America's Cup 2013 - America's Cup Final: Day 3 Post-Race

America's Cup 2013: Day 4
Two Wins for Emirates Team New Zealand As Oracle Loses Lead

Quotes and Wrap-Up: ETNZ Pulls Closer to Winning America's Cup
Oracle Team USA Loses Race 6 Lead, ETNZ Never Trails in Race 7

San Francisco, September 12, 2013

JS on JK:

Jimmy Spithill, Skipper, USA: “When you’ve got the choice between John Kostecki and Ben Ainslie, it’s a pretty nice position to be in.”

Telling JK he was off the boat:

Jimmy Spithill:
“Straight off the bat when we’d discussed it with John and made the decision, the first thing he did was go help Benny get up to speed. It says a lot about JK, and a lot about the team, when guys are willing to do whatever it takes, or whatever changes, to try to help improve the performance, and that’s just the kind of guy he is. He’s all about the team.”

What can be done now about upwind speed, making USA faster?

Jimmy:
"Well, we’re going to fight the whole way. We’re going to go out every single race thinking we can win. We have to, and we believe that. We still have a couple of options with the boat that we are going to make changes in this day off. A little bit of it depends on the weather, but we are going to have to be pretty aggressive now and obviously push as hard as we can, but look -- we know if we sail well out there we can win races."

Pressure Not to Lose:

Jimmy Spithill: "I think the question is, imagine if these guys lost from here, what an upset that would be. I mean they’ve almost got it in the bag. So, that's my motivation. That’d be one hell of a story, that’d be one hell of a comeback, and that’s the kind of thing that I’d like to be a part of. I’ve been involved in some big fight-backs, you know, with some big challenges, and facing a lot of adversity, and that’d be the kind of thing I’d love to be involved in. I know I speak on behalf of all of the team, so that’s our motivation going in to the rest of this series. We feel we’ve got just as much chance to win this, and we’re going to do everything we can."

Fatigue as a Factor:

Glenn Ashby, Wing Trimmer, NZL:
“The boats are man-eaters, effectively. They chew up the big boys up and they get spat out at the end of the race. But both teams are training extremely hard.”

“Teamwork and the timing of all those maneuvers become very critical, and it’s easy to get flustered when you get tired, but both teams have done a very good job of keeping their heads under pressure and we have to just keep chipping away. And good maneuvers and good corner speed are effectively what make the little gains, but we’ll definitely keep chipping away.

Plan B - Would ETNZ's first AC72 be ready to race if the current boat, their second, was damaged?:

Dean Barker, Skipper, NZL:
“Well, we have got a pretty clear plan in place of what’s involved. We don’t have the resources to have the thing sitting there in a complete race-ready state, and there is a bit of work to get it back on the water. [We] do have a clear plan if it was needed, but we certainly hope it’s not going to be the case.”

Additional Links and Info:
See Day 4 Race Reports and more at CupInfo's America's Cup Match Main Page