America's Cup: The Recon Game - an insight into the Cup's Darkside
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 27 Apr 01:53 BST
The Recon Unit assigned to Emirates Team NZ in action - Rangitoto Channel - April 2026 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com / nz
Reconnaissance has been part of the America's Cup since the very beginning of the competition.
It became serious in the buildup to the 1983 America's Cup when the other teams wanted to find out more about Australia II's winged keel. Divers were seen around the secret weapon. Ten years later, the Kiwis caught one spy diver ferreting around their tandem keeled boat while it was on the dock in Coronado.
Technology billionaire Bill Koch took it to a new level in the 1992 America's Cup with a spy boat apparently equipped with all manner of gear and aerials. Whether it was real or an elaborate psychological ploy is not certain. But Koch went on to claim that he knew the details of every challenger and built computer models of each so he could assess the merits of his designs against them. He built four boats to the International America's Cup class rule - and picked the best of them for the Defence. The Kiwis caught one spy diver ferreting around their tandem keeled boat while it was on the dock in Coronado.
America3 was the narrowest-beamed of all in San Diego, and duly defended the Cup with a boat no one could match for speed.
From there, things really started to get out of hand, with quite elaborate attempts, both real and psychological, to conceal design features from the competition, plus covering the boats in full height skirts - a development started by Alan Bond's Australia II, much to the chagrin of the New York Yacht Club.
Peter Blake-led Team New Zealand launched two boats, NZL-32 and NZL-38, for the 1995 Cup, putting out the rumour that the first launched was a "dog", with mainstream media non-sailing media getting in on the act with their "exclusives, which perpetuated the myth. They sailed NZL-38 right through to the Semi-Finals when it was switched for the "Dog" NZL-32, and its impressive speed was on show for all to see.
From there, spying moved to a new level with each team sending its undercover emissaries to the location of each competitor, and following their moves through a combination of video, long-range still images and the spy's judgment and experience - duly sent back from on the water live and after their return.
When Team New Zealand launched their AC50 in Auckland in 1995 - fitted with cyclors, there was an Oracle Racing team RIB close at hand. But the Kiwis had made a late reveal of their hand, and for several reasons, the other teams were committed to traditional grinders, and it was too late to change. The move also underlined the need to have an integrated design, building on a number of features, rather than a gimmick which was easily copied.
From there, the Spy game got out of hand with each Cup competitor being followed by a fleet of four Spy boats, plus a couple of the team tenders - all playing a game of high-speed block and shove, in order to get the close-up shot sought by their design team, while the Defender's chase boat kept positioned between their race boat and the Spy.
For the 2021 Cup that unruly, expensive and dangerous situation was taken in hand with the creation of the joint Reconnaissance program, where only one Recon boat would follow their target, and all the shots, video and a daily report, plus an interview with a team member, were made available to all teams after the sailing day was over. For the first time sailing media were given access to the recon content - and this created a new genre as independent media finally had access to the content, shot by an independent group and not curated by the teams or the event.
As well as being able to track the progress of technical development by the teams, we also got access to independent coverage of the significant events - mast and boat breakages, battery fires, spectacular nosedives and capsizes, as well as some stunning shots of the AC75s at speed and sailing in rough water.
The sailing media could then choose what to cover and how, making their own choices about storylines. So there was a different approach to content creation - from the immediacy of information getting to the fans to the more measured video magazine and podcast, or now vodcast approach - similar to what happens in F1.
There was one flaw in the new system - the dead hand of the rule makers, and teams decreed that all Recon would cease three months before the start of the Cup. A rich seam of content dried up - right at the point it was getting interesting. It was back to the days of supplied, curated vanilla-flavoured content from the teams and events, to ensure that only the "right" content was released.
That issue has been fixed for the 38th America's Cup cycle, where the same Recon Unit concept remains - but it will continue right through to the end of the Cup in the third week of July 2027.
There are still some constraints. The Recon boat is limited in how close it can get to its prey. Their shooting of the boat being rigged and launched is confined to a designated area, and the interviews are conducted in a set area, with a limited duration. There is still tension between the team and the Recon unit, where the teams don't want design information revealed and are often unwilling to discuss it, particularly by more junior team members, who give monosyllabic answers that reveal little.
The team veterans are usually much better at knowing what not to reveal, information that would be useful to a competitor, but know what they can say that is informative to fans. Of course, Peter Blake's NZL32/38 ruse of the 1995 America's Cup buildup can easily be put into play during the interviews and on the water.
Now, have a look at the video above of a day in the life of the only AC75 Recon Unit currently working - as Graeme Sutherland and Sam Thom track Emirates Team NZ.
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