Two decades ago, this week, Emirates Team New Zealand became the first team outside of the US to successfully defend America's Cup. In 12 months, on March 6, 2021, racing will get under way in the 2021 America's Cup - where Team New Zealand will try to emulate their feat
Sailing: The quest to defend the America's Cup - Team NZ COO Kevin Shoebridge lifts lid on progress one year out
NZ Herald
12 mins to read
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
New Zealand sailors got a more tenacious monkey off their backs on June 26, 2017, in the aqua-blue water of the Great Sound in Bermuda, when their wingsailed foiling catamaran defeated Oracle Team USA winning eight races in the nine-race series.
That win and adulatory return to New Zealand marked the end of 14 years of ignominy triggered by the Cup loss in 2003.
In Bermuda, Shoebridge had moved from the genoa trimmers cockpit on KZ-7, to the bow of the ETNZ chase boat - where he was a familiar sight alongside CEO and long time sailing buddy Grant Dalton.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Theirs is a Yin and Yang relationship, with the calm and urbane Shoebrige complementing the extremely competitive nature of Dalton. Both have similar professional sailing careers spanning match-racing, Whitbread Round the World Races and America's Cup. They were both part of the Michael Fay led New Zealand Challenge in Fremantle.
In their collective professional sailing careers, each spanning more than 40 years, there is one challenge neither have experienced - defending the America's Cup.
There are just four of the AC75 foiling monohulls sailing of which two are in Cagliari, Sardinia. Despite spying being a near sanctioned activity in this America's Cup, Shoebridge says they don't know how Team NZ is positioned compared to the challengers.
"No one really knows who is the most advanced team right now. This is the America's Cup, and it doesn't matter who is most advanced at any time - other than the last race of the match. That's all we care about and all we are aiming for."
Making the challengers an even harder read is the fact that essentially they are all start-up or restart teams. Of the class of 2021, only the British team competed in the 2017 America's Cup in Bermuda.
The former Land Rover BAR is led by the most successful Olympic sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie. He is team principal and CEO of a heavily restructured Royal Yacht Squadron entry, rebadged as INEOS Team UK.
After being eliminated by Team NZ in the semifinals in Bermuda, the Brits announced that their entire sponsorship family had re-signed and they would be challenging again in 2021, with a budget of over NZ$160million. After his return to England, Ainslie decided that budget that wasn't sufficient for a two-boat campaign in New Zealand.
Over a gin and tonic, in a London pub in March 2018, Ainslie and his fellow knight Sir Jim Ratcliffe spliced together a $NZ225 million deal - the biggest single sponsorship in sailing history. Team UK is one of several sports teams owned by Ratcliffe, Britain's richest man with a net worth of $NZ43billion.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Part of the INEOS America's Cup deal with Ainslie was that he bid adieu to his already signed sponsorship framework so that his total focus could be on the sailing and not distracted by multiple sponsor obligations.
Last November, Team UK ponied up with the required $NZ11 million required full sponsorship and purchased the existing Britain SailGP team. The move was made to enable Ainslie and his America's Cup team to stay race sharp in the F50 wingsailed foiling catamarans.
Team NZ has four sailors running conjoint Olympic programs, as they did for the Rio Olympics - it proved to be a telling move when the pressure came on in Bermuda.
Last weekend, Ainslie threw down the gauntlet at the first SailGP regatta of the 2020 season in Sydney, giving the self-proclaimed "best sailors in the fastest boats" a sailing lesson.
The winner of four Olympic gold medals and the 2013 America's Cup, won two practice races, four of the five fleet races, and the match race final.
Shoebridge says he wasn't surprised by the outcome of the series sailed in F50's catamarans derived from the AC50's used in Bermuda, and now part of a six-venue Larry Ellison backed professional circuit.
"I'm not surprised at all," he said. "Ben doesn't have a track record and reputation for no reason. He has a very strong team, so it was pretty clear that he was going to be very hard to beat."
Team UK were the first team to launch a test boat, taking an existing 28ft foiling monohull - 10ft under the maximum length permitted under the America's Cup rules - and was designed to test and teach the sailors the nuances of a foiling monohull.
The other challengers responded with their own test boats, launched before their first AC75s.
Team NZ opted for a different strategy launching their AC75 Te Aihe in September 2019, followed by their 38ft (12 metre) test boat in mid-January 2020.
"Part of our decision process was that we wanted to put all of our design efforts into our first AC75, and not split looking at the test boat also," says Shoebridge explaining the team's decision to be an outlier.
"It was part of our overall strategy that worked best for our team - when looking at the timelines of our campaign a while ago.
"We custom designed and built Te Kahu rather than repurposing [a production boat]," he added.
That last comment is a reference to New York Yacht Club's team American Magic, who purchased an existing production hull and turned it into a 12metre/38ft foiling test boat.
By contrast, Te Kahu has been designed to be a half-size AC75, and if full-blown will measure under the AC75 rule. Outside New Zealand, many pundits believe that the hard-chined hull of Te Kahu is a forerunner of the defending champion's second AC75 and likely race boat.
"Our designers can scale test results, and the lessons we learn are transferable to the AC75's," Shoebridge explains.
He says their test boat was built after their first AC75 - unlike the approach of American Magic who used the build of a 72fter and their 38ft test boat as practice for the build of their AC75 in a new facility.
Assuming that the two America's Cup World Series regattas in Cagliari, Sardinia in late April and Portsmouth UK in early June go ahead, then Te Aihe will be shipped directly back to New Zealand after ACWS Portsmouth and arriving in mid-August.
Of the Challengers, Team UK is the most advanced in Auckland with their base construction - with framing going up this week.
In the coy atmosphere of the current phase of the America's Cup cycle, all Shoebridge will say about the launch date of the second AC75 is that it will be "later in the year".
Under the protocol rules which govern this America's Cup regatta and its preliminaries, the teams were permitted to launch their second AC75 in the middle of last month.
None did so.
The same rules also prevent the long periods of two boat, paired testing that was a feature of the America's Cup campaigns when they were sailed in keelboats.
Shoebridge claims the defending champion is "still developing our long term plan" as to what will happen with the sailing programme once Team NZ has two AC75's launched plus a fully functioning test boat.
Once the challengers start racing in the Prada Cup in mid-January, Team NZ are entitled to race and sail their two AC75s against each other and ahead of that time can sail their test boat Te Kahu against the AC75 if they wish. The two-boat testing does require two 11-strong crews, which would likely require the overhead of a 25-person sailing squad.
All of that is "yet to be determined", says Shoebridge in a non-committal response to further questioning on the matter of how the three boats will be worked together.
He does concede that the sailing squad may grow to allow the rotation of grinders between races. "We will assess what works best after the ACWS events. It is likely the sailing squad will get a little bigger."
Over the past month, both American Magic and Team UK who have launched flatter scow type AC75 hulls, have opined that the Italian and New Zealand teams knew the shape of the AC75 class rule several months before they did.
Few picked that the type of yacht selected for the 2021 America's Cup would be a foiling monohull. Most were expecting a continuation of the wingsailed foiling catamaran genre that had been used for the last two America's Cups.
The implication is that both the challenger of record and defender, who set and change the protocol rules between themselves, used the extra time and insider knowledge to test more design options. Ironically both the Italian and New Zealand teams settled on a more conventional skiff design, complete with centreline bustle to promote foiling takeoff and soften the landing.
That begs the question of whether, with the benefit of experience, if two of the teams will change their hull concept, as all teams settle in the same corner of the class rule - typically happens with more refined second and third-generation boats.
Shoebridge won't be drawn on Team NZ's intentions as to whether the second boat will be a refinement of Te Aihe or a considerable change?
"It's all about the refinement of lessons we have learnt sailing Te Aihe and Te Kahu," is his guarded response.
As with the AC50's in the last America's Cup and the AC72's before that, the development will continue on the water using the test boat and simulator, with new parts coming on board through to the start of the match.
"As always it's the whole package that will determine the outcome of the America's Cup. Hull, foils, sails, and also importantly the sailing teams ability to execute precise manoeuvres and race effectively around the track," Shoebridge explains.
"We also know it is not all about the top speed that will win the America's Cup. It is about who can get around the racecourse the fastest."
On its last sail for the year, 7500kg Te Aihe performed a spectacular leap completely clear of the water, after spinning out of a gybe in a 10-12kt breeze.
The AC75 then skidded across the surface of the water, capsizing slowly before coming to rest on her side, with her mast lying flat in the water.
Shoebridge seems pleased with the way the first capsized AC75 recovery worked out and denies the boat is dangerous, as some believe.
"As we have seen in our capsize and a couple of videos from the other teams, these boats are way more robust and forgiving in capsize scenarios.
"In our case when we tipped it over, it was very gentle, and the boat was upright again within a matter of minutes, and we continued sailing for over four more hours on the harbour unhindered. Compare that with the catamarans which often took days to repair after a capsize and also were a lot more liable to pitchpole, with guys hanging from great heights.
"With all of this in mind the AC75s are far less dangerous than the catamarans," he claims.
The first test regatta for the four teams is set down for late April in Cagliari, Sardinia. However, Italy now ranks third behind China and Korea, and is worse than Iran for deaths and reported positive cases of the coronavirus.
"We are monitoring the situation with the challenger of record who are the event organisers for ACWS Cagliari," Shoebridge updates. "They are working with the local authorities with regard to the risk associated with the coronavirus.
"We do not underestimate the potential repercussions that could ensue on the event and team and will continue to work through all scenarios. However, as of this moment, the ACWS in Cagliari is proceeding as planned in April."
The threat is not a health one with the teams at the regattas, but the ability to relocate from Italy to either UK or their home bases, without having to work with either complete immigration bans or substantial periods of quarantine.
Coronavirus notwithstanding, the Challengers are expected to ship their first AC75's to Auckland following the conclusion of the second scheduled ACWS Portsmouth, which ends on June 7.
