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New Zealand team star Glenn Ashby has warned of distractions hitting the team as they prepare to defend the America’s Cup in March.
The Cup scene in Auckland is heating up with the three challengers at their bases and preparing their second-generation racing boats.
The New Zealand team has already had out of the water dramas swirling around them for the past few months around the organization of the regatta.
EmiratesTeamNZ / YouTube
America’s Cup defenders make the most of the longer days of spring as they increase their testing and training.
In a new documentary showing New Zealand’s remarkable participation in the regatta featuring the sport’s oldest trophy, Ashby has looked ahead, worried about what might happen over the next six months against a challenging fleet full of talent and huge monetary resources.
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There are 150 days until the start of the Cup match, but defenders will remain a clear target as the challenger series unfolds in January and February.
“One of the most important things for this team right now is having to keep up the intensity until the last race of the America’s Cup, that’s something we did very well in Bermuda,” Ashby said.
“There will be a lot of distractions this time around, and we’re going to have to work very carefully to make sure we don’t let those distractions creep into the core value and core mana of the team.
“That is something we will have to be very careful about.”
The documentary looks at the innovations that have set Team New Zealand apart since they first got a taste of Cup action at Fremantle in 1987 when the KZ7 rocked the race, charging towards the final of the challengers with its fiberglass hull in question. .
With the New Zealand team’s racing boat for the current defense yet to launch, Ashby says they shouldn’t be lacking in aggression.
“We have to be careful not to go the other way as a defense and be conservative,” he said.
New Zealand team operations director Kevin Shoebridge backed that up, saying: “We will try to win the cup, not defend it.”
Shoebridge has been involved in New Zealand challenges since childhood and says a balance needs to be found to get the formula right.
The New Zealand team won the Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2017. They lost Cup finals in 2003, 2007 and 2013. But that participation in the pointy finish of the races makes them the most consistent team in the modern history of this historic event. .
Shoebridge felt that KZ7 “sparked the imagination” of New Zealand at the America’s Cup, something that still flows today.
Stuff
New Zealand team stalwarts Tony Rae, left, and Kevin Shoebridge with Sir Peter Blake’s daughter Sara Jane, in front of NZL32, also known as “Black Magic”, at the Auckland Maritime Museum.
The great 1995 victory in which “Black Magic cloned absolutely everyone” in San Diego established a roster for the team.
“That was a great step forward for this country. It was a fresh start led by Blakey and Coutts. He put a lot of emphasis on the design of the boat and more input from the sailors – it was a much more integrated approach.
“That really started the culture of who we still are today, where we are not afraid to look outside the box, we put a lot of emphasis on technology and we are a very integrated team to come up with the best product.”
The defense in Auckland in 2000 built on that, but the loss of talent after the successful defense with the mass exodus to other teams after that victory left the team vulnerable in terms of leadership and experience.
“We probably took innovation too far at the time. There is a fine line between being reliable and fast. Suddenly we had a boat that was filling with water and the mast was falling, it was a step too far. “
Chris Cameron / Stuff
The Valencia challenge in 2007 represented a new beginning for Grant Dalton, left, and the New Zealand team.
Grant Dalton came on board to take over the leadership of the team with his fundraising skills to keep the union alive. The 2007 challenge in Valencia fell short as they were overtaken by Alinghi, but the revival of the team was obvious.
“It was a great campaign, the beginning of rebuilding the team, but I think we knew that Alinghi always had a click on us,” Shoebridge said.
“It was close but not close enough. But it was the beginning of something safe and the team that has been built from Valencia, much of that core is still here today ”.
The New Zealand team again pushed the envelope in San Francisco, foiling for the first time in Cup history on monster catamarans.
“The team has always been open to crazy ideas, if you like, and has pioneered out of the ordinary. I think Kiwi’s ingenuity is a really strong aspect of the team culturally, ”said Ashby, multihull expert.
Lack of money for development during the race eventually caused Oracle Team USA to review its speed gains.
Ezra Shaw / Getty Images
The New Zealand team came up short against Oracle Team USA in the dramatic 2013 Amnerica Cup game in San Francisco.
But it was another valuable lesson when they saw redemption in Bermuda four years later.
Ashby felt the “San Francisco pain” and the combination of new talents like Peter Burling and Blair Tuke helped the Kiwis produce a “super team” of sailors, something that was complemented by design gurus who were determined to go to the extremes.
“We had to think more than them (their opponents) and I think we did it with the wing control system and cycling,” Ashby said of unique assets that left their opponents powerless to match New Zealand’s speed.
Now, having come up with the design of the AC75 and working through the intricacies of that with their first-generation ship, Te Aihe, the New Zealand team is about to show their hand for Auckland 2021 and the next chapter in their history of the cup.
