America's Cup: Big surprise in core Emirates Team NZ sailing team
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 14 May 14:34 AEST
Nathan Outteridge - Emirates Team NZ © AC37 Joint Recon
Emirates Team New Zealand have announced their core sailing group, with the major surprise being the inclusion of British sailor Chris Draper.
While the move was a key one for the America's Cup, there was no statement or media opportunities on offer - just a list and some photos posted on the team's Facebook page. The Italian team pulled a similar low-profile stunt with their first sail on May 8 - if indeed that is when it took place.
Draper (47yrs) is currently a member of the Australia SailGP team, and has sailed with several SailGP teams since the League's inception. He last sailed in the America's Cup in the 2017 Cup in Bermuda, as part of the Dean Barker led Softbank Japan team.
The other four, are more predictable selections, in the five person group which the team says has only started this week in "plotting the strategy to defend the America's Cup again in 2027", according to the social media announcement.
The line-up is Nathan Outteridge (skipper), Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke, Sam Meech and Chris Draper.
Kiwi fans will be relieved to see the retention of Andy Maloney and Blair Tuke - who will be aiming for their fourth successful Defence of the America's Cup. Sam Meech, a bronze medalist from the 2016 Olympics, was part of the ETNZ crew in the 2024 America's Cup.
Nathan Outteridge, the co-skipper of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's team in the 2024 America's Cup, has been named the skipper following the departure of three times America's Cup winner Peter Burling.
Triple America's Cup winner, Peter Burling's services as a helmsman Emirates Team New Zealand were deemed to be essential to the team for testing, allowing no absences to compete in what are now 14, inceasing to 16 and maybe 18 events a year in the SailGP season, forcing him into a position where he parted company with the NZ team. However three of the five sailors named have the same SailGP committments. Former Olympic representative and three times America's Cup winner, Josh Junior is another believed to have left the Kiwi team. He is said to have joined Italian team Luna Rossa in a coaching role.
While Draper's inclusion is what is known as a "Bolter" in the selection of rugby teams when a rank outsider is included, his inclusion should help prevent "group-think" which is always a risk when the same old faces keep rolling on from Cup to Cup. Draper's experience is in the 49er class where he won an Olympic Bronze medal in the 49er mens skiff in Athens in 2004, he does have experience with Luna Rossa in the 2013 Cup as a helmsman.
That campaign was not one of Luna Rossa's best performances. They entered late, and had little option but to buy a design package from Emirates Team New Zealand and the two teams worked up in New Zealand. They spent some time altering the basic boat, built in Italy and the popular line was that she came out of the shed a slower boar than when she went in. Only three challengers competed in the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup. The ill-fated Artemis Racing (SWE) was first to be eliminated, and the Italians were easily despatched, with the Kiwis going on to face the USA team.
Maybe that campaign is where Emirates Team NZ, as a group, first had real contact with the Brit, outside dinghy regattas in the 49er class and foiling Moths. The test for Draper will be as to whether he is operating at the same technical level as Emirates Team NZ's other sailors. Some time in the simulator and AC40 should remedy some of that. His strength is the breadth of his experience in other teams, which the other members of the core sailing group, other than Nathan Outteridge lack.
While the Protocol for the 2027 America's Cup has yet to be announced all of the potential Challengers know of its draft provisions. The options for the Defender are quite limited in that while it can look to its Youth team, which did not perform well in Barcelona - none of those have America's Cup experience.
The Italians by contrast embraced their Youth and Womens team as part of the America's Cup group, to the point where they sent out their AC75 after it had been eliminated from the Louis Vuitton Cup, with the silver hulled AC75 being sailed by its Youth America's Cup champion team.
The two Youth helms had also been functioning as part of the AC75 and LEQ12 test team, and performed outstandingly in the second America's Cup Preliminary Event finishing second to Emirates Team NZ, in the six team event aginst the first-string teams of the other Chalengers and Defender. The young Italians, one of whom was just four years out of competing in the Optimist Worlds, and the other a double Olympic Gold medalist - blotted their copy-book regatta with a spectacular nosedive, which in the space of a few seconds turned the flying foiler into a swimming pool.
However that faux pas excused, the fact remains that ETNZ do not have the depth in their Youth team that the Italians enjoy. In an era when AC nationality rules are being tightened, bringing in outsiders is more difficult, and in that regard ETNZ are in a similar position to the said-to-be-now-not-entering Swiss. It's an issue the Kiwis need to address, or their days in the Cup are numbered - not so much in the current event, but certainly in the next - if there is one.
There are others that the Kiwis could have been added like Phil Robertson, a former match racing champion who worked as a training helm with Alinghi on their AC40 and AC75. Calling back the much accomplished Glenn Ashby, is apparently not an option, with the three times America's Cup winner apparently being wooed by other teams. That said Chris Draper does bring considerable experience spread across sevral America's Cup and SailGP teams.
However at 47yrs old he is not in the flower of his youth, and will be nudging 50yrs come the 2027 America's Cup. At this stage of the America's Cup, his best use in the team is to question the thinking of the sailing team, and then moving into a coaching role alongside Ray Davies. In the short term he is a good super-sub for the team in the start up phase for the next Cup, as he has sailed in most positions in the various teams in which he has been involved since the start of the AC foiling era in 2013, with the AC72s in San Francisco.
Draper's America's Cup journey began in 2011 with Team Korea, where he served as helmsman in the AC45 World Series. He later joined Luna Rossa Challenge, becoming the first Briton to helm in the Louis Vuitton Cup final during the 34th America's Cup in 2013. Subsequently, he took on the role of tactician and wing trimmer for SoftBank Team Japan in the 35th America's Cup held in Bermuda in 2017.
In 2019, Draper was appointed CEO and wing trimmer for the Great Britain SailGP Team. He later joined the Japan SailGP Team as a wing trimmer, contributing to multiple event victories during the 2021-2022 season and securing an overall runner-up finish. In 2022, he transitioned to the Canadian SailGP Team in a similar capacity.
In November 2023, Draper was appointed Head of Performance for Athena Pathway, a program dedicated to preparing British youth and women's teams for the 2024 America's Cup events.
The Kiwi team are the first to formally announce a core sailing squad, ahead of the October 20, 2025 start date for test sailing in AC40s or AC75s leading into the 2027 America's Cup, expected to be held on the Bay of Naples, Italy.
The team say they will be making additions. At this stage given they know what the new Rules will be for 2027. They have some idea of the crew functions required. It is not really an option to keep bringing older sailors on board. They have to follow the lead of the Italians and start developing their next generation of sailors, and do it on merit, as they did with Burling and Tuke in 2014, and pick winners. They are there, as we saw in the Moth Worlds earlier this year, and again at the upcoming Moth Worlds in Lake Garda - but will Emirates Team NZ pick them up?
The other issue is how they keep the team race-sharp, with the expanding SailGP circuit becoming a less realistic option with every passing year. An AC40 circuit is yet to be started, despite intentions of having this running in Febrary 2025. Three of the five named today are competing on the SailGP circuit. Earlier this year team CEO, Grant Dalton said he thought the America's Cup should be their sole focus. With a cap on sailing days looming, there will be less opportunity for leave passes to be handed out to the SailGP sailors in the AC teams.
The six-time Italian challenger Luna Rossa began sailing on May 8, in their AC40 which is only permitted to sail in One Design mode until October 20. That date was set in a joint note issued by COR/D on November 8, 2024 - just three weeks after the end of the 2024 America's Cup on October 19.
Subsequent notes from COR/D and other sources stated that no crew who had sailed in AC37 would be permitted to sail for another team in the forthcoming Cup.
However a new clause, sought by the Swiss Alinghi team allowed two non-nationals of the country of the challenging club to sail for the team. Despite having advised media of their intention not to enter the 38th America's Cup, the Swiss team are said to be watching proceedings.
Cup scuttlebutt has it that the team is talking with Ben Ainslie, of the Challenger of Record. Whether that dialog is aimed at achieving more concessions in the yet to be published Protocol, in the Cup the Swiss team are not intending to enter, or is working out a deeper relationship with the Brits, who have lost their principal sponsor, remains to be seen.
The Venue for the 38th America's Cup and the Protocol for the event are expected to be announced next month.