11 Sep 2013

After some more poor tactical decisions aboard the America’s Cup defender Oracle Team USA, questions are being asked about whether tactician John Kostecki will pay the price for Oracle’s failures.

In the second race of the regatta, Oracle had Emirates Team New Zealand under control upind before Kostecki took the boat to the wrong side of the course and allowed the Kiwis to gain the dominant position.

In Race Five today Oracle had a commanding lead as they approached the bottom mark. Kostecki called for a foiling tack, a difficult procedure in the strong winds at the time. His objective was obviously to get into the cone of current relief under Alcatraz but the manoeuvre basically involved doing a 180 degree turn and heading back the way they had come.

The turn was badly executed, Oracle went dead in the water and ETNZ swept across their stern at speed and were back in touch. They dipped Oracle’s transom in the next cross and headed to the favoured side of the course. When they came back on starboard they had a clear lead and were never headed. Extending at every tack it was obvious that Ray Davies was calling the wind shifts correctly on ETNZ and Kostecki was out-of-phase on Oracle.

At the media conference after the race, Kostecki was not present for the first time since racing began. Instead strategist Tom Slingsby was at the table with skipper Jimmy Spithill and when asked if the tack was the wrong call, Slingsby was characteristically honest and said “yes”.

The decision was put into further bad light when Davies said that had Oracle gone left up the beat, he would have called for a tack on the mark to get separation. Kostecki had not only sent his own boat the wrong way, he had left the door open for his opponents to go the right way.

Asked twice whether Kostecki would be on the boat on Thursday, Spithill tried to be diplomatic but did not emphatically say “yes” at either opportunity.

Oracle has two very strong options if they decide to replace Kostecki. Sir Ben Ainslie is the most successful Olympic sailor of all time with four golds and a silver medal. He has been steering Oracle’s second boat in intra-team racing and could step straight into the position.

The other option is also an Olympic gold medallist. Tom Slingsby is one of the best readers of a race course in world sailing and instead of grinding looking backwards he could turn around and look forwards.

Kostecki was chosen supposedly because of his knowledge of San Francisco Bay, of which he is a native. But before the Cup began rumours cirulated among the Australian and New Zealand camps that the only reason he was on the boat was because he had an American passport – he is one of only two Americans in the team.

Oracle are not at the point of no return – yet – but the fact that they played their postponement card today indicates they are close to it. It will be a long night of analysis and if the concensus is that too many tactical decisions have gone wrong, we could seea change in the crew list for Thursday.

Everyone wants an edge. In sailing it is having a faster boat. this allows you the possibility of making up for errors. Oracle appears to be a little slower, the crew work not a sharp; leaving the tactician at a disadvantage. It is very hard to beat a faster boat; particularly on such a short course, which leaves no room to work.

I would add that the crew of Team New Zealand are very good at execution. I would point at Glen Ashby trimming the wing. This is the horsepower. New Zealand gets the acceleration when they need it.