Emirates Team New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson talks about the psychology of the game with the scores level at 2-2
With the score level at 2-2, how do you feel?
I feel better now than during the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. The mood on the boat is a whole lot more relaxed. The score card [5-0] against Luna Rossa didn’t reflect the tension on the boat. Since then the guys have dropped their shoulders and are focused on doing really good work.
What breeze would you like to get for the rest of the Match?
We’re not really fussed about what we get. Whatever the wind gods want to dish out to us, we’re happy to get. When we came off the line against Alinghi in 14 knots of breeze in the first race, we were really happy with how we were going. In fact we were probably going better than we expected. After the bit of in-house scrimmaging the two teams did with each other, what you’ve seen with 100 and 92 is that they’ve gravitated towards us, and we’ve gravitated towards them.
Do you think there is a realisation by Alinghi that boatspeed isn’t necessarily enough to win?
I think they’d probably prefer a 14 knot regatta with small shifts. That plays to their strengths. They’ve always been in the position of being faster. Their sailing style is always suited to a drag race, take a small gain, and then that translates to a 30 second lead and extend from there. This is potentially the first time they’ve raced a boat that’s even with them. And they also have the difficult position of being the Defender, watching us racing the amount they have. Putting myself in their shoes, and I’m watching that happen, it’s a hard thing to cope with you in your mind, because you see the other guy getting all that experience, so that would make you anxious too.
Brad Butterworth and Alinghi talked about the conditions in Race 3 being a lottery. Did you see it like that?
No. He loses a race because of spectators and because of windshifts. That would be like me saying we lost the race today because the wind went right.
So their reaction, what does that tell you?
It probably tells you they’re bunched.
What do you mean – bunched?
Tense, nervous, high anxiety, all those things. They are the Defender and they have a lot to lose. Anything that helps put the pressure on them – happy to have it on them. The way Dean has been sailing, the way we’ve all been sailing, has been really, really good. We put them in some tough spots yesterday and Dean just did really good work of sailing the boat smooth in tense situations. We’re going to keep putting the pressure on him [Brad Butterworth]. I’d like to do it a little bit more from in front than behind, but as we’ve seen in America’s Cup history, it’s not over until it’s over. What we’re seeing are two very even boats; and the conditions are what they are, and whoever handles them better is the boat that’s going to win.
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