BACK TO (SERIOUS) WORK IN AUCKLAND

Taihoro – the Cup winning boat from 2024 and the Defender of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup – was out of the shed early morning and all eyes were on any visible sign of new equipment or focusses of attention. Immediately at the foil area was the abundance of cameras both on the foil arm looking down onto the outer wing and new test stripes plus stand-cameras on the inner wings aligned with pitot tubes at the front of the bulbs, suggests that ETNZ are heavily into foil iterations despite running 2024 wings and flaps.

At launch, the shore team were seen fitting wiring and a disc-shaped sensor/transmitter to the rudder tower at the stern of the boat before a lot of attention was given to what appears to be a new jib traveller system with grooves cut into the aero-combing and clear trim marker points. System control aligned with aero is everything in the AC75 and are areas of development for all teams both in the jib and mainsail areas.

Onboard today was the usual AC75 team of Nathan Outteridge, Seb Menzies, Andy Maloney, Iain Jensen and Jo Aleh whilst in the Guest Racer spot, trimmer from the Youth Team, Josh Armit was observed onboard.

The day was split into long straight-line sailing to gather data before harsh figure of eight manoeuvres as the team dialled into pre-start control manoeuvres – an area that they are really concentrating on as they prepare for what is expected to be super-tight pre-start match-racing. It’s also an area that ETNZ know they have to improve on as proven by the two Preliminary Regattas where effectively they lost the match-race final races in the pre-start.

Speaking afterwards Seb Menzies commented on the choppy sea-state that made sailing difficult in 12-17 knots saying: “Obviously, there’s a lot less margin for error. Everyone’s trying to get the boat super-low to the water, so as soon as there’s waves, you are either weighing up the risk of touching a wave or getting the boat nice and close to the water. So that’s a lot to work through for everyone and it gets generally quite a bit harder to sail the boat as soon as there’s any waves. But it’s a good way to test yourself and obviously in Naples we didn’t see a huge amount of waves, but it’s always good to check back in.”

Talking about the aggressive figure of eight moves, Seb added: “We’re basically preparing for a match-race start where the boats have to do real aggressive turns, so checking through a number of different things with that. But yeah, we’re anticipating the boats having to do high turn rates and a lot of low-speed manoeuvres as well. Obviously, the starts being probably the most important part of the race.”

First day back. Plenty to take away. The Defenders of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup are deadly serious about winning in Naples.

Magnus Wheatley

Recon Report – 06th October 2026

Key Points:

- Choppy/Messy sea state.

- Cold easterly.

- First day of new training block.

First day of the spring training block for ETNZ as they rolled out of the shed at 925. Attached was the short rudder seen at the end of the last training block. ETNZ was also seen with several new test stripes painted on the inner foil wings and arm. This along with the foil cameras being mounted only on the inner wings suggest an area of testing focus for the day. Splashing down at 1003, there was considerable time spent by the team on the rudder tower and jib traveler system. This was explained by Seb Menzies in the interview as part of the commissioning process of new modifications. The crew consisted of Outteridge, Menzies, Maloney, Jensen, Aleh, Armit.

ETNZ were off the dock at 1100 and off the tow under Motuihe Island at 1132. Hoisting their M2-0 main and J3-1 they started sailing at 1201 in a cold 12-17 knot easterly. The wave state was a surprisingly sharp, steep chop, that varied considerably in the channel versus further up into the shelter of Waiheke Island. After one up and down, ETNZ stopped at 1219 to adjust the jib tack before once again sailing at 1232. The session ended at 1251 and consisted mostly of straight line testing. It was interesting that ETNZ was on the J3-1 version of their J3 today, where previous training block was mostly spent on the J3-3.

The second session started at 1302 and consisted of more straight line testing followed by a couple of runs with more tacking and gybing. It looked like ETNZ were keeping the board down longer in the gybes and gliding for longer before raising the board at a rate which kept heel steady. There also seemed to be a bit of testing in the range of boat pitch. ETNZ ended the session by sailing around to the northern side of Waiheke where they stopped. Switching the foil cameras in their break.

At 1404 the next session started in a much lighter 10-14 knots. ETNZ spent the whole time throwing the boat through progressively more aggressive figure of 8s. There was no simulated restarts but rather a structured testing of the boat through these manoeuvres at what would be the bottom end of the wind range for the J3. By the time the session ended at 1430 the wind had dropped significantly to around 7-10 knots.

ETNZ then changed to their J2-1 and started sailing at 1425. Once again it is interesting ETNZ went with their J2-1 instead of their usual j2-2. Also despite the light wind the sea state remained, being short but steep and from a mixed direction. This creating challenging conditions for ETNZ to push their ride height without splashing the hull. At 1508 ETNZ had a short break before continuing sailing at 1517 with a long sail down the north side of Rangitoto Island down to Takapuna Beach, where the sea state was much flatter. Before ending their day off of North Head at 1553. Back at the dock at 1625.

Overall a solid first day of this spring training block. Making the most of reasonably strong morning breeze that steadily eased throughout the day. A strong day of testing runs with no organised prestart practices and no VIPs.