Sail-World NZ: Editorial - October 10 - Renaissance of the ACs
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 15 Oct 04:39 BST
10 October 2025
Black Foils cross the finish to win SailGP Portsmouth - July 20, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
A lot of water has passed under Sail-World's hull since our last editorial in mid-May.
That included a month or so through Europe and Ireland, topped off with a week or so in Portsmouth and Cowes, to take in the SailGP at Portsmouth, the Admirals' Cup in Cowes, followed by the magnificent massed start of the Rolex Fastnet Race, at the end of July.
I returned to New Zealand a couple of weeks before the announcement that the Protocol for the 38th America's Cup had been signed. Well, Ben Ainslie was in Auckland to sign on August 12, and did so an hour before the media conference to announce the deed.
It was mentioned that there were two other documents, the "Terms Sheet" and the America's Cup Partnership agreement (ACP). But the details of both were not released to the media. I attended three media conferences: the first for TV, the second for a group of mostly mainstream media, and the third, via Zoom, for a group of international sailing media, which was by far the most revealing. However, little was allowed to escape from the two unseen documents.
When I last wrote in mid-May, the venue for the 2027 America's Cup had just been announced, and three months later in mid-August, the Protocol was finally signed. The document was claimed to have been under negotiation between the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and their respective teams, since before the start of the Cup in Barcelona, or for the past 22 months. The impression I got after the media conferences was that the brinksmanship came to an end only after the direct intervention of the leaders of the respective clubs.
However, since August 12, the America's Cup submarine has dived deep once again, without so much as a bubble trail to follow. One team has announced the acceptance of their entry by RNZYS, albeit through what may have been an off-the-record dinner conversation; otherwise, complete radio silence has been maintained.
But looking at the sailing limits schedule in the Protocol, my expectation is that ETNZ will start sailing in AC40s soon, and then switch to the AC75 after that becomes legal in mid-January. Given that New Zealand's summer, and the best sailing weather along with extra daylight, the Kiwi team will march to the beat of its own drum, rather than mimic the Europeans. They have a limit of 35 days to spend in two boat testing by June 30, 2026, and 45 sailing days in the AC75 in the 12 months starting January 15, 2026. Sailing alone in the AC40s is without limitation.
It has always been the Kiwi way to drop into race mode early in the campaign to give the team focus on the task ahead, and as a psychological ploy - "coming ready or not" - to the Challengers.
Entries opened on August 19, but no official end to the Entry period has been announced. That happens 28 days after the Partnership Agreement has been signed. And nothing has been forthcoming on that front either.
At the end of September, Naples based newspaper Il Mattino visited the proposed America's Cup base area in Bagnoli, and reported that there was no construction activity underway. The paper claimed that the base area was due for occupation by the teams in April 2026 - 200 days hence.
The antics of the America's Cup teams over the past year stand in marked contrast to the monthly roller coaster that is SailGP.
Having now seen two SailGP events live at different venues, both were amazing experiences, and a very different experience from what is broadcast on TV/YouTube. The spectator fizz spilt over into the watering holes surrounding the venue - not unlike an international rugby match - but this was sailing.
What you don't see on TV/YouTube's live coverage is the live, off-camera action. And there is plenty of that - nosedives, near misses, and actual high octane racing. You don't see the F50s developing speed wobbles and what ensues. It doesn't matter where you look, something is going on or about to happen.
Neither event (America's Cup or SailGP) does their media very well - it is over-controlled by the event and team PR people, who squeeze away all but the last drips of the spontaneity, in pursuit of their pre-programmed "talking points". In my view, both are poorly commentated, and suffer from excessive use of graphics.
For experienced sailing media, this is an opportunity rather than a problem. Unfortunately, both events are dumbed down to a level that is understandable to a sports reporter with no sailing experience, and who is entirely reliant on quotes for their storyline, rather than being able to report what they should have been able to see with their own eyes and assess.
In UK neither the Admirals' Cup nor SailGP got any cut-through into mainstream media. There was nothing in the Daily Telegraph, which used to have extensive sailing coverage, particularly of an event like the Admirals' Cup. There appeared to be little, if anything on the TV news about either event.
In Australia, last weekend, the event was not available live and free on YouTube.
The bottom lines, are that without this cut-through into mainstream media, coupled with YouTube availability apparently being dictated by territorial broadcasters and rights holders it is hard to see how these arrangements benefit the sport and attract new fans. Equally how does an event like the Admirals' Cup attract sponsorship for future events, without being able to point to mainstream media exposure?
During SailGP - Golf could attract two or three pages per day - the British Open was being played in Belfast - but major international sailing events got nothing.
One of the highlights of our visit to Portsmouth was touring the new SailGP facility in Southampton. Having been through the previous facility in Warkworth, NZ, the two are similar in many ways. However, the Southampton facility has undergone significant upgrades to meet current manufacturing standards. However, for all the terrific layout and facilities, it is still down to the boatbuilding team and their expertise as to whether the event delivery matches the PR and impressive video.
Certainly, the SailGP Technologies team has been under the cosh lately with the silly collisions, wingsail failures, and structural collapses. So far, the shore teams have done supremely well - but one assumes they could have done without the pressured experience.
While six of the F50s started life in the 2017 America's Cup, six of the fleet are new boats, including Brazil's, which suffered the most catastrophic failure yet. There was a lot of gear under construction in the Southampton facility, including two new F50s for new teams, as well as spare wingsails and other parts. The yet-to-be-publicly-seen 27.5-metre wingsail sections were under construction. In the F50 class, the wingsail bottom and top sections remain with the boat, and the addition and subtraction of mid sections adjust the height of the rig. The thrust of F50 is firmly in the direction of "Plug and Play", a similar approach to F1 cars, which have a nose cone and front wing assembly that can be easily replaced during pit stops.
The revival of the Admirals' Cup after a 20-year submergence was a masterstroke, returning the sport to a level with which most can identify.
Already, in fact, a couple of weeks after the end of the Rolex Fastnet Race, the organisers announced their dates for the 2027 event.
Despite what was a very successful event, there are several areas in which the Admirals' Cup can be improved. First, it is to have all competitors berthed in one location, rather than straddling the Medina River, with several teams, including those from Australia and New Zealand, based in East Cowes.
The event needs the oomph that a title sponsor like Rolex can give. As always, the dollars would be helpful, but the Admirals' Cup needed and deserved more mainstream media exposure than it received. However, the same comment could also be applied to SailGP across the Solent in Portsmouth. Both events could have done much better with their daily post-racing media conferences.
Initially, there was a clash in dates with the AC and SailGP, but wisely, I suspect the Admirals' Cup moved theirs to run the Channel Race as their first event, while the SailGP was racing. Then the Admirals' Cup had a free run going into the flagship event of the Rolex Fastnet Race.
The decision not to race on Christchurch Bay was a good call by race officials, hopefully not to return. It kept the racing within sight of the shore and avoided a very long trip from Cowes to Christchurch Bay and return.
The year I sailed in the Admirals' Cup (1983) was memorable and forgettable.
Memorable for the horrendous wipeout we did in a very brisk sou'wester on Christchurch Bay.
And forgettable for getting up at an early hour, spending two hours motoring to get to Christchurch Bay, in the cold wind, cuddling hot coffee to keep our hands warm, racing, and then spending the two-hour trip home back to Cowes, in recovery mode.
Racing on the old-style Olympic courses, on Christchurch Bay, with relatively straight breezes and even current/tide, was quite different from the Solent courses. The Admirals' Cup is all about racing, inshore and offshore, in some of the most diverse conditions that nature can devise. And for that, The Admirals' Cup is unique.
Significantly only one new boat was built for the 2025 Admirals' Cup. The oldest boat Callisto (NZL), was 15yrs old, and had been well maintained. For all her experience, she was competitive enough to lead the AC2 (40fters) going into the Rolex Fastnet Race. There were many other similar stories through the Admirals' Cup and Rolex Fastnet fleets - a tribute to the IRC rating rule, and the longevity of well constructed racing hulls, which are not going soft - even after many years of hard racing.
The most memorable event of the trip was the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race, and witnessing almost 450 boats, starting in slightly staggered, well-managed starts, which resulted in a near-continuous stream of boats pushing through towards the Hurst Narrows.
For a simple Kiwi on the Solent again, the experience was akin to being a kid at Christmas.
Everywhere there was a boat or type that I'd only seen on a screen.
They ranged from the 105ft x 75ft beam Ultim foiling multihulls, which were expected to have a serious crack at the race record of just over 32 hrs, down to the 30fters sailing two-handed, and IRC4 were the biggest division at just under 100 entries.
The salutary aspect of the Fastnet is the diversity of designs that it attracts, and quite unlike anything we see in Auckland, or New Zealand for that matter. It's a sight and experience that is hard to put into words, and one is acutely aware of the privileged position of having a front-row seat in the photoboat.
It was hard to know where to look first. Where else would you see the great yachts of yesteryear, Stormvogel and Kialoa II, racing side by side, with a fleet of IMOCA60s ahead, along with some very specialised box rule designs - multihulled and mono - optimised for fast trans-oceanic short-handed racing.
One of those that came whistling past was the Volvo 70 Pyewacket 70, which started life as the Iker Martinez-skippered Telefonica from the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. She was chasing hard after the three 100ft supermaxis in the race - and not giving too much quarter.
Pyewacket 70 hung in throughout the race to be the first monohull across the finish in Cherbourg, beaten only by the three 100ft supermaxis.
A standout feature of all of the top boats was that they were still performing at their best, or better, thanks to regular upgrades and refits.
Stormvogel and the other classics retain all their original gleam, looking better than they did in their heyday of the 1960s and 1970s.
Pyewacket 70 is another level again - a tribute to the original quality of her build, which can withstand the loads of a bigger rig and righting moment. Her four owners have kept a close relationship with her designer, Juan Kouyoumdjian of Juan K yacht design, and Pyewacket 70 is very much still the potent weapon she was when she won the first three legs of the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean race, and rounded that out with a superlative performance against the world's best 13 years later in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race.
That event was the swan song for owner Roy P. Disney and the end of the four-boat dynasty for the Disney family.
Pyewacket 70 is an excellent option for a new owner looking to make their mark on the world's great offshore races.
Contact Paul MacDonald
Ph/WhatsApp: +64 27 5133 524
Email:
Web: www.mcdyachts.com/pyewacket
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Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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