In Auckland, the triumphant sailing team of Emirates Team New Zealand were back in town after their win at the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Jeddah and also a win at the Emirates Grand Prix in Dubai but were straight back into testing mode with the design team carving out a solid pre-Christmas schedule.
Today was just a towing session to test out some new unspecified parts that have been implemented whilst the sailors were away and with a building breeze out on the Hauraki Gulf, it was just a quick hour before craning out.
Speaking afterwards, Nick Hutchins part of the Emirates Team New Zealand Design Team and very much concentrated on foil design spoke to the recon team saying: “We’ve made a few minor mods to the foils and we just wanted to make sure that everything is working how we wanted it to, how we expected, and you know you don’t want to waste or drag the whole team out there sailing and have issues so just a quick debug, everything ran well.”
With the hull design decisions taken and the new AC75 well into the build in Auckland, Nick confirmed the Christmas programme saying: “Same as we always do, we’ve always got little mods, little developments we’re working towards, obviously new gear on the new boat and we’ve got a few more things to test, so just trying to tick that stuff off.” And asked about when the final foil designs need to be confirmed, he added: “It’s coming up but yeah not quite yet, we’ve got a bit more development.”
Certainly, a lot more to come from the Kiwis in the coming days as they step-up their final testing schedule before 2024.
On-Water Recon Report – Emirates Team New Zealand: Day 47: Strong wind was forecasted, and tow-testing was called for before the day. Dock out was at 1147, Emirates Team New Zealand gently towed down the harbour then sped up to around 25 knots. It was a very quick day on the water, they motored along the northern beaches in the flat water to Milford Beach and then back to the base.
For one period they sped up to 30knots for another period they looked to be running through a range on foil arm cant angles and ride heights. They looked to once simulate a stall test on the foil by letting the boat glide with no tension on the tow rope until the yacht came off the foil. In total there was about 25minutes of tow-testing from North Head to Milford beach and back. Once back at North Head they went straight back to the dock. Dock in at 1245.
