America's Cup: Big day for 38th Cup - Kiwis sail; New team members; Dalts and Ainslie on ACP
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 16 Oct 20:55 PDT
Emirates Team New Zealand sailing off Auckland's North Shore - October 17, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
Friday October 17, was a big day for the America's Cup - when the Defender went sailing for the first time in the new Cup cycle; the Kiwis announced four new team members - bringing new talent into the team; Grant Dalton and Ben Ainslie briefed some of the sailing media on the new America's Cup Partnership.
Here are the quick takeaways:
Sailing team additions:
Emirates Team New Zealand have announced four new sailing team members. Two of whom Seb Menzies and Josh Armit were with the ETNZ Youth America's Cup team. Top Int Moth sailor Jacob ("Jake") Pye was the third male member. The three are in their early 20's,
Olympic Gold and Silver medalist Jo Aleh is the first female sailor named as part of a New Zealand America's Cup sailing squad. However she will not be the first NZ woman to sail in an America's Cup campaign. That distinction belongs to Leslie Egnot who helmed the all-woman crew of Mighty Mary in the 1992 US Defence Trials.
Aside from Jo Aleh, none of the latest group of sailors are competing in SailGP, and Aleh is only committed to SailGP for the final event in Abu Dhabi in late November.
All the five previously named NZ squad members have SailGP commitments, with various teams. Clearly these three new additions to the sailing squad, along with Jo Aleh will have to do a lot of the heavy lifting in the test program - when there is a clash with SailGP events. Menzies and Armit will be continuing their Olympic campaigns in the 49er and iQFoil classes respectively.
Armit comes from a strong sailing family heritage. His grandfather Tony was the first New Zealander to sail around the world. His father Leith is a multiple world OK Dinghy champion and an Olympic Reserve in the Finn class.
There is no indication of who the co-helm will be with all of those named today having very solid experience in the apparent wind classes. None have previously sailed an AC75, but all except Pye have sailed AC40s as part of the Womens or Youth teams in the 2024 Youth and Womens America's Cups.
First sail
Just two days short of the first anniversary of their successful three-peat Cup Defence in Barcelona, Emirates Team NZ, launched their AC40 and went for the first official sail in Auckland, in light weather, with what looked to be four of the previously named sailing crew - Nathan Outteridge, Chris Draper, Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney. Others were kitted up and set to transfer from the chaseboat later in the training session.
America's Cup Partnership debrief
The day started with a multinational sailing media conference, with the the Challenger and Defender team CEOs, Ben Ainslie and Grant Dalton, fielding questions on the America's Cup Partnership announced on Wednesday.
The main thrust of the ACP is to make the teams viable on an ongoing basis, and able to get some certainty into the Cup future beyond the immediate competition and Match.
While there will be advice taken on whether there needs to be an amendment to the Deed of Gift to facilitate ACP, it seems that the new conglomerate will sail within the Mutual Consent provision of the Deed of Gift founding document, and be able to make all of the Cup changes they envisage without recourse to the New York Supreme Court.
ACP was only signed on Wednesday morning by the Challenger and Defender. It is over 400 pages of legalese, and a public copy will not be released.
It was made clear on repeated occasions that the ACP is not a clone of the SailGP League, which is effectively a franchise operation in collaboration with SailGP Inc. On the other hand, the Cup teams will remain as a co-operative group individually owned entities, able to be brought and sold, or do equity splits. Control will be exercised by vote, with class rule changes requiring a unanimous vote. There is some provisions as to how new teams will be admitted to the Board of ACP - but essentially the control mechanisms of that are contained within the Deed of Gift ie the Challenger of Record is not under any obligation to admit any team, that will potentially take its place as Challenger.
The other teams were consulted, mainly by the Challenger of Record. The consultation did not extend to the Cup Trustee group (clubs which have previously held the America's Cup.