America’s Cup: how is the defender Team New Zealand?

For the second time in America’s Cup history, a defender will try to hold on to the Trophy by playing it away from home. Alinghi had succeeded in 2007 in Valencia, but this time is different for Emirates Team New Zealand. Barcelona is practically on the other side of the world from New Zealand, and to understand this, one only has to consider that transporting the AC 75 Kiwi to Catalonia took the Cup defenders a full 28 days: that’s how long it took to move the boat to Europe, with stops by sea or air.

If there is one thing you cannot buy in the America’s Cup in fact, it is time, and the Kiwis know this well since they have been sailing the AC 75 since the day it was launched, trying to make the most of every moment before the boat was disassembled and sent to Europe.

Team New Zealand in Barcelona

The defender managed to accumulate 14 days of sailing between late April and the first half of May, then continued its training program with the two AC 40s, alternating the Cup crew with the Young and Women crew. Now Team New Zealand has resumed training with AC 75 in Barcelona, with the curious coincidence that the Kiwis’ descent into the water in Spain came just after the conclusion of the Recon Program, the official America’s Cup “spy” program.

For this edition, in fact, a team of official spies was organized to follow each team during the months of preparation, and the Recon program (as it was called) ended at the end of June, just before the Kiwis arrived in Barcelona. Coincidence? Randomness? Keen to remain shielded from prying eyes? Probably little will change, but the fact remains that Team New Zealand in Barcelona will now be able to train without a Recon dinghy in its wake, although with all the teams on the water for their final tests, it will be difficult to keep all the cards covered when it comes to design choices.

So how is Team New Zealand doing with just under two months to go before official racing begins? The Kiwis will take part in round robins with the other challengers, then exit the stage before the semifinals and wait for the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup for the America’s Cup final. Rumors still have them as the clear favorites, with a design advantage over the boat, but it does not appear that the margin may be as clear-cut as that seen in the last edition.

The design solutions of the various teams have become less heterogeneous, now flat foils all fit them although the Kiwis’ foils look slightly different, more curved, but more on that soon. The 28-day enforced stop and not racing in home waters make the defender more fragile than in 2020: will it be enough to blow the America’s Cup away from him?

Mauro Giuffrè