P – Australian skipper James Spithill must decide whether to replace tactician John Kostecki with British Olympic star Ben Ainslie as he battles to keep Team USA’s America’s Cup title defence alive.

Ainslie stood in for the struggling Kostecki during Oracle’s training session on San Francisco Bay on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) and could be sent into action for races 6 and 7 against Team New Zealand on Thursday (Friday AEST).
Syndicate CEO Russell Coutts said Spithill would make the call on whether Ainslie, the most successful Olympic sailor ever, replaces Kostecki – one of just two Americans on Oracle’s 11-man crew.
Ainslie has been serving as helmsman of Oracle’s B boat, helping prepare Spithill for the competition.
“You’ve got to remember, changing personnel at a time like this has never worked in the past so we’ve got to be cautious about making a change like that,” Coutts said.
“We wouldn’t be thinking about it unless it had a really good chance at working.”
While Spithill has been aggressive and dominating at the start of races, tactical blunders and the Team New Zealand dominance while sailing upwind have put the defenders in a deep hole.
Kostecki called for a foiling tack in Race 5 on Tuesday that led to a crushing loss to Team New Zealand.
The American powerhouse was so soundly beaten by the Kiwis that it played its one postponement card for the regatta and called off Race 6 in order to regroup and make changes.
The Kiwis lead 4 to minus-1 and need five more wins to claim the oldest trophy in international sports.
Oracle Team USA, owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle Corporation, was docked two points by an international jury in the biggest cheating scandal in the 162-year history of the America’s Cup.
They need to win 10 races to keep the Auld Mug.
Coutts, who won the first two of his four America’s Cups as skipper of Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000, said Ainslie might make a difference.
“He’s obviously an extremely accomplished sailor, but Jimmy and Ben and Tommy Slingsby haven’t worked together yet,” Coutts said. “That’s a pretty big ask at this point in the regatta.”
Australian Slingsby, who like Ainslie won a gold medal at the London Olympics, is the strategist and a grinder aboard Oracle’s 72-foot catamaran.
As much as improving tactics, Coutts said Oracle has to improve sailing upwind. That’s what it was working on Wednesday, although the conditions were light.