Emirates Team NZ: Te Aihe prepares to go test sailing on the Waitemata
by Emirates Team New Zealand 25 Jun 03:21 PDT
25 June 2020
Te Aihe returns from a final test sail - January 15, 2020 © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
Four months after Emirates Team New Zealand packed up their AC75, shipped her off to Europe for the two ACWS of regattas, she has arrived back in Auckland and is being re-commissioned for testing.
The 75 foot foiling monohull departed Auckland in February but before it arrived in Europe, the two America's Cup World Series for the defender and three challengers was cancelled. Fortunately, the NZ team's strategy of building their full-size "Boat 1" before their length-restricted test boat, meant that they always had a boat that was an evolution in design from their first AC75 and relevant in terms of progressing the design for "Boat 2"
Te Aihe is now back in the shed in Auckland, being recommissioned and picking up the running in the test program from the half-size AC75 test boat Te Kahu, to check the design progress in practice at full scale.
The full sailing squad will also go into action, with 11 crew sailing the AC75 instead of just the four crew required on the 12metre test boat.