"It's great to win a tight race like we had today, but we are also aware that our learning curve is still nearly vertical,"
said Stars & Stripes helmsman Ken Read. "However, these tight races have really sharpened the team, and that's probably the biggest difference between our performance in this round and the races in
Round Robin One."Team Dennis Conner defeated the Nippon Challenge today, but the race was tight from start to finish. The lead changed hands on the first leg, on the second leg and on the
third leg. Sailed in 15 - 20 knots of breeze, the final margin of victory did not reflect the closeness of the racing. Stars & Stripes had only a 20-second advantage over Nippon at the final weather
mark. However, that margin grew to one minute and seven seconds because of the penalty turn Nippon had to do before they finished. "We made too many errors as a team in the earlier races --
errors that simply are not happening anymore," Read continued. "The team now has the confidence that we can get the job done no matter how tight the situation is. And we are getting the job done.
Good thing, because our afterguard put our team into some tight situations today, knowing we could handle it. We made gains every time." Is Stars & Stripes going faster now than it was
in the earlier races? "You bet we are," Read explained. "And having Tom Whidden here has certainly accelerated the process. We were making incremental changes all along, but when Tom came
aboard last week and agreed with the direction we were going, we took off the 'hand brake' and accelerated the process. That's been very positive and really important ^Å because everyone else is going faster
too." Tomorrow, Team Dennis Conner races the Swiss Fast 2000 syndicate. |
