America’s Cup: Team New Zealand crew avoid injury after blowing out sail in testing conditions

Team New Zealand blew out a sail in testing. Photo / ETNZ

The road to finding the limit is proving to be a testing one for Team New Zealand.

In preparation for next year’s America’s Cup in Barcelona, the defenders have been out sailing their repurposed AC75 Te Rehutai in demanding conditions in Auckland. That is providing plenty of learning opportunities as the team draws closer to the deadline for signing off on their new hull design.

After reaching a new speed record of “well over 50″ knots in the vessel on Friday, they had an issue to deal with on Wednesday as they blew out a large jib sail while foiling at speed.

No one was injured in the splashdown, and helmsman Peter Burling said it was “the biggest bang” the team had had so far during this campaign.

“We’re pretty thankful that everyone was safe down to leeward,” skipper Peter Burling said.

“You want to be pushing the boundaries, you want to be pushing it super-hard, and we are definitely up on the edge of some things. But to try to find where the edge is and for us to continue to learn as a group [to] push the boundaries is right where we want to be.

“These last few days have been invaluable to us at this stage of the programme to make sure we make some good decisions going forward.”

Team New Zealand have been sailing on their AC75 Te Rehutai in challenging conditions. Photo / ETNZ

Team New Zealand’s search for challenging conditions isn’t in line with past campaigns, but is necessary as they look to bring the Auld Mug home again in 2024.

While the Auckland regatta in 2021 had several race courses set so smooth seas would always be available on race day, Barcelona has just one, and it is an area where the conditions can be rocky.

It is new territory for the event in foiling boats, and a new challenge for those tasked with designing the vessels — amplified by the rule that teams are only allowed to build one new AC75 in this cycle.

“We’re very used to designing boats that are absolutely optimised for performance in pretty steady conditions,” Team New Zealand designer Dan Bernasconi told the Herald.

“It wasn’t the first reaction to say, ‘Okay, we need to change this’, it was more that we needed to learn about what we should be doing differently.”