America's Cup Recon Diary: March 21 - Draper back on board
by Richard Gladwell, ETNZ Recon and Luna Rossa 21 Mar 19:20 PDT
20 March 2026
Emirates Team New Zealand, Taihoro, AC75, Day 4 - March 21, 2026 © Sam Thom / America's Cup
Emirates Team NZ were the only team to sail in the past 24 hours.
Emirates Team New Zealand had their fourth sailing day, of the 45 days permitted, in their AC75 on Saturday. They struck another light-air day - where racing was unable to he held in several sailing events.
However, somewhere the Kiwis managed to scratch up a breeze of 6-8kts from the north. They managed 20 tacks and 20 gybes and were able to self-start onto their foils.
In contrast to Thursday, they stayed in the Inner Hauraki Gulf, in a more intense training session.
The video, although long at 11 minutes, is very well shot, and has some revealing aspects of the sailing technique.
There was no interview posted.
Two jibs were used - a J2 jib for two hours and the J3 jib for one hour. Team NZ almost always sail with the smallest jib they think they can get away with.
British helmsman, Chris Draper, was back on board today, sharing the starboard helming position with skipper Nathan Outteridge, meaning the Port co-helmsman, and 49er European champion, Seb Menzies, was able to put in a full day. Jo Aleh again provided Adult Supervision from the starboard cockpit, behind the helm position.
Four of the five teams entered in the 2027 America's Cup have now sailed. However, three of these are sailing AC40s. Emirates Team NZ has sailed both their AC40s and their repurposed AC75. The Swiss have yet to sail.
Report from the ACP Recon Unit assigned to Emirates Team NZ.
Emirates Team New Zealand rolled out of the shed at 1000hrs on a beautiful Saturday morning and remained at the dock for an extended setup period. Early activity included a large thump during preparation. Peter Knight, an electronics technician, came on board to resolve an issue holding up their rigging progress: a delayed forestay attachment, a fibre connection change, and a new mark noted at the front of the mast.
ETNZ left the dock at 11:54hrs in J2-2 and M2-0 and entered the sailing area in light conditions.
Once sailing, the main focus appeared to be leeward heel tack development, with repeated tacks using big traveller up through the manoeuvre. The takeoff threshold initially appeared to be around 15 knots, later dropping to approximately 12 knots. Several touchdowns were observed through the tacks, along with notes of bow rise out of the manoeuvre and work on speed-build "pop" characteristics.
At 13:09 ETNZ stopped sailing, before resuming at 13:27hrs. During this phase, observations included the jib appearing wide and a large traveller input being used into the tack. A further touchdown tack and a bear-away sequence were noted, with the boat continuing to work on low-end acceleration and exit behaviour.
At 14:05 hours, ETNZ stopped again and took VIPs on board. At 14:15hrs, a sail change was carried out to J3-2 in approximately 6-7 knots of breeze. The J3 appeared to have a more favourable mid-girth shape than the J2, although the overall trim balance between jib and mainsail looked slightly out. The jib also appeared to show a hollow through the leech and mid-leech area.
The crew changed during this period, and sailing resumed at 14:30hrs, before another stop at 14:52. A long period was then spent working downstairs on the port side before ETNZ resumed sailing at 15:37hrs.
The latter part of the session shifted into pre-start practice. Several timed approaches were observed, including low reverse-circle style entries and one higher circle above the line, with the boat appearing late and behind the line on at least one run. ETNZ stopped again at 16:11 for guests to disembark, resumed sailing at 16:22, then carried out a battery swap at 16:47 before returning to the water at 16:59.
A second short pre-start block followed at 17:14hrs before ETNZ stopped sailing at 17:27hrs. The boat then sailed home in snake mode, ending the session at 17:47hrs.
Overall, the session appeared to focus on light-air handling and low-end performance development, particularly leeward heel tacks with aggressive traveller use and speed-build takeoff behaviour. There also appeared to be an ongoing effort to improve jib and mainsail trim balance, with the later shift into pre-start work suggesting a secondary racecraft focus once the testing blocks were complete.
Crew onboard:
- Starboard helm: Chris Draper / Nathan Outteridge
- Port helm: Seb Menzies
- Trimmer: Andy Maloney
- Trimmer: Jake Pye
- Starboard hull (behind helmsman): Jo Aleh
Additional Images: