Pool A features the six America’s Cup syndicates, while Pool B is invited nations.
With the America’s Cup teams supplying the boats, each one has joined forces with one of the invited nations with whom they will be sharing their vessel when the first round begins.
For Team NZ, they will be sharing their boa with Andoo Australia and have been getting out on the water with the Australians to help them in their preparations.
“The Aussies are the team that uses our boat when we’re not sailing it,” Team NZ port helm Jo Aleh explained to the Herald.
“So, for us, it was sort of a double win. We want to make sure they don’t hurt our boat or break our boat when they’re using it, and we also want to make sure that it is a good event and that they are at the level where they can race.
“We can pass on some of those basics and how to rig the boat and same of those safety aspects to make sure that they have a good time racing.”
Team New Zealand sailors have been helping the Australian team get up to speed ahead of the Women's America's Cup. Photo / Ian Roman, America's Cup
Most of the invited nations teams had been able to charter an AC40 over the past few months, even if for just a few days, in order to get acquainted with the vessel on the water before getting the Barcelona.
However, for some of the teams, their first training day last weekend was the first time they had jumped onto an AC40 proper – with all their preparation being done in the simulator.
“It’s pretty tough for them. If you haven’t sailed it before, you basically have four days of sailing then you’re into the regatta. It’s a fair jump in the deep end.”
A jump in the deep end was how Aleh described her team’s reintroduction to Barcelona this week in practice racing, which she said was their first opportunity in the boat for about five weeks, with Youth America’s Cup teams using the vessels for their regatta.
“I think we’re really lucky that the youth regatta was before ours, just for the format, for how the racing is going to be run, how the timeframes work - how much time you have between races, before races - and the actual racing itself, how the fleet is setting up and what sort of strategies people are using.
“[There was] a lot of information that we gained by watching. The girls, they will probably race a little differently, but yeah, it’s the same boat, it’s the same format, so hopefully we’re a bit more prepared.”
Team NZ bring a strong crew into the event, with Aleh – a four-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist – joined by fellow Olympic medalists Molly Meech and Erica Dawson, Black Foils SailGP strategist Liv MacKay, and 2016 Olympian Gemma Jones.
Unsurprisingly, Aleh said the sea state has been the biggest eye-opener since they had been able to get back on the water at the Cup venue.
“We sailed the boat for a few weeks back in New Zealand in May and we were like, ‘oh, it’s a little bit choppy; a little bit of wave.’ Then we came over here and sort of one of the first few days was just massive waves. You watch the AC75s, they can handle the waves. They’ve got much bigger foils, much longer foil arms. For us in an AC40 it’s definitely a challenge. The boats are a handful in a wave state.
“It’s the same for everyone, and makes it nice and interesting, but that’s definitely a Barcelona element that we probably didn’t think about as much until we got here.”
The Women’s America’s Cup is set to begin on Saturday, with Pool A – featuring entries from the six teams contenting the main America’s Cup regatta – completing the first of their fleet races.
Both pools will have eight fleet races, before the top three in each group move onto the next stage of four six-strong fleet races. At the end of those races, the top two teams will compete in a one-off match race to determine the winner.
“None of us are going to be sailing the boat to its full potential. We just haven’t had the time to get to that,” Aleh admitted.
“We feel it’s about minimising mistakes and just trying to do basics well. We’ve got a really strong team, a great group of girls, so just trying to be that really strong team and put the performance in when it matters.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
