Well that was disappointing. It's all in the start and not making any mistakes if you get in front.

TNZ did a great job of making it back within 100m. Might have been a different story with another 1000m to chase them in.

One Each!

Chipping rust off, especially as teams don't have 2 boat development racing, challenger should be more race hardened.

Though there are also things like picking sails for conditions you expect, get that wrong and you carry handicap for whole race.

Close matching of boats makes starts more critical and we can expect some more risky moves as things develop.

Two bad TNZ tacks in second race.
INEOS suffered once it was confirmed they lost significant ground on tacks Prada were confident to draw them into more tacks whenever they could.

It would be interesting to see what insights each team gained on each other.

Other courses are more shifty, so always a wildcard with weather and course chosen.

The stadium style short courses not my favorite but if boats remain closely matched should keep nails trimmed.

Handle9: Should be a fun series. Boat performance looks very similar.

I think so.  Close enough so that small mistakes matter (and an element of luck comes in to it too, despite the usual disclaimer by winners that you make your own luck - sometimes true, sometimes not).

More fun to watch than 7 trouncings in a row.

Fred99:

Handle9: Should be a fun series. Boat performance looks very similar.

I think so.  Close enough so that small mistakes matter (and an element of luck comes in to it too, despite the usual disclaimer by winners that you make your own luck - sometimes true, sometimes not).

More fun to watch than 7 trouncings in a row.

I do find the technology analysis from Mozzy Sails interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MozzySails/videos

 
I'll be checking in to see if they get an analysis of the race out overnight.

i thought they were great races, i"m not a massive match racing guru, but watching it with people that are makes a lot more sense of what is going on

Won the start, 30 second win, lost the start 7 second loss, thats not bad. Especially when losing the start is pretty much race over in these series so far. 

I was really surprised at how close in boat speed these two teams are. 

Great spectacle for a non-sailing family such as ours. Haven't a clue what's going on, but boats go fast, do turnings and tackings and get up on the foils and rip along. 

1-1 is about right after the first day...good for the coverage, competition and economy, if it goes down to a decider on the last day, IMO. 

Would have been a shame to see it end in 7 races, which it now will not. 

Seems like we have a decent match. 7 - 0 is bad for the spectators and bad for the sport. 

I still think the ETNZ boat is a far superior package but they will now know it isn't so much faster that they can just sail in the wake of Prada and still run them down. There were a couple of key moments where the boat seemed to be in a sweet spot (first leg race one, final leg race two) where it was sailing higher and outright faster than Prada. 

They'll also be far more polished come next hit-out and I feel Prada are perhaps into diminishing returns in terms of package and boat-handling. They'll get better, but not at the same rate ETNZ will. I don't think Prada's superior crewmanship will have the same impact it did against the Brits as the Kiwis improve. 

Frankly, from a casual fan's POV, I couldn't be happy with day one.

There will I think be no passing, so its down to the starts. maybe the usual faster boat wins wont apply

ezbee:

 

INEOS suffered once it was confirmed they lost significant ground on tacks Prada were confident to draw them into more tacks whenever they could.

 

It would be interesting to see what insights each team gained on each other.

 

The post match analysis showed this was the same for NZ, our tacks arent as polished.. Hopefully something that can be corrected, rather than a result of the design.

tanivula:

 

The post match analysis showed this was the same for NZ, our tacks arent as polished.. Hopefully something that can be corrected, rather than a result of the design.

 

 

Is that race 2? It was the opposite in race 1, I assume as they are in dirty air that their speed is lowered.

IIRC Luna Rossa have better turns, so it suits them to tack tack tack

This might be a controversial view but I think the remainder of the series is going to be quite boring. Not because one team will walk away with it, neither will. But I believe each race will be decided before the guns even goes off. What happens from there will be a foregone conclusion unless the lead boat has a major disaster.

If NZ win the start - they will sail their own race as they know they have a clear boat speed advantage in clear air

If Prada win the start - they will match race, knowing that if they can keep NZ in dirty air they are more maneuverable and will be able to cover any move NZ make to try to get clean air

As exciting as these boats are, it will not be interesting to follow if the outcome is decided in the 30s before the gun goes off.

Agree. Maybe the faster boats wins won't count this time, its about the starts.