Big week for the boys on the big cat

Big week for the boys on the big cat

Emirates Team New Zealand is settling in for a week of intensive preparations in the five days before the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals.

A much-improved Luna Rossa won through to the final yesterday, beating the Swedish team Artemis 4-0 in the semi-finals.

Emirates Team New Zealand, easy winner of the round robin races against Luna Ross, expects Luna Rossa will be much more of a handful in the finals.

Skipper Dean Barker: “Luna Rossa makes no secret of the fact that their strategy is to peak for the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. They are certainly heading that way.

“We think their upwind speed has improved considerably since we last raced them and crew work has gone up several notches.

“Round robin performance means nothing now. We start with a clean slate, no points have been accumulated. Luna Rossa looked very sharp racing Artemis in the semis and it looks like we will have a battle on our hands. We will have to be on our game every day.”

The sailing squad for the final is: Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, Adam Beashel, James Dagg, Grant Dalton, Ray Davies, Jeremy Lomas, Grant Loretz, Chris McAsey, Winston Macfarlane, Richard Meacham, Tony Rae, Derek Saward, Rob Waddell and Chris Ward.

“The core of the crew has been sailing together for nine years,” Barker said. “Since we launched the first AC72 in July last year, their experience, skills and single-minded approach to getting the most out of the boat and themselves has resulted in a resilient and tight unit.

“Two races will be held each day of the LV finals and crew will be rotated as required. We anticipate more wear and tear on the crew as well as the boat and have planned for this.

“We have four races on that first weekend, 13 over two weeks. The AC72s have never sailed before with that intensity. Boat and crew will both have to be match fit every race day.”

· Emirates Team New Zealand is now the Challenger of Record by virtue of Artemis Racing’s elimination. Emirates Team New Zealand now has the right of veto over any last-minute attempts to change the Protocol or the racing rules.

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