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Team New Zealand's crew hard at work in Nice - Source: Reuters -
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Horribly early start today. Shipping movements in Nice meant the yachts had to have cleared the port not much after daybreak so we were dockside at 0700 hrs to get the pre-race interviews.
I'd lined the first one up at breakfast, Gavin Brady giving a remarkably lucid series of replies for that hour of the day. He credited strong coffee for his erudition.
Brady is helming BMW Oracle Racing who faced Emirates Team New Zealand first up, renewing a lengthy rivalry with fellow Kiwi Dean Barker. Their dueling goes back a long way and they know each other's styles very well.
He reckons Barker's style is reasonably predictable but the tightness of his team means the crew manoeuvres are well executed. That places the onus of risk on his opponent who is forced into gambling on a more risky strategy to try and seize control.
The game plan for Brady was to use the different characteristics of the yachts to suit his own usually more aggressive style and so make the Kiwis mix it up.
It worked quite well for a while, the American boat still in contention at the first mark. Barker then executed a couple of dummy gybes on the run. Brady bit at the third time of asking and once separation was established ETNZ sailed away for a sixth straight win to keep their clean sheet at the top of the points table.
The Kiwis are now the only undefeated crew here following Team Origin's loss to the international crew sailing for Sweden as Artemis. Ex- ETNZ tactician Terry Hutchinson is driving for Artemis and was up against ETNZ's former sparring partner Ben Ainslie steering for the Brits.
It turned out to be no contest with Hutchinson all over Ainslie in the start box before going on to score a major psychological win.
Three more races were scheduled for today to conclude the round robin but the weird wind failed to front. It is a strange pattern; the wind blows off the land from the north at the start of the day and begins to fade in the late morning. A few hours later it fills in from the south as an onshore sea breeze. But it was too weak to sustain the programme.
That means an even earlier start tomorrow to ensure the racing is over in good time for the Louis Vuitton Party, always a priority.
