‘GOOD VIBES’ FOR THE YOUTH AND WOMEN’S TEAMS IN AUCKLAND

Today on the Hauraki Gulf and mainly in the harbour area with flat water to start with, the Youth & Women were out early, desperate to get vital time in the boat before the established senior team arrived with their potent LEQ12. However, Ray Davies, the Team Coach, threw a spanner in the works in terms of sail set-up today to equalise things out a bit and set a powerful J1 on the AC40 one-design and reigned in the LEQ12 with a J2 in just 8-10 knots of breeze. Interesting session to see just how draggy the J1 is when in flight with a reduced top-speed but just how potent it was in terms of acceleration after manoeuvres. Good exercise.

On balance it was evens-stevens through the series of pre-starts that the team practised with Peter Burling, on the LEQ12, more often than not favouring the leeward position on the lead-back into the line. We’ve seen this before with the Kiwi ‘A’ team, most notably in breeze in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Burling and Outteridge were more than happy to tack right underneath starboard tackers, so sure were they that the trimmers could squeeze and force the windward boat out. Executed like only the Kiwis can, it was devastating and a doom-laden sight for the other helms – you don’t want Emirates Team New Zealand beneath you.

With a smidgen more horsepower off the line, Burling looked sensational but the exercises today were more about the positioning in the box and the final lead-back with no actual race laps being sailed. Once one start was over, rapid fire another was started and we saw various approaches – tight, high and engaged with the other boat being dominant whilst low entry and teasing the windward boat into combat in an almost rope-a-dope fashion which almost always ended in a luffing match, was another approach. Great to watch – the other teams will be analysing this pre-start playbook relentlessly.

Speaking afterwards, Thomas Leigh, one of Emirates Team New Zealand’s Mechatronics Engineers saw huge positives from the day saying: “Pretty good, basically giving the Women and Youth some more time in the boat, practise a couple starts so it was a little bit soft but we made the most of the day quite good vibes out there, Erica (Dawson) and Seb (Menzies) both had their first day in the 40 too so that was good result...I'm more involved with the one-design but it's all going quite well again it's mostly getting the Women and Youth’s heads around it going from simulator to the actual boat but it's going super well, we've got the shed checks and dock checks down pretty nicely so that's all going super well.”

And Thomas continued: “They’re enjoying it because you know you can't really replace the reality of feeling the wind and the feeling of the boat underneath you but it's been pretty quick all things considered so all the SIM training was super useful and just sort of getting used to what the actual boat feels like.”

Winter is in, in New Zealand - air temperatures today were just 8-14 degrees, and even cooler by the time the Youth & Women’s teams came ashore at dusk. The days are long but the time is short before the action heats-up at the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup and the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup. You suspect Emirates Team New Zealand will be right in the mix in both. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – Emirates Team New Zealand: An early start for ETNZ this morning, heading out for another day of two-boat sailing. Docking out with the AC40 OD at 9:30am, they headed out for a training session with the Youth and Women's team before being joined by the rest of the sailing team on the LEQ12 later in the afternoon.

Starting sailing in a very light southerly, the full women's team completed a good sailing block. This was the first time they had the entire team present, with Erica Dawson, Gemma Jones, Liv Mackay, and Jo Aleh, while Molly Meech observed from the chase boat. This was Erica's first time sailing onboard AC40 as she has just returned from campaigning the Nacra 17. They sailed laps in the inner harbour around Mechanics Bay. Initially requiring a tow to start and a tow restart out of most manoeuvres, they quickly began completing manoeuvres fully foiling and sailed some clean laps with visible improvements over the session.

After the morning session, the team was joined on the water in the early afternoon by the LEQ12 and the AC sailing team. They did a crew swap and started sailing with Josh Junior, Sam Meech, Marcus Hansen, and Gemma Jones. The LEQ12 and the AC40 OD spent some time sailing around the harbour, eventually heading out to the area just north of Rangitoto Lighthouse and got into some practice starts on a laid course.

With the wind light, the AC40 OD stuck with the J1 while the LEQ12 had a J2 up. This resulted in some differences between the boats, with the AC40 having more drive out of manoeuvres but lacking some top-end speed, especially reaching. Even with these differences, the teams had some close starts with no great dominance shown by either team.

The style of starting was much more focused on picking a lead-back time and minimising manoeuvres to keep boat speed up as falling off the foils was a major concern for the teams. During the starts watched today, the team that chose the best lead-back time would win the start. This went both ways, with different teams getting it correct. The lighter wind made it harder to hook and push the opposition towards the start line early. Only pre-starts were completed today with no full lap races.

Wrapping up the sailing block, the Women's team swapped back into the AC40 OD and sailed into the harbour, with the LEQ 12 practicing some boat-on-boat manoeuvres. The AC40 OD stayed out on the water to use all the daylight and training time available, while the LEQ12 headed for the dock. Recon had an interview with Thomas Leigh, ETNZ Mechatronics engineer afterwards.