Australia SailGP team training off Auckland. Photo: Photosport
Last time Aussie Tom Slingsby sailed in New Zealand waters, his efforts came to an abrupt and premature ending.
After a family of dolphins gatecrashed the opening day of SailGP racing off Lyttelton last March, the second day proved just as treacherous for our trans-Tasman cousins, who collided with a course marker on the first leg of the first race and could not continue.
"We raced for 40 seconds and hit the marker, and that was the end of our event," reflected Slingsby. "Not fond memories, but since that event, the race committee have changed their policy on how they have the marks.
"Unfortunately, that didn't change our penalty or them owning up to the mistake, but we've blocked that out, we're moving on and we'll try to have a much fonder memory this weekend."
The incident marked the beginning of the end of their three-year reign over the professional sailing circuit.
After winning their home event off Sydney the previous week, they would miss three of the next four finals, before eventually losing their crown to Spain off San Francisco.
The new season hasn't kicked off any better for Slingsby, who missed the final of the opening regatta at Dubai and currently sits fifth on the table.
Still, his predicament is not setting off alarm bells in the Australian camp, as they return to hostile waters for SailGP Auckland this weekend.
While most of his rivals were coming to grips with unfamiliar conditions and new technology on Monday, Slingsby was making a fashionably late arrival to the venue.
Australia SailGP driver Tom Slingsby. Photo: Photosport
"We were not on the water," he quipped. "Conditions on the flight were really nice and my pilot did a great job, very smooth.
"Today will be our first day on the water and pretty happy our first day wasn't yesterday, looking at the conditions with the new foils. Today should be a little bit milder and a bit easier to adapt."
With everyone grappling with the introduction of new T-foils on the F50 boats - an element designed to level the playing field across the fleet - changes to national eligibility rules have also brought competitors closer together - literally.
This year, Slingsby has lost his righthand man - former world and America's Cup champion Kyle Langford - to Red Bull Italy.
"Any time these changes come into the fleet, especially some teams have had a lot of training on these foils and testing over the past year," he said. "I've literally never sailed them, today will be my first day.
"I'd probably be one of the last to try them and our while team have never tried these foils. This change with the foils, there's no advantage for us old guys who have been doing it for a while and a lot of new teams have had more time training on these foils.
"It's a little advantage to them, but we hope our experience and knowledge of hydrofoiling over the last 15 years will fast-track our progress, and we'll be up to speed pretty quickly.
"We'd take 10 days' training instead of three, but we've got to deal with what we've got and it won't be an excuse at the end of this event."
Slingsby insists his team are not that far off the pace, now set by New Zealand, despite their rapid fall from grace.
Australia celebrate SailGP Sydney win. Photo: Photosport
"It's swings and roundabouts really," he said. "To me, the Kiwis are the form team, riding the success of the America's Cup.
"It's a confidence game, we're all in identical equipment, we all share data and everyone can see each other's stuff. Pete [Burling] and his guys are America's Cup champions, on a high and sailing well.
"You've got [Spanish driver] Diego Botin coming off a gold medal, winning SailGP and Sailor of the Year - they're full of confidence.
"Do I think our confidence is down - no. We lost the final in San Francisco by a very small margin, we had a small failure there that could have made the difference and we could have won four in a row.
"In Dubai, we were leading the event for most of the way and had one bad race, and got knocked out of the final on a threeway countback. We're right there, things just have to fall our way."
