It’s not just about the bikes for Team NZ
Team New Zealand believe they may have found the ‘‘ultimate recipe’’ for this America’s Cup and it stretches beyond their radical move to pedal-powered grinding stations.
The Kiwis continue to train and develop their boat on Bermuda’s Great Sound ahead of official racing which opens with the first round-robin of the Louis Vuitton qualifying series on May 27.
Team NZ mechanical designer Tim Meldrum revealed yesterday there was more to the magic of the Kiwi boat than just the pedal stations, even though that was the most obvious innovation.
‘‘It was a bold decision, it challenged the norm if you like,’’ Tim Meldrum said of getting the grinders to wear lycra and sit in a saddle for the job.
‘‘But we had done our homework and we had all the numbers on the table. We are constantly searching for perfection, for the ultimate performance, for the ultimate recipe and we believe we might have found it,’’ Meldrum said.
His cause for optimism went beyond the bikes.
‘‘Cycling as an innovation is really just one of many innovations on the boat. It gets the lion’s share of the media because it’s so visible. But it’s not like we are driving a propeller that actually makes the boat go faster. If we make more energy, we’ve got to be the smarter team that actually benefits from what we can do with that energy.
‘‘There are probably 20 if not more equally impressive innovations on this boat that we have got to make work as well.’’
Meldrum marvelled at the way the grinders had taken up the challenge to start using their legs rather than their arms, and said there was a competitive feeling within the group that would show in the boat’s performance.
‘‘There are still positions to be fought for so you are seeing a massive amount of hunger from the guys to want to do a really slick transition and put out some big power.’’
Team New Zealand managed to keep their cycling concept secret long enough to probably prevent rivals copying it.
‘‘We had a covert internal programme going where we tried to keep a very limited number of people in on the early days concept.
‘‘But the decision was early on that bikes were a serious contender. The bikes ran in parallel with grinding for a while, we had to really prove that it was here to stay.
‘‘Gradually it just grew and grew and then one day it became pretty serious, we built a one-forone full trampoline mockup and started to do some live training.
‘‘I think everyone took it a lot more seriously when we put some bikes in the actual hull.’’