Australia driver Tom Slingsby knows nothing hurts more than losing at home to New Zealand.
"It'd be brutal if the Kiwis came here and won," he told AAP ahead of this weekend's Sydney SailGP.
"There's nothing worse than the Kiwis coming to Australia and beating the Aussies on home turf. It's possibly the worst thing ever."
But the stakes are higher than usual as the three-time back-to-back champions look to hold their lead atop the SailGP's overall rankings from Saturday.
Australia has a six-point advantage over the second-placed Kiwis but are on the back foot coming into the season's eighth of 13 events.
A software error meant Australia started the fifth fleet race of last month's Abu Dhabi SailGP some 11cm over the line.
The ensuing 20m penalty left them to crash out of calculations for the winner-take-all final and place seventh out of 10 boats overall.
Australia also failed to win at any of the first six regattas this season, but appeared on the podium at all.
New Zealand arrive in Sydney having won the past two events of the season in the UAE.
With the tour moving to Christchurch after this weekend, Australia can ill-afford to let the Kiwis keep their run going.
"This is a pretty important event for us," Slingsby said of the Sydney SailGP.
"It's our home event and we're coming off our worst result in three years and then we've got the Kiwis who have won the last two events.
"If they come and beat us here and then they head into their home event in Christchurch (with momentum), the hill just gets steeper for us to climb."
Slingsby, now living in Barcelona with his young family, is back in Australia for the first time in 10 months.
While heavy winds are likely to play into his crew's hands, he does not anticipate having a significant home-course advantage over his rivals.
"I'd say 90 per cent of the fleet know the track really well," Slingsby said.
The Kiwis may be best-prepared of all the international boats; Australian Olympic Gold Medallist Nathan Outteridge has temporarily taken over as driver of the New Zealand boat.
Outteridge is filling in while Peter Burling takes paternity leave, having done the same for Denmark's driver Nicolai Sehested at the Abu Dhabi SailGP.
"I seem to be the (person) people call when they have kids," said the former Japan SailGP skipper.
"Whatever it takes to come and drive one of these boats at SailGP."
Drawing on his wins across the first three SailGP seasons, Slingsby is looking at the Sydney event as the chance to turn a corner.
"In previous seasons, you see once a team gets momentum they ride it for a long time," he said.
"I'd love to turn the momentum here in Sydney."
