Emirates Team New Zealand gaining speed on the water
by Emirates Team New Zealand 28 Sep 2016 08:05 BST
28 September 2016
Emirates Team New Zealand training in Auckland © Hamish Hooper / ETNZ
There has been one predominant focus at Emirates Team New Zealand this past couple of months- gaining speed on the water.
The team has been lying low, quietly chipping away and making gains on the water on their first in-house designed and built AC45 test boat.
Skipper Glenn Ashby has been relishing the opportunity to be out sailing despite the wet, cold and windy winter conditions.
"It has been so nice to be out on the water and yachting on the Hauraki Gulf, it has been cold and windy a lot of the time, and we have had our fair share of ups and downs over the last few weeks, but we are making some fantastic gains."
One of the biggest challenges facing the testing program has been the weather, which in winter time in Auckland can throw the full spectrum of conditions at you, so the team has been maximising all available time on the water.
"For us as a team, the on water program has been about flexibility and being prepared to sail on any day of the week, or in fact even any window of hours to get the conditions we need to effectively test in."
One thing that is quickly obvious, is the speeds and capabilities of the new breed of foiling America's Cup boats.
"Boat speed wise, the AC50's will be faster than what we were sailing in San Francisco on the AC72's."
Much has been made of how the boats will eventually get around the race course and Ashby agrees with a lot of the talk and what we will be seeing in Bermuda next year, "the ultimate goal is to keep the hull dry around the track, so the testing phase we are in the moment is trying to come up with systems and techniques of how we actually get the boats around the track."
"The training here is relentless, but the quest to win the America's Cup is what it is all about and for us it's about developing a fast boat and the next few months is absolutely key to the program."
As always with America's Cup boats, the lessons and developments learnt on the water account for so many incremental gains in boat speed, which ultimately will go into the final design of the America's Cup Class boat to be raced in Bermuda in 2017.
Ashby concludes, "I think we are going OK."