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INEOS, skippered by Ben Ainslie, registered
five victories from five starts to storm into the final of the
Challenger Series, with the winner set to take on TNZ in a
series of head-to-head races from March 6 for the America's Cup.
"Certainly, as the defender, we are seriously taking notice,"
Dalton told the Times. "There's no doubt they are sailing
brilliantly — they are absolutely pin-point perfect and they are
not making mistakes on a shifty course.
"They are used to sailing boat-on-boat and they are used to
sailing close (to their opponent), as our guys are."
In terms of weaknesses, Dalton said INEOS do not seem to have
resolved their issues with performance in light winds.
"They are sailing a good boat exceptionally well, not a great
boat OK," he said. "They will be concerned at their light-air
performance and working towards how to fix that, although I'm
not 100% sure how they will do that."
INEOS grinder David 'Freddie' Carr said they were striving to
bridge the gap to TNZ.
"You'd be foolish not to have improvements to put on the boat
throughout a two-month period of a Challenger Series into an
America's Cup and we have got new stuff," Carr told New
Zealand's Stuff media.
"The Kiwis are where the bar is set and ultimately that's where
we want to get to ..."
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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