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Timing is everything at the America’s Cup and the New Zealand team now faces the tricky equation of when to show their hand?
They have endured a harsh lesson under Grant Dalton and have shown the ability to learn from it too.
But that was like challengers. They now have the added pressure of defending the Cup to influence their thinking.
EMIRATES TEAM NZ / Stuff
New Zealand team ace Peter Burling is happy with the development of the America’s Cup defense.
In 2013, they surprised their opponents by charging at Waitemata Harbor with foils during training when 72-foot catamarans were never supposed to leave the sea. They are trapped opponents and Oracle Team USA’s desperate catch-up game finally saw the Americans hold on to the Auld Mug in the most tenacious way, battling from 8-1 against to win 9-8 against the flying Kiwis who stayed. no steam.
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In 2017, Emirates Team New Zealand kept their four riders under wraps as late as possible and reaped the benefit, surprising their opponents and reducing Oracle to even try a one-man version to regain speed, while trying in vain to hold on. to the cup.
Now, with the competition reverting to the long-standing tradition that defenders do not participate in the challenger series as Oracle did in Bermuda, the New Zealand team needs to perfectly time the entry of their new boat and their latest development schedule. minute.
They have a chance to register, if they want, for the world series event that includes the Christmas Cup from December 17-20. After that, they stay out of January and February and only resurface for the Copa América match in March.
EMIRATES TEAM NZ
The New Zealand team are squeezing as much of Te Aihe as possible ahead of the launch of their second AC75.
New Zealand team ace Peter Burling showed a perfect poker face when asked when the New Zealand team would present their second AC75, the race boat that will carry the hopes of a nation?
“He will enter before the Cup,” was his reply, delivered with a smile.
“We’re still a bit far … everyone is on their own terms.”
He was a little less evasive about the chances of the second boat lining up against all three challengers in the Christmas Cup.
“We will wait and see. I think definitely our intention at this stage is to try to compete with our racing boat. To develop your best, you must do your best at times and learn your tools.
“It is going to be a very interesting time to see how everyone’s boats come together. There isn’t much time left until next year. We will be racing at the beginning of March, so it will be a great opportunity later this year to see how things are going, see how the defender is doing and, for the first time, race these boats around the race track. “
EMIRATES TEAM NZ / Stuff
Peter Burling and his New Zealand team still have a lot of development ahead of the America’s Cup game in March.
The New Zealand team will want a show of force in their local waters in December. They will want to give the rivals something to think about, given that the defenders will have two more months to work on their development, while their opposition is mostly focused on the career mode, albeit with the never-ending quest for speed consuming them.
Burling is excited about the New Zealand team’s progress with this radical design, although he is aware of the significant gains that have yet to be made with the 75-foot foiling monohull.
“We are very happy with the progress of things with our development,” said Burling.
“These boats are quite a new concept and it has been amazing to see how fast they are going, how well the concept has worked and how well the other challengers are doing.
“These are exciting times. INEOS Team UK will be here very soon, Prada is on the ground now, American Magic has been sailing, it is really coming into an exciting Cup period. “
Burling felt there was still a lot to get out of his Te Aihe development ship that needed to be done both on the water and in the simulator.
“It’s a lot about systems, we have some new blades in there right now, testing appendages. These boats are very complicated. There are many things you need to check in the water to make them physically work.
“I think we were pleasantly surprised by how well things have gone, but at the same time we have a lot to improve from here to the Cup.”
While the fastest ship traditionally wins the America’s Cup, Burling doesn’t see it as simple, especially with the complicated ships sailing now, testing sailing skills like never before. Errors seem inevitable and will be very costly given the speeds these boats travel.
“I don’t think it’s a factor, let’s put it that way,” he said.
“In these campaigns, you always make compromises and compromises between one thing and another. The whole design process is a kind of compromise where you try to trade something for something else to create a faster solution to getting a boat to go around a track.
“There will definitely be a lot of factors that will come down to deciding it with a pretty small margin.”
