After about a month of having to sit idly by and watch as their challengers got familiar with the America’s Cup racecourse in Barcelona aboard their AC75s, the defender has finally joined them.
Team New Zealand sailed their AC75 Taihoro in Barcelona for the first time overnight, blowing off the cobwebs in a brief afternoon session allowing them to test out some new additions.
Starboard helmsman and skipper Peter Burling said it was good to tick a few things off in their reintroduction to the Cup venue.
“It was quite a dynamic weather day today, so with that in mind and with new foils and some new kit, we had a few things to tick off, as you do on days like this. But today’s sail is just the beginning really,” Burling said.
“It is great to be here, you can get a sense of the interest increasing for the friendly locals of Barcelona, and certainly a sense of the pressure rising for all of the teams.
Team New Zealand during their first sail aboard AC75 Taihoro in Barcelona. Photo / Team New Zealand
“It’s amazing to think that after three years of design, development, testing and hard work, we are now only just over 50 days away from the start of racing. So, for everyone here at Emirates Team New Zealand, the intensity really starts to ramp now we are back in Barcelona.”
The team hadn’t sailed Taihoro since late May, with the vessel making a month-long trip to their base in Barcelona, but were set up and back on the Mediterranean Sea before their target of July 1.
The team were joined on the water by reconnaissance units from the challenging syndicates wanting to get some intel on the defender in person, after only having footage to go off.
While it’s not unusual to see team spies out gathering data, it hasn’t been a feature of this edition of the Cup until this week. To this point in the campaign, a joint reconnaissance programme was used to provide teams with updates on how the others were tracking, in a bid to limit the crowds of chase boats on the water.
That programme came to an end this week as the campaign moves into its final stages.
“To be honest, it hasn’t been easy watching all of the other teams tick up the days sailing on their new AC75s here in Barcelona, clearly improving and getting faster,” Team New Zealand chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge said.
“But we have our own programme to focus on, so the importance of hitting these milestones cannot be understated and the work that goes into reaching them from every person in the team cannot be understated.
“Sailing Taihoro today represents months of hard work, dedication and meticulous planning and this is the beginning of the next phase of our preparation for the America’s Cup.”
America’s Cup key dates
Barcelona Preliminary Regatta: August 22-25
Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robins: August 29-September 8
