America's Cup: Big breeze propels Kiwis into the Furious Fifties
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 12 Aug 23:21 BST
Emirates Team NZ - Day 20 - August 12 2026 - Auckland, NZ © Sam Thom/America's Cup
Emirates Team NZ "enjoyed" a three-hour session on Wednesday, which offered a rare opportunity to test out the "small gear", along with three "new" foils.
"Today was a good day for us," said skipper Nathan Outteridge after the session, which was sailed in fresh to strong easterly winds and frequent rain squalls, and in the middle of Auckland's winter. The best thing that could be said about the weather was that at least it didn't snow.
The breeze was reported by the Recon Unit attached to the Kiwi team at 18-22kts, but at a fixed reporting position a few hundred metres east of North Head, the range was recorded as 25-35kts.
"Today was a real opportunity to push the boat and see how the developments are going at the top end. We were well over the [racing] wind limit for a lot of our session [23kts]. It was good fun to get some confidence sailing in that stuff."
The Recon Unit assigned to a spy/reconnaisssance on behalf of the other six AC Challengers, described the sails as "very crispy", suggesting they were probably legacy sails from the 2024 campaign, fresh out of the bag, and they didn't get much airtime in the lighter winds in Barcelona.
Today, the Kiwis used their small M3 mainsail and J5 jib.
"We haven't seen those sails for a while, so our sail design group were really keen for us to check in on those again."
"The boats really light up as soon as you put the small gear on. When you can get onto the little sails, the boats really come into another gear, and as you would have seen today, the boat was going pretty fast."
The team revealed after the session that the boat speed was frequently over 50kts.
An initial part of the set-up with the small rig is getting the boat correctly balanced.
"There's always a process to tuning them up and finding the right boat balance. The little jibs [J5] are tiny and the main's still almost just as big. It has a little less area. But making sure the boat balance is right is probably one of the most important things when you get out there. We spend a lot of time just tuning it up and making sure the boat's in balance before you can really get the top speed out of the boat."
"Then you can start throwing the boat around, doing a bunch of manoeuvres, and making sure that you know the balance is behaving nicely in the manoeuvres. And once you're able to do that, then you can start throwing in some more pre-start action into it as well.
"We're really happy that we were able to step through the day in that way today."
The Recon Unit reported that, incredibly, the team executed six practice pre-starts in the miserable, quite extreme conditions. The boat emerged, apparently without sustaining any damage, which would be a boost for the confidence of the America's Cup Defenders, who have chewed through 45% of their permitted 2026 sailing days quota. Only one other team, Luna Rossa, is close, on 35% of their 2026 sailing days quota.
As well as getting a look at the small rig, Wednesday was also an early opportunity for the team to assess their new set of foils that have been installed over the past week. According to the Recon Unit, the foils are all legacy foils from the 2024 campaign, which may have been modified within the allowed 20% limit for wing foils. As is standard practice at this stage of testing, the team is sailing with a different wing foil design on port and starboard for performance evaluation purposes.
The team did fit another rudder, also a legacy from 2024, which was on the boat on Monday and only identified on Wednesday. It was described by Luna Rossa's Max Sirena in an interview on Wednesday as being a "short rudder."
"The important thing is to check them through the wider wind range. That's why today was quite a critical day for us to get out there in some strong breeze and see how the boat behaves," Outteridge explained.
The only hitch occurred soon after the team started sailing - an issue with the jib strop, which Outteridge explained was not the correct length. "It is important to get all the corners in the right spot to make sure you can load them up properly. We just had to lower the jib a little bit then."
Emirates Team New Zealand - Day 20, Wednesday, August 12, 2026 – Auckland, NZ
Recon Report – 12th August 2026
Emirates Team NZ stayed in the lee of the Gulf Islands - Recon Unit track - Emirates Team NZ - Sailing Day 20 - August 12, 2026 - Hauraki Gulf, Auckland - photo © ETNZ Recon Unit
- AM: Cloud, Heavy rain: Wind: 18-22kts 070° (ENE)
- PM: Cloud, Heavy rain: Wind: 18-22kts 070° (ENE)
- Sea State: Rough (AM) Rough(PM)
Sailing Stats:
- Dock Out: 1000hrs
- Dock In: 1416hrs
- Time sailed: 3hrs
- Foiling time: Not reported
- Tacks: No data Gybes: No data
Crew List:
- Port Helm: Seb Menzies (NZL)
- Starboard Helm: Nathan Outteridge (AUS/NZL)
- Port Trimmer: Iain Jensen (AUS)
- Starboard Trimmer: Andy Maloney (NZL)
- P5: Jo Aleh (NZL)
Recon Report - Sailing Day 20 - August 12, 2026
Key Points:
- Strong Winds.
- M3 Main and J5 sails used.
- Large sea state.
Strong winds were forecast with afternoon rain as ETNZ rolled out at their usual winter time of 0815 on Wednesday morning. The component declaration identified the recently changed rudder as R5-B, meaning ETNZ is now running a full set of modified foils this training block. By staggering the foil changes over the block, ETNZ have been able to gain good comparison data of the foil modifications across the full wind range. Due to the wide variety of conditions experienced over the block so far.
The crew consisted of Outteridge, Menzies, Maloney, Jensen, and Aleh.
ETNZ left the dock at 1000 and quickly made their way to the lee of Rangitoto Island, where they hoisted their M3-0 and J5-2. Another slow hoist of the main suggested similar modifications have been made to their other mains, as have been made to the M2. At 1043 ETNZ sailed onto the foils in light rain and an 18-20 knot easterly.
After 5 minutes of sailing on port tack, ETNZ stopped and made adjustments to their jib, identified in the post-sailing interview as an incorrectly attached tack line.
At 1108 ETNZ resumed sailing and continued on their way upwind to the Back Paddock. The sea state was quickly increasing in the building breeze, and in the channels around the islands it was becoming a significant chop. ETNZ made their way up to the south side of Waiheke and did several long runs up and down from there to Eastern Beach.
The wind was in the upper end of their sailing range, and the AC75 showed very quick pace on the small sails. There was a noticeable difference in the balance of the boat, with ETNZ being consistently much more bow up than usual and often with a lean to leeward on the upwinds. The jib was also often moderately eased out of the tacks. There were often several attempts at a successful bearaway, although it appeared to be more of an easing into the conditions and setup than anything dramatic.
The session ended at 1154.
The next session started shortly after at 1207. The rain had cleared, and there was a slight easing in the breeze. The steep, sharp chop still remained, however, and despite being considerably flatter under the lee of Waiheke Island, the sea state quickly rose as ETNZ made their way down to Eastern Beach. This seemed to have a minor effect on the foiling ETNZ, however it made following closely at 40+ knots by Chase One and our recon boat impossible.
Chase One instead relied more on the drone and the live feed than usual. Waiting instead until ETNZ was back up under the lee of Waiheke Island to keep up. Session 2 ended at 1235.
Session 3 started at 1256 and saw the wind starting to build again slightly to the low 20 knots. Having gained confidence in the boat and setup over the first two sessions, the third session consisted only of a rolling set of pre-starts. ETNZ was confidently able to throw the boat around in aggressive pre-start manoeuvres and looked very much settled into the conditions.
The session ended at 1315. A quick 15min break before a final sail back down to the lee of Rangitoto Island, dropping sails at 1349 before the expected heavy rain set in. Back at dock 1416, for a slightly shorter day.
Overall, a short but very productive day for ETNZ, testing their modified foils, with their smaller sails in the very top end of the wind range.