Emirates Team New Zealand

April 18, 2016 By Jack Griffin

ETNZ Roster: 10 Sailors in a Team of 79

Emirates Team New Zealand has a new web page showing the 79 members of their team, including their team principal, Swiss billionaire Matteo de Nora, who has backed the team for years while staying out of the limelight. The team counts 11 nationalities. Ten sailors are listed; half of them are grinders. One of those grinders is Gilberto Nobili who sailed with Oracle in the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco. Three of the sailors were on the winning New Zealand Youth AC team in San Francisco – helmsman Peter Burling, trimmer Blair Tuke and grinder Guy Endean. Those three, together with tactician Ray Davies and team skipper Glenn Ashby have been the crew on the AC45F in the America’s Cup World Series, which they currently lead.

We hope to have news soon about when the Kiwis will launch their AC45X experimental boat. They and the French are the only teams not to have an experimental boat with grinding pedestals and dimensions close to the AC Class yachts that will race in 2017. For testing, the team has been using a modified AC45 on loan from Luna Rossa.

April 11, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Video: One Bold Tactic from 2013 Racing that Teams Must Master for 2017

Teams will need confident, precise boathandling to pull off maneuvers like this one from Race 13 of the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco. At the leeward (downwind) gate, Oracle Team USA waited until the last possible moment to decide which mark to round. After seeing which mark Team New Zealand wanted, they executed a perfect gybe, right in front of the Kiwis, leaving the New Zealanders two bad choices: either follow Oracle around the left hand mark or gybe a second time to split to the other side of the course.

Rather than continuing straight to the right hand mark Oracle has gybed in front of New Zealand to take the left hand mark.

The LiveLine augmented reality graphics show white dots marking Oracle’s single gybe and the red dots of the Kiwis’ track through two gybes. The clock shows Oracle rounded the mark 12 seconds earlier. The Kiwis are sailing slow and have yet to reach the right hand mark.

In this video, you can hear Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill suddenly call, “Gybing – right turn, right turn, right turn!” when he sees the opportunity to gybe in front of New Zealand.

In Bermuda in 2017, the smaller race courses and shiftier conditions will make it even more important to execute last second maneuvers at the gates. The trailing boat usually wants to split away from the leader, but both teams will want the favored side of the course. The ability to make a quick maneuver or to react to one from your competitor will be essential to winning in Bermuda.

Images courtesy of ACTV.

April 11, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Video: SoftBank Team Japan Man Overboard

SoftBank Team Japan sailor Winston Macfarlane fell overboard while testing the team’s AC45X experimental boat in Bermuda last week. Macfarlane was unhurt and the team had a chance to test their man overboard procedure.

Man Overboard on SoftBank Team Japan

This is not the first time skipper Dean Barker has seen Macfarlane go overboard. Macfarlane took an unplanned swim while racing with Barker for Emirates Team New Zealand in the 2011 AC World Series in Cascais, Portugal when a winch handle broke. Photos and video of the 2011 incident here.

April 4, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Emirates Team New Zealand – Hard, Serious Work

ETNZ makes a powerful impression by leading the standings in the America’s Cup World Series. But the remoteness of their country and their natural reticence means we have little news about how their development is going. Here is a video showing some of the unglamorous work that goes into designing a winning boat – testing materials to the breaking point so you know just how light you can build each component.

Testing to Destruction – Emirates Team New Zealand – Andy Kensington

March 28, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Beast Mode – How to Trim the Wing

All four AC72’s that raced in San Francisco in 2013 used a mechanical linkage from the grinding pedestals to the wing winch. The grinding pedestals can be switched between pumping hydraulic oil and mechanically driving a winch. The mechanical linkage is more efficient than hydraulics for driving a winch. On upwind legs, three of the four pedestals on Oracle’s boat were dedicated to powering the wing winch, allowing trimmer Kyle Langford to trim the wing constantly, enabling stable upwind foiling. But this was a lot of work for the grinders, who called it “Beast Mode.” Here’s a video that shows how it was done.

Recently, a poorly informed journalist wondered in print if this constant trimming was legal. It was. The umpires in San Francisco were well aware of it. Oracle’s opponent, Emirates Team New Zealand did not protest. And, the umpires for the 2017 America’s Cup have issued a ruling to clarify that Beast Mode is legal. You can download that ruling here. Did you watch SoftBank Team Japan’s video in last week’s Cup Experience Monday News? You could see them training in Beast Mode on their experimental boat in Bermuda. As I mentioned in my article, you could see all four grinders turning the handles while wing trimmer Chris Draper constantly trimmed the wing.