SESSION ONE DONE FOR EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND

Sailing every day has been Jo Aleh, and when asked in interview about her role, said: “I think my role on the big boat is just going to keep sort of developing probably the whole way through to the Cup. There's a lot to work through, and as part of the bigger picture development, I think we still kind of have work to do, which is pretty cool.”

Jo has been head-down in the AC75 for the majority of the sessions but this Olympic gold and silver medallist’s tactical talents will undoubtedly come into play when racing begins in Naples in 2027. For now, systems monitoring and control with an emphasis on power management are Jo’s likely roles, and her consistency on the water is sending her experience levels parabolic.

On Wednesday in the waves and breeze touching 20 knots at times in the early part of the session, she said: “I came in and just thought I need to lock myself into the cockpit more! You definitely get thrown around a bit – it’s pretty impressive!”

Whilst Jo has been a constant, the rotation through the ten days has seen all of the sailing team get crucial time on the water. Nathan Outteridge has been a constant throughout and the likely co-helm pairing with new talent Seb Menzies, is looking like an exciting partnership developing.

The likes of Chris Draper, Josh Armit, and Jake Pye have all been in the trim and helm positions at times, whilst Iain Jensen, the new team signing and Olympic gold medal winning crew alongside Nathan Outteridge at the London 2012 Games, has brought real firepower into the trim and flight control positions. Andy Maloney, the multi-Cup winning trimmer has also been ever-present. Emirates Team New Zealand have talent in abundance.

Over the nine days we saw a modified rudder introduced with more forward rake as the team, from a technique stand-point, have looked for consistency in the lower wind ranges and keeping the bow out of the water through manoeuvres. The foils have been fitted throughout with pitot tubes to measure accurate flow and cavitation speeds, whilst we have seen aggressive aero trim of the sails, particularly the mainsail with lots of traveller-up action as the helms dance the line between displacement and flying in light airs, regularly doing ‘S’ moves on the water.

On Wednesday Dan Bernasconi kept a keen eye on proceedings with Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand also onboard with Kevin Shoebridge, Chief Operating Officer who is on the water for every session.

The path of development will now be set, and observing the daily launch, the sailors are on early doing detailed systems checks alongside engineers with laptops running through controls once the main technicians have launched and tested the standard functionality of the AC75. Emirates Team New Zealand look a cohesive and determined unit with great body language and inter-play between the sailors, technicians and shore team.

RECON REPORT – WEDNESDAY 01 APRIL 2026
Wind against tide provided a challenging warm up for ETNZ. Bow up to keep the rudder well in the water and a flat or slightly leeward heel to the platform were key mode settings for wavy and windy conditions off Auckland’s North Shore. This was a contrast to the lighter, flatter and softening conditions for the long afternoon session in the 'Back Paddock.'

Key points
-    Wave mode , bow up and flat or slight leeward heel
-    Larger jibs and flatter mainsail balance
-    Jib car position critical to speed build
-    Under powered out of manoeuvres on mainsail setup

10:10 Yacht roll-out 

12:23 Hoisting the J5-1 and M1-0 behind Rangitoto Island and heading out to sail off the north of Rangitoto Light in a 16-20 knot Easterly with a medium to large sea state.

Two downwind runs were completed with only one gybe made. The team then sailed towards the ‘Back Paddock’ changing to the J4-2 between Waiheke Island and Motuihe Island where the wind was significantly lighter.

Long upwind and downwind runs with 5 or 6 tacks and gybes made each leg. Lighter wind technique of slight leeward heel roll tack and roll down into the gybe with later board.

2pm battery change and an issue within the port driver's pod. Support team spent 20 minutes working on this area.

At around 2:37 the breeze 8-12 knots and jib was changed to J3-2. Josh Armit was replaced by Jake Pye as port trim.

The trim looked like they were unable to power up the mainsail enough in the lulls or speed builds and also the jib slot was very narrow which both affected the speed builds and led to several big catches out of manoeuvres.

330pm a battery swap and some prestart practice, mostly favouring a higher lead/push back angle.

430pm another battery swap followed by some prestart manoeuvres which featured one good rudder ventilation from a sharp turn-up with too much mainsail load.

515pm Battery swap before reaching and running back to North Head to finish the session. 

CREW
Nathan Outteridge, Andy Maloney, Jo Aleh, Seb Menzies, Josh Armit (Iain Jensen & Jake Pye rotated on)