Lady Margaret Tindall launches Emirates Team NZ’s newest America’s Cup AC75 boat Te Rehutai. Video / Brett Phibbs / Will Trafford
Team New Zealand's radical new America's Cup boat has gained the attention of media around the world.
The defenders launched Te Rehutai on Thursday before testing it on the Waitemata Harbour on Friday - and it didn't take long before the Kiwi's made headlines across the globe.
Italian sailing publication Farevela described Team New Zealand's first outing on the water as a "demonstration of strength and control".
"Immediately at ease on the first outing, the challengers respond with as many intense training sessions in the Hauraki Gulf."
Team NZ trialling their new America's Cup boat Te Rehutai on the Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Photosport
Farevela described the boat as having "agility in manoeuvres" and noted it's "capacity for acceleration".
'Kiwis throw down the gauntlet to Challengers'
Yachting website Sail World wrote Team NZ were impressive in their first sail.
"The radical hull design proved to be quick out of the box, easing the fear of many Kiwi Cup fans that the defending champions had gone a step too far this time.
"There is no denying that the latest AC75 to be launched has a complex hull shape, with a flared bow somehow evolving into the flat tennis court after underbody.
"A cleverly worked contour line marks the perimeter of the flared bow and then swoops down to the waterline to form a hard chine running right aft."
'So fast!'
British website SailWeb were also in awe of the boat's radical design.
"Despite trying to convince everyone that they had a fast boat with their first effort, mainly based on their perceived advantage of drawing up the new AC75 rule, it now looks like they decided, at quite an early stage (three months in) that the opposition was not looking so bad after all.
Team NZ launch their new boat. Photo / Photosport
"But it was still rather surprising to see how radically ETNZ changed their basic design thoughts ... if their first effort was so fast!"
Meanwhile, American Magic skipper and executive director Terry Hutchinson were similarly impressed, saying its design featured innovation that has become characteristic with the team's America's Cup campaigns.
"You can see a lot of clever ideas and you can see the evolution that they took from boat one through their little test boat which is probably a pretty critical component to the development of their boat two," he told Newstalk ZB.
"It's an exciting time because, interestingly, there are some features in that boat that we saw in the INEOS boat, so there is a lot of clever thinking going on. You know without question the boat is going to be fast and you know there's been a lot of smart people working on it. As always, you hold the utmost respect for what you see."
Speaking to NZME today, Team NZ helmsman Peter Burling said he hadn't paid much attention to the headlines of how they compared to their opponents.
"We feel we're very much trying to race ourselves and it's always hard to tell exactly where the other challengers are at," he said.
"We're just trying to make sure we put our best foot forward and develop the boat as good as we can and figure out how to sail it as quickly as we can so we can keep pushing those boundaries."
