with
some more components on board and tweaks to the foils
and sales, et cetera, et cetera. So we've got quicker,
(02:45):
they've got quicker. We don't really know until we actually
come off that startline who's going to have the advantage,
and it could be different in different conditions.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
How have you managed right to replicate match racing conditions
since you stopped participating in the Louis Vuitton about a
month or so ago.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah, look, we we can races. We do that ashore
and we make it really challenging for the boat on
the water to make sure they're doing their precere routines.
They're under as much pressure. We give them a difficult
drill to do, so the maneuvers are challenging and hard.
You know, what we've seen with these boats is as
(03:25):
teams have got better with their boat handling, that directly
translates to them being better at starting the boats and
being out of maneuver the opposition, and you know, we
see they saw that at the end of the Louis
the time where I think Prada felt pretty vulnerable in
some of the tighter maneuvers with the way their flails
were designed, so they ended up on the back foot
(03:48):
quite often, and any offers were quite aggressive and are
waiting for an opportunity. So now we've had to have
seen that we were in that camp already. We feel
like we're a very maneuverable boat. And the crews spent
thousands of hours literally, you know, just understanding the physics
(04:09):
when we do maneuver of these boats and tight situations,
there's a real fine line and if you fall off
the foils, obviously it's a massive loss. Off you bent
the ruther, massive loss and you're on the back foot.
So that's the challenge with these boats, high risk, high reward.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
How do you balance that right?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
How do you balance calculated risk taking with the smallest
possible margin for error.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yeah, it's actually it's a great question. It's really hard
because if you go conservative, like you know, we felt
proud of it a little bit in the final there
you're kind of on the back foot and then you're
really you know, you can't afford to you can't afford
to be on the back foot. You've got to be
able to know that you can match them in any situation.
(04:56):
And the whole key is to not make the first mistake.
You're going to put the pressure on. Both teams will
be doing it to each other to try and force
the first mistake and then that's you know, that that
initial advantage which can translate to being pretty significant. But
the track have been too conservative, clearly there isn't there
(05:17):
as the phone line. Uh, if you're too conservative, too complacent,
well we're just going to get walked all over. So
you know we can't do that either. So it's going
to be fascinating to see what sort of aggression both
teams bring to the table.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Absolutely, you've talked a bit about the start there and
the pre start. Are you able to articulate right just
how important that part of the races?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, the race isn't one and lost in the start,
you know you can you can be seriously compromised if
you do come off the foils and have a massive deficit.
And you know, we've spent all of these years trying
to get a couple more seconds of performance through the
entire race track. We'd spend a lot of money if
(06:05):
you could buy five seconds of performance around the track.
But you know that can all be taken away by
one mistake and the piece start on the wrong side
of the other boat and missing it shift. So it's
actually incredibly important. You know, it's probably you know, seventy
or eighty descent of the race in some conditions where
(06:26):
when the breeze is not changing very much and it's
pretty steady, then you just got to have that initial
advantage and then just put your elbows out so sounds
clean from there.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
How do you win if you lose the start.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Well, you have to keep it tight. You have to
not take risks. You just have to keep the pressure.
As you look, you're relying on the other team to
make a mistake, but if you can keep the pressure
on them, there's obviously much higher chance you're going to
make a mistake. You've got to be with unstriking difference.
But when that one mistake happens, you're pouncing, you're in
the lead. You've got to keep it close enough. You
(07:04):
know you're probably only going to get the chart of
one mistake, So you've got to be obviously, stay in
the game and just keep putting the pressure on the
other boat. You know, it has never over to the
end and these boats, you know, it's really relentless. How
(07:25):
important boat handling is.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
The nature of the structure of the event of courses
that any US pretendua I guess you'd say a match
race hardened. They've been racing all of this time, they've
been making improvements as they race. How do you take
that away or how do you replicate that or combat
that given the fact that that you haven't been doing that.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, look, we know we have our ways of being
able to race the boat on the water and simulate races,
but that's you know, we do put ourselves under pressure,
and obviously we analyze what they've been doing. We study
the times that they do their maneuvers, and we can
replicate those races and the simulator and you know, there's
(08:08):
always a move and a countermove, and i'd like to think,
you know, we've learned a lot since our last races,
and we've definitely you know, every team is improving all
the time, and like you just have to just do
your homework. It's all you can do at the stage.
There's no point from the training gets any other team.
You're not allowed in it, and everyone's moved on. So
(08:30):
you're never going to be as good as You're never
going to have as good a training partner as they're
going to just finishing there again, So you know, we
virtually make it as hard as we can in the simulator.
To be honest, I go on about the simulator. It's
an absolutely incredible tool. You know, we can just do
multiple starts and to our simulator session and come on
(08:53):
with some really good solid learnings and have shared consciousness
between there outstanding.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
So right, where are you when racing is going on?
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, when racing's going on on the chase boat, I
just keep an eye on the weather and focus pretty
hard on making sure what stars we head up we
have up and Josh and Sam are right alongside me
working really hard with the guys on prestart strategies, what
side of the course we like. We've got Roger vannam
(09:26):
Ow weather Man a sure giving us simput into what's
going to happen in the future. We obviously know what's
happened with the weather and it's all about just trying
to predict what's going to happen next with the breeze
over the next half hour. And obviously the designers now
we're switched into performance mode and analyzing all of our maneuvers,
all of the opposition's maneuvers. Where can we make incremental
(09:49):
gains from here on? And you know, the debris at
the end of the day is incredibly thorough. The detail
that we can dive into nours go on to a
whole other level, and you know, we really utilize that
the design team as part of the coaching stuff as well.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And you won the America's Cup with Team New Zealand
and twenty seventeen and again in twenty twenty one. What
is most helpful ray from those regattas in twenty twenty
four if anything.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Well, look, I'm just having the belief to know that
we can do it. But the team can perform under pressure.
We as you really enjoy the pressure the sailors coming
into their own and a lot of top sports people do.
They actually thank clarer and perform better under pressure. And
I'd like to think we have a team that operates
really well under pressure. So that's you know, we know
(10:42):
we can do that. We've done it before. We're a
much stronger team than we've ever been before, so we
get a lot of strength from that. Right.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's been great to chat to you, very very instructional
and interesting.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I get the feeling you're just waiting for it all
to get underway.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So all the best as you prepare to defend the
America's Cup against Andy Os Pretenda.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Thanks so much for taking the time.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
For a We can't wait. And this is so good
to see all the Kiri supporters coming out here and
the other planes are full of them. Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Good to hear, Ray, good to hear. Thanks indeed, Ray
Davies there from Emirates Team New Zealand. He's his official
title as coach of Emirates Team New Zealand. A good
insight there into what he does in terms of making
that bug go as fast as possible.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talks b weekends from midday or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalk EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The thirty seventh America's Cup matches almost upon US. Emirates
Team New Zealand have their challenger. Britannia are on course
to make the match, and they will attempt to achieve
what no other British challenger has done and win.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
The Old Monk, after his one hundred and seventy three years,
have heard the wake might soon be over.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Britannia rules the waves of the Mediterranean with a sevenfoth victory.
You win the Louis Witton Cup and we'll meet Emirates C.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Indeed they will, and he asks Britannia have earned the
right to challenge Emirates Team New Zealand in a best
of thirteen race series off the coast of Barcelona for
the America's Cup. They become the first British boat to
contest the Cup's decider in sixty six to oh sixty years,
the last time nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The first two.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Races early tomorrow morning, New Zealand time, a scheduled time
of one am New Zealand time for Race one, then
two more races Monday morning before a break, racing resuming
on Thursday and then on until we have one of
these two boats with seven race wins, they will win
the America's Cup. Hugely experienced and successful sailor and now
(01:24):
Emirates Team New Zealand coach Ray Davies is with us
out of Barcelona. Ray, can we start with your challenger
inny Ospritanna it is? Did you expect them to come
through and be your challenger?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Looks to be honest.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
No.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Earlier on in the regatta they were struggling a bit,
but as the regatta went on and on, they just
came into their own and as we saw in that final,
they were sailing really really well and pretty much blew
part or away. So look, it's great to have Britain
back in the America's Cup. We know all of their
(02:01):
players on their team and we just know how you know,
passionate around the America's Cup and the sport and being
in the final, it's going to be absolutely huge. It's
going to a proper battle.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
What did you learn about your boat, Tayto during racing
in the preliminary regatta and in the round robin stages
of the Louis Vauton.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, look, we learned. We learned that we were fast,
but we have to bear in mind that we raced
against the Thames in the early stages and we saw
them improve. And we've since sped our boat up with
some more components on board and tweaks to the foils
and sales, et cetera, et cetera. So we've got quicker,
(02:45):
they've got quicker. We don't really know until we actually
come off that startline who's going to have the advantage,
and it could be different in different conditions.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
How have you managed right to replicate match racing conditions
since you stopped participating in the Louis Vuitton about a
month or so ago.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah, look, we we can races. We do that ashore
and we make it really challenging for the boat on
the water to make sure they're doing their precere routines.
They're under as much pressure. We give them a difficult
drill to do, so the maneuvers are challenging and hard.
You know, what we've seen with these boats is as
(03:25):
teams have got better with their boat handling, that directly
translates to them being better at starting the boats and
being out of maneuver the opposition, and you know, we
see they saw that at the end of the Louis
the time where I think Prada felt pretty vulnerable in
some of the tighter maneuvers with the way their flails
were designed, so they ended up on the back foot
(03:48):
quite often, and any offers were quite aggressive and are
waiting for an opportunity. So now we've had to have
seen that we were in that camp already. We feel
like we're a very maneuverable boat. And the crews spent
thousands of hours literally, you know, just understanding the physics
(04:09):
when we do maneuver of these boats and tight situations,
there's a real fine line and if you fall off
the foils, obviously it's a massive loss. Off you bent
the ruther, massive loss and you're on the back foot.
So that's the challenge with these boats, high risk, high reward.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
How do you balance that right?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
How do you balance calculated risk taking with the smallest
possible margin for error.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yeah, it's actually it's a great question. It's really hard
because if you go conservative, like you know, we felt
proud of it a little bit in the final there
you're kind of on the back foot and then you're
really you know, you can't afford to you can't afford
to be on the back foot. You've got to be
able to know that you can match them in any situation.
(04:56):
And the whole key is to not make the first mistake.
You're going to put the pressure on. Both teams will
be doing it to each other to try and force
the first mistake and then that's you know, that that
initial advantage which can translate to being pretty significant. But
the track have been too conservative, clearly there isn't there
(05:17):
as the phone line. Uh, if you're too conservative, too complacent,
well we're just going to get walked all over. So
you know we can't do that either. So it's going
to be fascinating to see what sort of aggression both
teams bring to the table.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Absolutely, you've talked a bit about the start there and
the pre start. Are you able to articulate right just
how important that part of the races?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, the race isn't one and lost in the start,
you know you can you can be seriously compromised if
you do come off the foils and have a massive deficit.
And you know, we've spent all of these years trying
to get a couple more seconds of performance through the
entire race track. We'd spend a lot of money if
(06:05):
you could buy five seconds of performance around the track.
But you know that can all be taken away by
one mistake and the piece start on the wrong side
of the other boat and missing it shift. So it's
actually incredibly important. You know, it's probably you know, seventy
or eighty descent of the race in some conditions where
(06:26):
when the breeze is not changing very much and it's
pretty steady, then you just got to have that initial
advantage and then just put your elbows out so sounds
clean from there.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
How do you win if you lose the start.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Well, you have to keep it tight. You have to
not take risks. You just have to keep the pressure.
As you look, you're relying on the other team to
make a mistake, but if you can keep the pressure
on them, there's obviously much higher chance you're going to
make a mistake. You've got to be with unstriking difference.
But when that one mistake happens, you're pouncing, you're in
the lead. You've got to keep it close enough. You
(07:04):
know you're probably only going to get the chart of
one mistake, So you've got to be obviously, stay in
the game and just keep putting the pressure on the
other boat. You know, it has never over to the
end and these boats, you know, it's really relentless. How
(07:25):
important boat handling is.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
The nature of the structure of the event of courses
that any US pretendua I guess you'd say a match
race hardened. They've been racing all of this time, they've
been making improvements as they race. How do you take
that away or how do you replicate that or combat
that given the fact that that you haven't been doing that.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, look, we know we have our ways of being
able to race the boat on the water and simulate races,
but that's you know, we do put ourselves under pressure,
and obviously we analyze what they've been doing. We study
the times that they do their maneuvers, and we can
replicate those races and the simulator and you know, there's
(08:08):
always a move and a countermove, and i'd like to think,
you know, we've learned a lot since our last races,
and we've definitely you know, every team is improving all
the time, and like you just have to just do
your homework. It's all you can do at the stage.
There's no point from the training gets any other team.
You're not allowed in it, and everyone's moved on. So
(08:30):
you're never going to be as good as You're never
going to have as good a training partner as they're
going to just finishing there again, So you know, we
virtually make it as hard as we can in the simulator.
To be honest, I go on about the simulator. It's
an absolutely incredible tool. You know, we can just do
multiple starts and to our simulator session and come on
(08:53):
with some really good solid learnings and have shared consciousness
between there outstanding.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
So right, where are you when racing is going on?
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, when racing's going on on the chase boat, I
just keep an eye on the weather and focus pretty
hard on making sure what stars we head up we
have up and Josh and Sam are right alongside me
working really hard with the guys on prestart strategies, what
side of the course we like. We've got Roger vannam
(09:26):
Ow weather Man a sure giving us simput into what's
going to happen in the future. We obviously know what's
happened with the weather and it's all about just trying
to predict what's going to happen next with the breeze
over the next half hour. And obviously the designers now
we're switched into performance mode and analyzing all of our maneuvers,
all of the opposition's maneuvers. Where can we make incremental
(09:49):
gains from here on? And you know, the debris at
the end of the day is incredibly thorough. The detail
that we can dive into nours go on to a
whole other level, and you know, we really utilize that
the design team as part of the coaching stuff as well.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And you won the America's Cup with Team New Zealand
and twenty seventeen and again in twenty twenty one. What
is most helpful ray from those regattas in twenty twenty
four if anything.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Well, look, I'm just having the belief to know that
we can do it. But the team can perform under pressure.
We as you really enjoy the pressure the sailors coming
into their own and a lot of top sports people do.
They actually thank clarer and perform better under pressure. And
I'd like to think we have a team that operates
really well under pressure. So that's you know, we know
(10:42):
we can do that. We've done it before. We're a
much stronger team than we've ever been before, so we
get a lot of strength from that. Right.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's been great to chat to you, very very instructional
and interesting.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I get the feeling you're just waiting for it all
to get underway.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So all the best as you prepare to defend the
America's Cup against Andy Os Pretenda.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Thanks so much for taking the time.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
For a We can't wait. And this is so good
to see all the Kiri supporters coming out here and
the other planes are full of them. Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Good to hear, Ray, good to hear. Thanks indeed, Ray
Davies there from Emirates Team New Zealand. He's his official
title as coach of Emirates Team New Zealand. A good
insight there into what he does in terms of making
that bug go as fast as possible.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talks b weekends from midday or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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