America's Cup: Recon Diary - March 24, 2026 - Kiwis suffer breakdown
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 27 Mar 2016 11:00 BST
25 March 2026
- Emirates Team New Zealand, Taihoro, AC75, Day 6 - March 24, 2026 © Sam Thom / America's Cup Recon
Three teams sailed in Auckland, NZ, and Cagliari, Sardinia, on Tuesday as they build up towards the 38th America's Cup.
But for the Cagliari-based teams, the focus is on the upcoming Preliminary Regatta in Cagliari, just under two months away, starting on May 21.
The British Team GB1 and the Italian Luna Rossa, sailed their two AC40s out of Cagliari, while their AC75s have yet to make an appearance.
Emirates Team New Zealand sailed for the sixth occasion in their AC75, in easily the strongest breeze yet, an easterly that looked to be squirting up to 20kts. Recon Unit reports have not yet been posted for the Kiwis' session. We watched it for an hour or so via high-powered binoculars as they sailed in their regular training ground, or the "Back Paddock", and from PredictWind observations, allowing for elevation, the breeze was a solid 15-20kts or higher.
The Recon Unit reported that the Kiwis' training session ended prematurely mid-afternoon due to a traveller issue.
Again, given that this is just the sixth day of training for a largely new crew, it was another impressive performance. The Kiwi team is taking an obviously calculated risk, sailing what will be their 2027 race boat in these conditions with a crew short on AC75 experience. However, that has always been ETNZ's practice - with maybe the logic running that if something does break, then they'd rather find out sooner than later. They did the same thing early in their 2024 campaign, with the same boat, but with their 2021 Cup-winning crew on board. At that juncture, current skipper Nathan Outteridge was an AC75 rookie.
With the next few days due to be unsailable due to strong winds, Tuesday's sail, was their third in four days. By our calculations, they have 39 days left on their 2026 sailing quota of 45days, the lowest of any competing team.
ETNZ Training Report from the ETNZ assigned Recon Unit
The training format for the day was a warm up windward leeward followed by manoeuvres around set marks. These segments were each concluded with extensive team debriefs and systems checks.
The team is progressing from general boat handling and crew rotations towards familiarisation of manoeuvres and practice of match race skills.
Key points today were handling at low speeds and trigger pulls / accelerations.
Technically the heel angle was less aggressive and pitch looked more stable. Mainsail traveller trimming functions are considerably smoother and less inclined to disturb the sail plan.
Notes:
- Prestart bear aways. Two boards down versus one board lifted. The biggest difference being sail trim. With two boards down trim is very eased.
- Two boards down, complete circle in prestart
- Key manoeuvres practised
- Two boards soak into the bottom mark, round up tack.
- Split tack start, two board push to mid line, tack and build.
- Final approach to start line with two boards down, board up to trigger pull
- Lead back with final manoeuvre started at 50sec
- Issue with traveller which finished sailing for the day.
Training Log and Events
- 0815hrs Boat Roll out with Rig No.3.
- 0825hrs Splash at 0850hrs, 0922hrs foil cant check and auto rotate auto sync with cant.
- 1000hrs Off the dock. ETNZ stopped the tow just South West of Rangitoto in a 12-16knt ESE. The M3-0 and the J5-1 were hoisted and sailing at 1039 towards the back paddock.
- Warm up of long windward leeward followed by prestart manoeuvres. Two boards down and board one board bear away practised.
- 1110hrs Long debrief
- 1129hrs Sailing again, long windward leeward followed by two board down sailing, testing low angles and board up speed builds.
- 1231hrs Breeze dropped 10-14kts and was followed by a jib J4-2 and a battery change.
- 1254hrs Prestart practice , one board entries and two board down full circles.
- 1320hrs Sailing stopped another battery was changed and sailing restarted at 1334pm.05 Jib change to the J5-1, breeze increased 14-16knts
- 1415hrs Sailing started again, prestarts with 2 board soaks and a round up tack approach to the bottom mark after a windward leeward.
- 1435hrs Prestarts, Final approach trigger pulls
- 1449hrs Breeze built 16-18knts
- 1508hrs Prestarts, one or 2 circles and lead back.
- 1520hrs Sailing stopped and Chase-1 was called in.
- Yellow cases were brought onboard and extensive Inspection on main traveller.
- Issue was unable to be resolved and sails were dropped and boat towed home at 1545hrs.
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A lighter day in Cagliari
While the Kiwis slept, the Italians and British sailed, in much milder conditions, reported to be 7-14kts, getting lighter as the sessions progressed.
Both teams sailed two boat sessions in their AC40s.
After docking out at 08:00hrs, Luna Rossa's self-Recon report said their pair of AC40s initially sailed separately to warm up the crews, before moving to upwind and downwind legs, sailing full one-lap races. Boat 1 was co-helmed by Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita, with Marco Gradoni and Margherita Porro co-helming Boat 2. Porro was the co-helm on the winning Italian crew in the 2024 Womens America's Cup.
The crews started on the J2 jib, switching to the smaller J3, and then back to the J2, after the wind lightened after 10:30hrs.
In their second bracket of six races, after a break, the breeze dropped slowly and became more shifty.
New sailing squad member Max Antoniazzi was swapped on Boat 2 after a second break at 11:35hrs. They stayed out for more sailing after the two-boat session ended, docking in at 13:00hrs.
Two squads form British crews
The British started their two-AC40 session, docking out an hour after the Italians, also in a NW breeze of 8-14kts.
They sailed a mix of one and two-lap races, primarily focused on starting practice.
Like the Italians, they changed up to a J2 jib as the breeze lightened. New signing Andrea Tesei (ex Luna Rossa) sailed the Athena AC40 skippered by Dylan Fletcher. The British self-recon report didn't name crew positions, although five sailors were listed for Athena, and six in the Hannah Mills skippered AC40 Sienna. Of the 11 sailors listed in the crew lists, seven were shown as being part of the Athena Pathways program and just four for the GB1 program.
The British docked at 13:45hrs after a 4-hour 45-minute session.
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