America's Cup: A day in the life of an AC75 - Extended length video
by Sail-World.com/NZ 16 Jan 2020 17:25 PST
17 January 2020
Emirates Team New Zealand's Te Aihe flies down the Rangitoto shore after a training session - Waitemata Harbour - January 15, 2020 © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
A day in the training and development life of Emirates Team New Zealand America's Cup Class yacht (AC75 class) sailing in Auckland on January 9, 2020.
If you haven't seen the AC75 sailing in person, this video, exclusive to Sail-World NZ, is a very accurate portrayal of a typical training and development session.
The video is unedited, as normally happens with the team supplied content - so you will see the not-so-good tacks and turns, along with the better ones.
The team is in the middle of an intensive speed development process, with the boat changing daily.
Getting the crew race sharp will come later but before their first America's Cup World Series Regatta in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy in late April 2020.
The foiling monohull is a new class - AC75 - and five teams will compete in the 2021 America's Cup and its preliminaries.
The video shows the AC75 being towed (foil borne) from her base in Auckland Viaduct Harbour to North Head at the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour. There her mainsail and jib are hoisted, and Te Aihe starts a session which will typically last from 3 to 9 hours.
At the end of this five-hour session, Te Aihe heads back down the Rangitoto Channel performs some tacks, and reverses her morning procedure to tow back to base.
The 2021 America's Cup will be sailed in the course area you can see in this video. To stay up with all the America's Cup news go to www.sail-world.com or our New Zealand site www/sail-world.com/nz
Sail-World.com is the world's largest sailing news network with seven unique websites covering Australia, Asia, United States of America, Canada, Europe, United Kingdom and New Zealand. To receive the free weekly newsletter from Sail-World NZ go to www.sail-world.com/NZ/newsletter which has all the latest America's Cup news and commentary on the Defender and Challengers from the UK, USA and Italy.
Sail-World's New Zealand editor, Richard Gladwell has been covering the America's Cup as a journalist since 1983. He wrote "Lone Wolf" the best selling sportsbook in New Zealand in 2017, with his account of Emirates Team New Zealand road to the America's Cup win in 2017.
He was an Int Judge for 20 years and an Int Umpire for ten years, and has the connections, experience and understanding to be able to explain the complex nuances of the America's Cup to his readers, and what they mean in the overall context of the current America's Cup.
As he evolved in to a photo-journalist he taught himself sailing photography. Richard now has an extensive America's Cup collection and is shooting in Auckland each day that Te Aihe is sailing.
Due to the speed of the AC75 and difficulty in driving and shooting at high speed, for the 2021 America's Cup he has developed a shooting technique which enables him to shoot from a variety of locations, and at long range. This technique is still evolving, but is now producing acceptable results.
These images are usually published in the evening, along with the latest news, pictures and video from around the world of the Challenger teams.
Richard lives three minutes away from America's Cup course locations and has lived on the coast adjoining the America's Cup courses for his childhood and adult life.