Cup Spy: A spot of recon on Emirates Team NZ - Video
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 16 Dec 2025 03:56 PST
Emirates Team NZ and Optimists - AC40 - Waitemata Harbour - December 15, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
There's no reconnaissance running in the America's Cup until the AC75s are permitted to start sailing in a month.
In the meantime, here's a report from the Recon team, when you don't have a Recon team.
Several teams are sailing AC40s, with Emirates Team NZ going through their routines today, ahead of an approaching front driving a freshening NE breeze.
There was a flood tide, with the breeze, and the wave height is a good indication of the wind strength.
Sail-World dropped in on the session taking place off North Head, at the entrance to Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.
The session lasted over two hours, sailing in a breeze that began in 18kts gusting 23kts, and slowly increased to 25kts gusting 30kts at the finish - according to wind readings from nearby Northern Leading beacon. It consisted of some routines over the same patch of water, which would have been good for consistent data gathering.
With only four crew on board, it is not known who was in what role. Our understanding from the last Cup is that the AC40 can only be sailed in automatic mode, whether that was the case today would have been interesting - as neither answer really stacks up in the current situation.
The commentary on the video was shot live, and is not a voiceover made afterwards and laid over the video track.
All told we shot 23 minutes of video for the test, this segment comprises about a quarter of that. We watched for two hours, mostly through our 14x40 gyroscopic binoculars, which give a much better and clearer view of what is happening, and much better than the 600mm still camera lens we had with us.
The purpose of the session was primarily to test an iPhone based video setup, and particularly the audio - which is always that hardest part of any video.