“I do a lot of racing in Lake Geneva, where it’s very flaky, and you do have shifts of 20 to 40 degrees at a time,” Bertarelli said. “I do go to Las Vegas, as well, which I enjoy a lot, but the America’s Cup for me is a different thing than what we had today. I don’t think the race committee should have started the regatta. We waited for two hours and one second before the 5 o’clock time line, we launch a regatta and one minute after the start, we have a 20 degree shift. If Team New Zealand saw right, well good on them.”
“I’m sure for those who are watching, it’s exciting for sure,” he added. “But you know, I think you can go to Las Vegas for that. It’s not exactly what sailing should be, at least at this level. I think this level is about the boat and about the crew. I’m actually more satisfied today than I was on Sunday. That was a race we should have won.”
Whereas the Kiwis have this answer:
“You know we’ve been racing through the Louis Vuitton in conditions a lot worse than that; that’s part of yacht racing,” said Matt Mason, the mastman on Team New Zealand. “That’s the venue here. That’s what Valencia is like on some of these days. You’d lose a lot of days if you didn’t go out and sail in a day like today.”
It is also about the weather call, and Team New Zealand’s afterguard and its team led by Don “Clouds” Badham certainly got it right on the first leg. According to Mason, the mood on board was still far from celebratory.
“You know straight away when you get the lead like that so quickly, it’s probably going to turn their way at some stage,” he said. “Your dream is not going to carry on.”
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