Incoming USA driver Taylor Canfield has said the hype around the new team’s racing debut in Dubai is ‘a little bit overwhelming’.
But Canfield remained confident about his team’s on water performance, emphasizing he is ‘not at all feeling the pressure’ on the water.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we have an incredible group of sailors and every one of them wants to go out and win every race,” he said at a pre-event press conference.
He admitted that ‘we’re going to make mistakes’ and ‘other teams will take advantage of those mistakes’, but reflected positively on the team’s pre-event training.
“In the last couple of days, we’ve seen an incredible rise and I’m confident that we can be there fighting at least,” he said.
Canfield’s strategy for the weekend is simply to ‘go out and race and see how it goes,’ he said.
“Results aside, we’re going to go out, push hard, be there in every race and continue to grow as a team,” he said. “I think if we do that, we’ll be there in the Finals at the end of the season.”
It comes after a diverse investor group acquired the U.S. team last month, resulting in the departure of former driver Jimmy Spithill and refreshed U.S. crew roster led by Canfield.
After winning Cadiz under the leadership of Spithill, the United States sits third on the overall Championship leaderboard heading into Dubai.
The Emirates Dubai Sail Grand Prix presented by P&O Marinas will take place on December 9 & 10.
