Team NZ’s covert mission helps to foil rivals
The first rule of completing a secret mission is to not draw attention to yourselves.
So causing a significant traffic jam on Auckland’s Southern Motorway because you have forgotten to tie your secret weapon down to its trailer is not a great start.
Thankfully, that secret weapon – The Waka – was undamaged and the group of Emirates Team New Zealand members – who were in stealth mode with no team clothing or branded vehicles – went undetected during all of the unwanted attention of hundreds of motorists.
The year was 2011 and a group from Team New Zealand was on a covert mission to test a radical new development that has now been revealed as the birth of America’s Cup foiling – aka sailing on air.
It almost seems to unsophisticated to believe but America’s Cup foiling was developed on a tiny catamaran on Lake Arapuni – a small lake in the Waikato – after many months of top secret design meetings at Team New Zealand’s base in the lead up to the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013.
The revolutionary new development was too secretive to be tried in front of a ‘‘goldfish bowl to tens of thousands of eyeballs on Auckland Harbour,’’ Team NZ have revealed.
In 2011, simulation technology was not as advanced as it is today so testing and ideas had to be thrashed out on the water.
Glenn Ashby, who was new to Team New Zealand at the time, recalls the first day at Lake Arapuni.
‘‘We made sure we were not in branded team kit. To anyone walking the dog around the lake, we probably just appeared like a few old battlers towing a beat-up old catamaran down the lake for fun,’’ Ashby said. ‘‘We just had quite a few people with cameras and pelican cases in tow.’’
Success wasn’t instant but it didn’t take long for the gigantic gains that foiling presented to emerge.
‘‘After a couple of weeks of tuning and building new foils we got to the stage where we were able to tow the boat and pop out of the water and fly stably.
‘‘The Waka was a fantastic boat to learn all about foils, to understand what you could and couldn’t do, and potentially what the future could hold for us.
‘‘Some of those evenings where we would sit around the table, knowing we were pioneering absolutely new ground in the America’s Cup and in foiling multihulls and foiling boats was a pretty special feeling. Sitting there with the designers and the sailing team really knowing that you were part of such a special period of America’s Cup history in the making,’’ Ashby said.
Team NZ lost the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco to Oracle Team USA after blowing an 8-1 lead to lose 9-8.
But the foiling developments changed the face of top-level yacht racing forever and helped pave the way for Team NZ’s 7-1 series win over Team USA in Bermuda in 2017.