Emirates Team NZ Chief Operating Officer Kevin Shoebridge on America's Cup win. Video / NZ Herald
By Christopher Reive in Barcelona
Team New Zealand’s bid to retain the America’s Cup began almost as soon as it had been defended in Auckland in 2021.
Before the Cup match in the 36th America’s Cup was completed, the Kiwis had already lined up the British syndicate to take over as Challenger of Record from Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli for the 37th edition.
The Cup match – against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – finished on March 17; Team NZ winning 7-3. The UK’s Royal Yacht Squadron was officially confirmed as the new Challenger of Record on March 19.
Peter Burling drinks from the America's Cup after Emirates Team New Zealand's defence in Auckland. Photo / Andrew Cornaga, Photosport
For Team New Zealand, they saw a change in personnel – highlighted by the signing of decorated sailor Nathan Outteridge to partner with incumbent Peter Burling in the new dual-helming set-up. Outteridge was actually announced as part of the team before Burling and flight controller Blair Tuke were confirmed to be returning to the squad.
It was a show of intention by the Defender, who had been critical of their sailing performance in their previous defence against Luna Rossa.
“Kevin Shoebridge approached me probably a few months after the America’s Cup was over and said they were looking to strengthen the sailing team but also to make sure they were prepared as best they could be for racing,” Outteridge told the Heraldlast year.
“I think one of the things they felt was maybe lacking in the last Cup was the racing side of it. Clearly, the boat was fast and the guys sailed it incredibly well in terms of handling, but there was very little racing mentality and they felt that if they could have Pete and myself together – whether we’re racing against each other in-house or working together on racing strategies – that was something they were quite keen to put together.”
A change in the AC75 class rule saw more change in the Team NZ ranks, with the number of crew on board dropping from 11 to eight and cyclors returning to replace the traditional grinding pedestals. Olympic rowing legend Hamish Bond, multisport juggernaut Dougal Allan, and international representatives Louis Crosby (cycling) and Cam Webster (rowing) joined the power unit as a result.
But one change defined the campaign more than any other. The decision to host the regatta on the swaying seas of the Mediterranean in Barcelona was announced in March 2022; leaving Kiwi fans feeling like they were stuck in dirty air as the Cup sailed away.
Team NZ boss Grant Dalton agreed to terms with Barcelona to host the 37th America's Cup. Photo / Photosport
With running the event falling on the defender, Team NZ chief executive Grant Dalton always made his belief that they could not build a winning campaign with the $99m being offered by the New Zealand government to keep the regatta at home clear.
Instead, they accepted an offer of €70m, with €45m coming from public institutions and the remaining €25m being funded by private entities. Kiwi rich-lister Mark Dunphy launched a last-ditch bid to keep the Cup on home waters, but Team NZ ceased all correspondence with him following what Dalton deemed a massive waste of time as Dunphy refused to answer questions the syndicate put to him regarding his campaign for the 37th America’s Cup to be hosted in New Zealand.
At the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS), which Team NZ represents in the regatta, some members resigned as a direct response to the decision, though that was a small percentage. For the regatta in Barcelona, the RNZYS took a group of 670 members to support the team’s Cup defence.
Taking up the offer from Barcelona saw the return of the Youth America’s Cup and the establishment of the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup, both won by Luna Rossa, as well as an eSport incarnation.
Auckland teenager Liam Dimock won the America's Cup e-Series grand final. Photo / America's Cup
For Team NZ, the changes meant they had to take a different approach to their training, with a focus on trying to find bumpier sea states while training in Auckland in preparation for what awaited them in Barcelona.
It was something of a disadvantage for the Kiwis, with their challengers all being Northern Hemisphere-based and having far easier access to the Cup venue when the rules allowed sailing there. Teams were also only permitted to build one new AC75 in this campaign, making that race to understand the Barcelona bump all the more important.
“I’ll put it this way; I’m really glad we did all that big wave sailing in Auckland in the nor’easter,” Team NZ chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge told the Herald after their first sail at the Cup venue last August.
“We’ve had a real mix of conditions here from very flat water to pretty challenging, rough conditions as well. We came up here to prepare, which was a good thing. You get a very unusual swell and wave set here, and quite often it’s off-axis to where the wind is.
“Because of the local wind effects, you might be getting a swell and waves that don’t match the wind direction, which is another challenge in itself. But, for sure, we’re super happy that we’re up there sailing in the conditions and also to be able to get our AC75 out there, which makes it real pretty quickly.”
And because the Cup was taken north, more challengers were drawn to compete. Ineos Britannia (UK), Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italy) and American Magic (USA) were back, while Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland) and Orient Express Racing Team (France) threw their hats into the ring. In an interview with the Heraldin Barcelona, Orient Express chief executive Stephan Kandler admitted a regatta in New Zealand would make things significantly harder on them to enter.
The French – a late entry – made an immediate mark on the competition, winning the first race of the Cup cycle when they sailed to victory to open the first of three preliminary regattas.
Orient Express Racing Team were a late entry into the 37th America's Cup. Photo / Ricardo Pinto, America's Cup
One critique often made about this Cup cycle has been the lack of racing, with teams getting just two hit-outs in scaled-down AC40s – in Vilanova i la Geltru (Spain) in September 2023 and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) in December – before the final preliminary regatta was contested aboard AC75s as an unofficial opening to proceedings in Barcelona.
Of the preliminary regattas, American Magic won the first – based on fleet race standing as a lack of wind meant their final against Team NZ couldn’t be raced – with Team NZ winning the other two.
It was an indication that the new set-up with Burling and Outteridge sharing duties at the helm, with Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney in the flight controlling/trimming positions, was working well.
Supplied with a competitive boat by the design team and boat builders, it was clear the defender was well placed.
“They’re going to have to be pretty good to beat us,” Dalton told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking in September 2023.
When racing got under way in Barcelona for the Louis Vuitton Cup round-robins, Team NZ set the benchmark.
Another change in the running of the event meaning the defender took part in that round-robin stage meant the Kiwi crew got some important races in before stepping to the sidelines until the final challenger was standing.
Team NZ topped the standings in the round-robins, with Ineos Britannia qualifying for the semifinals as the top seed and Orient Express Racing Team eliminated.
The top two teams from round-robins would ultimately meet in the Cup match; Ineos Britannia taking advantage of their boat’s superiority in top-end conditions and a few Luna Rossa issues to take out the Challenger Series final.
Ineos Britannia became the first British challenger to qualify for the America's Cup match in 60 years. Photo / Ian Roman, America's Cup
It was the first time in 60 years that a British challenger qualified for the Cup match.
“It’s a massive day for our team,” Ineos Britannia starboard helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie said after the win.
“I can’t say how proud I am of everyone, not just here on the water, but also back on the shore here in Barcelona and we’ve got a lot of people in Brackley in the UK who have been helping us on the technical side, so this is for the team.”
There was an air of confidence around the Team NZ helms in the pre-match press conference ahead of their return to the arena, after they had spent a month off the water getting faster.
Burling alluded to as much but noted the Brits would also have improved since their last meeting and the similar speeds of their boats should make for an intriguing Cup match.
Conditions calmed down a bit after the Challenger Series final, with the wind hovering between the low-end and middle range of the limit for racing in the Cup match.
Team NZ set the tone early in the best-of-13 series, taking both races on opening day to jump out to a two-race lead. It took 10 races in the Challenger Series final before a team had established such a lead, and was a sign of things to come.
Those first two races saw Team NZ start and sail well in some tricky conditions, riding a strong start in race one to a 41s win, before a much tighter affair in the second saw the lead change a few times before the Kiwis finally pulled away on the fifth of eight legs.
Two one-race days followed and, again, Team NZ followed up a good win with a tight one. At 4-0, it seemed only a matter of time before Burling and Outteridge would be on stage hoisting the Cup aloft – though the constant mention of what happened in 2013 meant no one got too carried away, which the sailing group stayed firm in approaching every race as 0-0.
The day the sea state got up was the day Ineos Britannia struck.
While the wind stayed light, bigger waves made life all the more tricky for the rivals. It was a case of two errors in the starting box from Team NZ allowing the Brits to get the jump on them. In the first, Team NZ got stuck on the wrong side of the swell, were held up slightly coming into the pre-start and were out of position when they went for a down-speed manoeuvre. They couldn’t sail out of it, and the Brits sailed clear while the Kiwis wallowed away off their foils.
Emirates Team New Zealand took on Ineos Britannia in the Cup match. Photo / Georgia Schofield, Photosport
In the following race, Team NZ appeared to have Ineos Britannia pinned in a terrible position in the pre-start, but were slow to accelerate from a gybe and allowed the Brits to shoot across their face and hit the starting line at speed.
The Brits controlled from there, halving the gap on the scoreboard.
“Today we made a couple of errors. Ineos punished us for that as they should and as we expect. We have high standards for how we sail these boats and a couple of errors today meant we didn’t win the races,” Outteridge said.
“It’s not all doom and gloom for us. We’re in good shape, our boat’s going quite quick and we were able to keep that second race really close despite often being on the wrong side of the shifts or the gusts. They did a great job of covering when they needed to and other times taking the shift their way.”
Races seven and eight of the series saw the Kiwis claim their two biggest wins of the series – by 1m 13s and 55s respectively – all but sucking the life out of the British comeback.
Ahead of what turned out to be the final race of the series, no one was certain the teams would even get a chance to race. The forecast was light and though the breeze was expected to build, most were preparing for a long delay.
That delay was only 40 minutes in the end, and Team NZ didn’t wait around to see if they could get two races into the window before claiming the Auld Mug.
Emirates Team New Zealand celebrate defending the America's Cup in Barcelona. Photo / Ivo Rovira, America's Cup
The Kiwis did well on the first upwind leg to build a 19s lead, but Ineos Britannia wouldn’t go down without a fight and clawed their way back into the contest at the midway point.
The defenders wouldn’t be beaten though, closing out a 37s win to claim their third America’s Cup in a row – the only team to achieve that feat in the 173-year history of the regatta.
“What an incredible day, incredible campaign, and just to see it all come together in such a tight race like today, to be able to get another win on the board, ground out that match point – it’s something we’re incredibly proud of,” Burling said.
With the final lines of the script being written in the 37th America’s Cup, the attention immediately turned to what was to come next among pundits and fans.
As was the case in Auckland, the new edition began as soon as the battle in Barcelona had ended.
There will be some key questions for Team NZ to answer over the coming weeks and months, but none will be on the tips of tongues more than where the next regatta will be held.
Several locations have features in the rumour mill – a return to Barcelona or a regatta in Jeddah among them – however, it remains to be seen just what direction Team NZ will go from here.
An official Challenger of Record is already in place for the next edition and, while it is yet to be confirmed, it is believed the UK’s Royal Yacht Squadron will resume that role after taking over from Luna Rossa in the 37th edition.
“We’ve accepted a challenge this afternoon, but we’ll leave that for a separate announcement,” Shoebridge said.
The 10-campaign America’s Cup veteran said the team was hopeful they could keep their core group together for another campaign, too, with the likes of Burling, Tuke, Maloney, Josh Junior and Simon van Velthooven among those to have featured in their last three campaigns.
As for where the next Cup might be held – and when – Shoebridge said there had been some conversations but no decisions made about that at this stage.
“Hopefully in the next week or two, we’ll put out a timetable on when decisions like that will be made.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
