| Spain. America’s Cup: A day in the life of Emirates Team New Zealand’s Terry Hutchinson |
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| Wednesday, 19 April 2006 | |
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America’s Cup media: The tactician: One of the strangest roles on an America’s Cup boat – or any large racing boat for that matter – is that of tactician. The tactician doesn’t steer the boat, or navigate it. He doesn’t trim the sails, and he’s not in charge as the skipper is. But the tactician has an enormous influence on the outcome any America’s Cup race. Terry Hutchinson is among the best tacticians in the game. A large amount of credit for the way Emirates Team New Zealand has rebounded from its 2003 Cup defeat can be attributed to him. For Hutchinson, the key to success is in the relationship between the tactician and helmsman; for Emirates Team New Zealand, that’s Dean Barker. “Dean and I continually work on our on and off the water relationship. The stronger that is, the better we are,” Hutchinson says. Developing trust and communication skills is paramount to making the relationship work. The helmsman has to trust the tactician to place the boat in the best place on the race course. The tactician has to trust the helmsman’s driving skills to maximise speed and steer the boat with flair through tight traffic and tense situations. In order to place the boat in the right spot on the course, the tactician must be in tune with the opposition and the weather. Hitting the right shift can win a race, while missing one is sure to put the team at a disadvantage. A typical day for Hutchinson during a Louis Vuitton Act will look something like this: “I’ll get to work at about 8:00 – 8:30 and go straight into weather updates with ‘Clouds’ (Roger Badham – the team’s weather guru) and his team and the rest of the afterguard and then we’ll have a half hour session with our coaches, evaluating the day before or going over who we’re racing against. That’ll get us to about 10:30 which leaves nearly an hour before leaving the dock. During that time I try to relax and get the plan into my head. “Once we’re out on the water you very quickly get into assessing the situation and following the weather team directions and listening to the guys on the boat and what they’re seeing and feeling. From that you begin to develop a plan for the race. “In the time before the start we try and do a full leg upwind which lets us evaluate the weather and wind patterns and calibrate the instruments. This is when, as a team, we start to develop a first general impression of the day. We’ll do full run with the spinnaker, and put the crew some manoeuvres to loosen up, and again, this is a great opportunity to get an impression of what’s going to happen over the day. At the bottom the sails go down, we take a five or ten minute water break and then we’re into the full pre-start routine. “For the pre-start we begin doing time and distance runs to the start line and I get more in tune with what Dean and the bow team have going on so I can help Dean in the start if he’s focussing on the other boat. It’s a balance between doing that and spending time with Ray (Ray Davies – strategist) and the weather guys. For the hour before the start Ray gives me updates every 10 minutes on what the weather guys are thinking. I’m always in the loop on weather but I don’t get too bogged down in it – that’s what Ray does.” During the race During the race itself, Hutchinson is constantly feeding information to helmsman Dean Barker. His job is to take in all the available information and distil it into short, sharp morsels so that he, Dean and the rest of the afterguard can decide what to do. How effectively they work together is easy to judge – the team either wins or loses. “Between the flights you have to feed the team, get re-hydrated but also focus on the next race. As soon as the race is over we take on board a full load of food, weather radios, and that kind of thing. For the second flight of the day I listen far more closely to what the weather guys are saying because I’ve been out of that conversation for a couple of hours during the first race. “After racing, during the tow in we have good solid de-brief on the boat where we can clear up any problems we had and make sure Dean is happy with the way the day was run. We’ll get in on shore – we don’t have an afterguard de-brief until the next morning – but we usually spend about 15-minutes with the coaches coming up with talking points for the next day. I might have to go to the mixed zone for some media interviews and then I spend an hour or so in the gym working the day out of my head. I usually leave around 19:30 or 20:00. On average it’s a 12 or 13 hour day, but it goes by pretty quickly. www.americascup.com |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 April 2006 ) |
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