“Beating you Kiwis on home water, it doesn’t get tougher that that.” - Sir Ben Ainslie. Video / INEOS Team UK / Ben Ainslie
Soon there will be three America's Cup syndicates on the Waitemata Harbour.
As American Magic prepare to welcome their second Cup boat being flown from Rhode Island, INEOS Team UK are preparing to fly their two boats to Auckland in the next couple of weeks with a view to besailing here before the end of the month.
But the Italian Luna Rossa Challenger of Record is likely to face two months with no sailing, having wound up its European summer sailing campaign in Sardinia on August 28.
The team's new AC75 is nearing completion but won't be flown down under until early next month, while their first boat has been loaded onto a cargo ship and won't arrive in Auckland until late next month.
It's no secret the British and American designs of their first boats with their larger wedge-shaped hull styles are substantially different to the narrower skiff style hull shapes of Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand's boats.
It's thought the second American Magic and INEOS Team UK boats will be more similar in style to the New Zealand and Italian boats.
Ben Ainslie and the Great Britain SailGP Team. Photo / Photosport
Team UK boss Sir Ben Ainslie is promising a vastly different second generation AC75 to their first boat 'Britannia.'
Ainslie told NZME from his base in Portsmouth that all the team's boats will be significantly different.
"I was talking to Grant Dalton (Team NZ CEO) the other day and he was saying even with the New Zealand boat and Italian boats, which are similar, they are making some big changes and you would expect that in a new class and development class like this, there will be some really big differences," he said. "There will be some big differences in performance for sure when we first line up against each other and the key will be how quickly the teams develop and keep developing through the competition."
Ainslie will relocate to Auckland with his wife and four year old daughter in the next couple of weeks. He will undergo the two weeks of quarantine with a view to being out on the water sailing before the end of the month.
The American Magic team yacht Defiant trains on the Hauraki Gulf. Photo / American Magic
A good proportion of the INEOS team has started arriving in Auckland and the team's base is nearing completion. Having wrapped up operations in Portsmouth the decorated Olympic sailor says they are in relocation mode.
"It's a pretty frantic period for the team, obviously for the team members and families relocating to the other side of the world and all our equipment, and we have to go through the quarantine, so it's a very busy period for the team and everyone's excited about being in New Zealand."
With American Magic entrenched in Auckland for the past couple of months, Ainslie has again reiterated his belief both Team UK and Luna Rossa are not at a disadvantage to their American rival.
"There were some decisions the teams had to make around the pandemic and how it affected our schedules," he said. "Ourselves and the Italians decided to stick in Europe and sail through the European summer the Americans decided to try to get to New Zealand earlier and time will tell which is right, but if you look at the number of days operating on the water they (American Magic) have a bit of catching up to do."
Ainslie believes the two months leading up to the Christmas Cup regatta featuring all four teams will be more intense than usual in the America's Cup cycle due to the uncertainty and unknown created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The cancellation of the Cagliari and Portsmouth regattas has added another level of intrigue and Ainslie's excited.
"There's so much more intrigue because no one's lined up in a brand new class of boat. It's going to be a really intense period for all the teams and really exciting to see how people line up and how they develop and which teams develop through the competition, so it's going to be a lot to take in in the next six months in the America's Cup world," he said.
Ainslie confirmed the entire team will be set up in Auckland by the end of the month having received their MBIE approvals to travel.
"I am heading down in a couple of weeks with my family, we have a four-year-old daughter who is really looking forward to two weeks in a hotel room, but we will work that out and get through it just fine and an amazing opportunity for youngsters to come to such a beautiful country like New Zealand, so as a family that's a privilege really, but we are only there for one thing - to get that trophy back to British waters."
