Rivals excited by ‘cool boat’

Team New Zealand’s radical new America’s Cup boat has gained high praise from rival syndicates who have suggested it could push the 50-knots mark in speed.

Images and details of the 75-foot foiling monohull, which is allegedly very manoeuvrable, were released on Tuesday and their impact has been hungrily absorbed by potential challengers..

‘‘They have delivered a truly high-performance boat that will make the next America’s Cup an incredible sporting and technical challenge,’’ British syndicate boss Sir Ben Ainslie said.

Ainslie has already confirmed he will be contesting Auckland 2021 and his syndicate has been privy to some of the design process undertaken by the computer geniuses at Emirates Team New Zealand and Italian challenger of record Luna Rossa.

‘‘In the right conditions, this boat will be as quick as or quicker than the foiling catamarans raced in the last Cup. The sport has gained a lot of new fans and this boat will cement their interest in the America’s Cup and build on a

"They have delivered a truly high-performance boat that will make the next America's Cup an incredible sporting and technical challenge."

British syndicate boss Sir Ben Ainslie .

very strong base.’’

Ainslie’s new general manager, Australian Cup veteran Grant Simmer who has come across from Oracle Team USA, described the design as ‘‘a boat like none of us have sailed before’’.

‘‘It’s a really cool boat, and a bold decision. It’s an exciting boat, really technically challenging, and it will be really challenging for the sailors as well,’’ Simmer said.

‘‘It’s early days, but our modelling is indicating that these boats are capable of 50 knots. Ultimately it will be a hell of challenge to sail a boat like this ... We’ll get there, it’s definitely do-able.

‘‘It’s in the lighter winds that the boats will be really tricky because the hull will be in the water, and you’ll be going from that to partial displacement to foiling. How the crew manages those transitions will be critical to performance.’’

Australian Tom Slingsby, like Simmer a yachtie who has won and lost the Cup, said the design was ‘‘amazing’’ as he tries to put together a potentially powerful Australian challenge.

‘‘I had got a few tip-offs as to what it may look like - yeah it looks like an amazing boat and I think it will be pretty fast,’’ Slingsby said. ‘‘You can never take a backward step - Team New Zealand made it clear they wanted to race monohulls and I’m very glad they decided to push the limits of what we can do in our sport.’’

‘‘The boats in Bermuda were pretty efficient, during the America’s Cup match we didn’t have over 10 knots [of wind] but we still got up to over 40 knots in boat speed so if they can do that then all props go to them [Team New Zealand] ... impressive.’’