Gavin Brady after the fleet races

Journalist: Congratulations. Two wins in two fleet races.

Gavin Brady: Yes, it was a fun day and a good practice for the semifinals that start tomorrow. We are all competitive, in all the teams, and whenever we get on the start line on these boats to race it’s good to be competitive. These boats are pretty unique and probably people have mixed feelings but sometimes the fleet racing is as fun to watch as the match racing. There’s lots of race within the fleet and it was good. These boats are just fine for fleet racing.

Journalist: Fleet racing seems to be easier to understand for non-sailors.

Gavin Brady: Yes, fleet racing is more common but at the end of the day the fundamentals between fleet racing and match racing are very similar. The basics of sailing still apply; you have to be on the favorite end of the start line, at full speed, get the first wind shift and have good crew work. If you can all that, you have a good chance to win, whether it is match racing or fleet racing. We need to carry on what we did today, tomorrow. There is just one other boat to worry about and maybe it’s easier.

Journalist: Personally, do you prefer fleet racing or match racing?

Gavin Brady: I don’t really have a strong preference. I come from a match racing background but I certainly enjoy fleet racing. They just are slightly different disciplines. I don’t have a preference for either one.

Journalist: In tomorrow’s semifinals you ended up with Team New Zealand

Gavin Brady: It’s great to race Emirates Team New Zealand. It’s very special for me because I’ve grown up sailing against Dean Barker and many of the people onboard that boat. They are friends on land but archrivals on the water. We won one race and lost two against them in the round robins. I feel it is now 2-1 to Dean and now I’ll get a chance to revenge that. The big difference for us tomorrow is that there is no holding back. We can just go for it while in Auckland and La Maddalena we had to be a little bit more careful. You will certainly see a very aggressive style of match racing tomorrow. We are going to come out tomorrow and be sticking it in there, whenever we can. We will be very aggressive.