Dean Barker: Huge performance gains still on the table but upwind foiling unlikely to be one of them.
Spend even a little time watching the three teams left in the 34th America's Cup and right now and it's easy to forget just how difficult these boats actually are. Long gone are the stumbling baby steps we saw all the syndicates making as they tried to master their 72 feet flying catamarans. Now, dare I say it, they almost make it look easy.
Emirates Team New Zealand look the slickest of any of the crews and according to their helmsman Dean Barker the apparent effortless ease with which they tear around the bay has come from practising their manoeuvres over and over and over again.
"It's not by chance that you and the crew improve and you can sail the boat at a much higher level," Barker told me. "Through repetition of manoeuvres and everything else you build up your confidence in your ability to perform them."
The Louis Vuitton Final race schedule pitches the Kiwis against Luna Rossa twice each race day and ETNZ have been putting in some long days on the water recently, primarily Barker said to practise switching gears from the lighter morning winds to the stronger afternoon breezes.
read more here
Emirates Team New Zealand look the slickest of any of the crews and according to their helmsman Dean Barker the apparent effortless ease with which they tear around the bay has come from practising their manoeuvres over and over and over again.
"It's not by chance that you and the crew improve and you can sail the boat at a much higher level," Barker told me. "Through repetition of manoeuvres and everything else you build up your confidence in your ability to perform them."
The Louis Vuitton Final race schedule pitches the Kiwis against Luna Rossa twice each race day and ETNZ have been putting in some long days on the water recently, primarily Barker said to practise switching gears from the lighter morning winds to the stronger afternoon breezes.
read more here
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