Team NZ sails into murky waters
Team New Zealand design boss Dan Bernasconi revealed they had been forced into ‘‘bestguess’’ scenarios as they battled the coronavirus lockdown.
Forging ahead with the design and build of the second generation boat that will be used to defend the America’s Cup in Auckland next March, they didn’t have the benefit of a test boat on the water for five weeks.
‘‘There are things which we wanted to have tested before we had to commit to a design on them. But we have just had to sort of forgo and go ahead with our best guess at the design without having tested an earlier version of it on the small boat,’’ Bernasconi told Stuff.
‘‘We are grateful the lockdown only lasted for a few weeks.’’
They have had to rearrange their test schedule and have now had three days out on the water in the smaller scale Te Kahu, working through a multitude of developments in a game of catchup. They do that with the benefit of another major sponsor coming on board in the form of Chinese technology giant Huawei.
The significant deal is a positive sign for the America’s Cup pushing forward through the uncertainties of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bernasconi sees benefits for his design team in the state-ofthe-art phones that have been delivered to the defenders.
Bernasconi said that in the absence of their first generation AC75 Te Aihe that is now returning from its ill-fated trip to Europe, the test boat was more than proving its worth despite being crewed by only four sailors. It’s crucial as they work through the build of the second generation boat.
They are looking to make up around 7500 man hours lost in the build of that boat because of the level four lockdown.
‘‘Things can happen a little bit quicker on the small boat than on the big boat both in terms of the sailing and design departments,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a great platform for development and because we designed and built it after boat one.
‘‘It’s further ahead than boat one in a lot of ways, albeit on a smaller scale.
‘‘I guess the negative is that we aren’t getting the full sailing team out on the water so the grinders have had quite a long spell ashore for a while now while boat one has been on a bit of a world tour, shipped to Italy and back.’’
Te Aihe is due back in Auckland next month, having just left Singapore. Bernasconi said they would work with both Te Aihe and the smaller test boat over the next few months.