Team New Zealand pack bags for Bermuda
Team New Zealand have officially wrapped up their sailing programme in Auckland.
After 21 days of sailing in the Hauraki Gulf, Emirates Team New Zealand lowered its bold red wing sail at their Beaumont St base for the final time yesterday as the disassembly process begins. Over the next few days the shore crew will package up the 50ft catamaran and get it ready for its flight to Bermuda on April 9.
Once the boat is put back together on the ground in Bermuda, Team New Zealand will have about a month of finetuning before the regatta gets underway with the America's Cup Qualifiers on May 26.
Team NZ only launched their race boat — christened New Zealand, Aotearoa — six weeks ago, putting the Kiwi syndicate’s testing programme under huge time pressure.
Grant Dalton, Team NZ’s chief executive, believes the team have played the catch-up game well.
“This was a late campaign for Emirates Team New Zealand and if we look back at one year ago, I still find it hard to believe how far we have come,” said Dalton.
“We have been watched very closely by the Oracle SoftBank spies every minute we have been on the water and their vigilance makes me think we built a very good racing machine. We could keep improving and developing the boat indefinitely, but we have got to go racing at some stage, and now is that time.”
A fast boat requires a close collaboration between sailors, designers and shore team as each modification is the result of tests on the water, simulations and constant research of performance solutions.
Dalton said over the past month and a half the team worked tirelessly on the water and in the shed to finetune the control systems.
These will be the key variable between the competitors in this year’s America's Cup.
The Kiwi team will be the last syndicate to arrive in Bermuda, with defender Oracle Team USA and rival challengers Softbank Team Japan and Artemis having been based on the tiny island for their entire campaign.
The other two teams, British entry Ben Ainslie Racing and French syndicate Groupama, officially set up camp there last month.
Team NZ skipper Glenn Ashby does not believe their late arrival will put them at a major disadvantage. He said the sailing conditions in Auckland have been ideal for testing and putting the race boat throughout the range of conditions it will race in once in Bermuda.
“The conditions have almost been more Bermuda-like than in Bermuda,” said Ashby.
“We have probably been the team that has had the chance to sail more days on their America's Cup Class catamaran than anyone to date as the weather at this time of year in Auckland is perfect for sailing.
“But we have needed every moment we could manage out there because while we are in transit the other teams will be making some big gains.”
Team NZ already have an advance team on the ground in Bermuda setting up the temporary base in preparation for the arrival of the boat in the middle of next month.