America’s Cup: Kiwis put in a long day off Takapuna
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 16 Mar 05:11 PDT
America’s Cup Recon, Emirates Team New Zealand, Taihoro, AC75, Day 2 – March 16, 2026 © Richard Gladwell – Sail-World.com/nz
Emirates Team New Zealand put in a long day on the inner Hauraki Gulf for the second of their allowed 45 sailing days in the AC75.
The team set up off Takapuna Beach sailing on the area known as “Course A” in the last America’s Cup held in New Zealand.
In contrast to the fresh conditions of the weekend, there was no wind in the morning, in fact until early afternoon when the first zephyrs of an advancing SW (offshore) breeze ventured across the course.
The AC75 was still in her Barcelona 2024 configuration, with the 2024 wingfoils, which are heavier, but with two less crew (five sailing plus the observer), and whatever the weight difference is between replacement of the cyclor power with battery power, plus the weight of additional batteries.
Initially the AC75 was unable to self foil in the lighter wind and was towed up onto its foils by the chaseboat.
The SSW breeze settled in by 1400hrs and the AC75 started doing the usual pattern of windward leewards, with the crew gaining confidence as the day progressed.
The information from the NZ based Recon Team, who followed the session, is not posted until 1330hrs UTC (1430hrs NZDT), by the European based America’s Cup Partnership, so it is not known who was sailing and in what position. No doubt the commentary from the post-session interviews will be very positive, and deservedly so – assuming the AC75 was being sailed manually and not on auto-pilot.
No major handling snafu’s or nosedives were observed.
Every sailing day counts with the restrictions on the number of sailing days allowed in this America’s Cup cycle (portrayed as a cost limitation measure) to just 45 days until mid-January 2027.
So it was no surprise to see the session continue until 1830hrs, or about a five hour session depending on whether tow-ups are included in the duration calculation. Either way it was a long night for the shore-crew, to pack the AC75 away and remedy any issues before the next sailing day.
By the end of the session the AC75 was being put through some quite aggressive manoevers as the breeze averaged 15kts gusting a few kts higher. The crew, of which most are still on just their second day of sailing in the AC75, outwardly looked to be back to where the team was pre-Barcelona – which is great for building confidence and momentum.
There were several stoppages, none of which looked to be for gear breakage, but most likely for commissioning issues, and crew swaps.
After multiple battery related incidents in the F1 Grand Prix in Shanghai over the weekend, it will be interesting to see the power drain, before replacement/recharge, in the even more extreme AC75 power approach, without any backup human power allowed.
The AC75 battery setup is designed to mimic the power available under the former cyclor setup for the 2024 Cup. Hopefully today’s stoppages were not battery related.
Power usage will be one aspect of today’s performance which will have been monitored by the data analysts and design team, in real-time, back at the team base in downtown Auckland.
It is expected that the Kiwi team will maintain the current level of intensity – with just three weeks left until Daylight saving comes off, in New Zealand, which is a few days before the SailGP sailors in the America’s Cup sailing squad head for the fourth event in Rio de Janeiro. After that the focus will move across to the AC40, with the New Zealand team putting up two crews for the first, and only AC40 regatta of 2027 at the end of May, in Naples.
With daylight saving off, sessions of today’s duration will not be possible, without navigation lights.
Today’s exercise also looked like a data gathering and check-in process, comparing the 2024 performance data with the new, and verifying that against the output from the projections of the repurposed AC75.
It is expected that there will be some gear development undertaken after Rio, probably with legacy wings being trimmed down to the new weight – and with performance data again being checked against what was seen today, and in subsequent sessions.
Light to moderate winds are forecast for the rest of the week.
