Looking at the scenes of joy, you would have thought that the defending champions had pulled off a major coup on Saturday. But it was above all exuberant relief that led to the scenes of jubilation on board the American catamaran. Skipper Jimmy Spithill went to each of his crew members, patted them on the back and congratulated them. The realisation that he had not been swept off the Great Sound off Bermuda by the Kiwis and even had a chance of winning himself must have made Jimmy Spithill deeply happy. The Americans reduced their deficit to 1:4 in the 35th America's Cup match on Saturday, after suffering their fifth consecutive defeat in the duel with Emirates Team New Zealand. Because the Kiwis had to equalise a minus point from the challenger round, they have four points on their Cup account, Larry Ellison's defenders now have one.
What the two helmsmen said after races 5 and 6 and the third race day, which ended in a draw, and how differently they reacted to the journalists' questions
"It's nice to be on the faster boat," Jimmy Spithill announced immediately after winning the sixth race, for everyone to hear. Compared to their disastrous performance last weekend, the Americans' "17" did indeed seem faster this Saturday and Spithill's crew was less prone to mistakes. Of course, Spithill did not want to reveal what exactly his team had changed during the long break from racing: "There were too many things to list. We completed 24-hour shifts. The reward for that was this victory." The discarded BMX bike on which tactician Slingsby had otherwise pedalled was visible. According to Spithill, the AC50 catamaran had also been lightened by a lot of weight. Jimmy "Spitfire" Spithill promptly fired verbal shots in the direction of New Zealand again: "We worked five times as hard as the others during the five-day break from racing."
His opponent Peter Burling took the verbal muscle-flexing in his stride; he remained true to himself and his usually sober narrative style. Burling said that Emirates Team New Zealand was very pleased with the state of affairs: "It's good that they are sailing better now. Now we finally have the battle we've been expecting and we're ready for it." However, the 26-year-old 49er Olympic champion also allowed himself a little dig in the direction of Spithill: "We were actually expecting this battle last weekend." Burling was open about the weaknesses of his team, which fell off the foils three times in the lost race: "We didn't sail as well as last weekend. We are not happy with that ourselves. But we still have a very fast boat and still have a lot of room for improvement."
The announcement that his team would be back on the water straight after the press conference seemed like an exclamation mark behind the new spirit of optimism at Oracle Team USA described by Spithill. "We want to do some more testing," he said with a deliberately secretive smile. He is back, the provocateur who heralded the Americans' so-called "comeback of the century" in 2013 in a very similar way. Whether the effect of this kind of Spithill magic or the optimisations of the American boat will continue to ensure success will become clear on Sunday, when races 7 and 8 are on the programme and will be broadcast again from 7pm German time on Servus TV (from 6.55pm) and Sky Sport. After Saturday's draw, many pundits agreed that winning Kiwi starts would probably still lead to Kiwi victories, but winning Oracle starts would now be more open in the style of the competitive Race 6, which was characterised by several lead changes, and could be won with good sailing or lost with costly mistakes.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
