America's Cup Recon Diary: March 23 - Back on the old Cup course
by Richard Gladwell, ETNZ Recon and Luna Rossa 24 Mar 03:40 PDT
24 March 2026
Sending it - Emirates Team New Zealand, Taihoro, AC75, Day 5 - March 23, 2026 © Sam Thom / America's Cup Recon
Emirates Team New Zealand had their fifth sailing day, of the 45 days permitted, in their AC75 on Monday.
They encountered a freshening sea breeze as they sailed on the America's Cup course off Auckland's East Coast Bays.
The five-hour session took place on the area known as Course A in the 2021 America's Cup, and in the same area that American Magic capsized on Day 3 of the Prada Cup. But there was no such drama on Monday.
According to the Recon Unit report, the crew remained unchanged during the session, which was conducted in a building sea breeze.
As they had done in the lighter winds the day before, the crew, remembering that only two of the 2024 Cup-winning team were on board, seemingly focused on sorting out combinations, with plenty of exercises - some not normally used in racing.
Marks were laid, and the crew practised approaches to these and roundings. Given the conditions, bearaway speeds would have been high, and with this being only the fifth day of sailing in an AC75 for most of the crew, it was an impressive performance. Only one nosedive was reported by the ETNZ Recon Unit. It would not have been a surprise to read of plenty more.
While this crew is sailing a boat repurposed from a previous America's Cup, their performance is impressive compared to the Challenger crews going through the same process in the lead-up to the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona. How those crews perform, also sailing repurposed AC75s, will be closely watched.
The performance of new Kiwi co-helm 21-year-old Seb Menzies has been a standout over the past five days, and backs up the ETNZ management decision to bring in many young sailors. They seem to have brought a new energy to the America's Cup champions.
Menzies was the "baby" of the sailing team, joining Emirates Team NZ in 2023 at the age of 19 years. Peter Burling was 23yrs old when he joined in January 2014.
Menzies grew up sailing off Murrays Bay. He's the third generation of his family to do so, and is well-used to sailing in today's conditions.
While Burling had already won an Olympic Silver medal, when he joined ETNZ, Menzies won the 2025 European 49er light airs championship in Greece - after joining ETNZ - and took the title with a day to spare. He's also a former World Youth 420 champion, won an Open 420 Worlds in USA at the age of 13yrs. That was just a year after he won the NZ Optimist NZ title. Those titles were all won with different crews - a contrast to the "Pete and Blair" show that dominated world sailing for over a decade.
Report from the ACP Recon Unit assigned to Emirates Team NZ.
The boat rolled out at 0815hrs, with Rig No. 3 in at 0825hrs. They launched at 0850hrs and were off the dock at 0957hrs.
ETNZ stopped the tow just off North Head [at the entrance to the Hauraki Gulf] with conditions of 10–12 knots easterly breeze and flat water with a small chop building.
At 10:36 hrs, the mainsail (M3-0) was on lock, and the jib (J4-2) was hoisted. ETNZ began sailing at 10:43hrs.
ETNZ warmed up with a long windward leeward leg, practising multiple tacks and gybes. Notably, the boat was generally flatter throughout all manoeuvres. There was some bigger windward heel in the top bear aways.
Small leeward heel was introduced to the tacks with an even pitch attitude and middle to low catch on the traveller. The warmup progressed to two-board down snake turns with some variation in these manoeuvres, with bottom boat speed numbers and higher-speed two-board down turns.
They then stopped sailing at 11:16 hours and brought a media person onto the sixth spot.
Sailing started again at 11:29hrs, with some long windward-leewards. The boat's pitch was notably more bow-up.
More leeward heel was introduced into the tacks and gybes, the traveller was mostly centre line, and the boat's pitch through the manoeuvres was noticeably unstable. This was followed by more two-board manoeuvres. The wind increased to 11-12kts and sailing stopped for a Jib change to the J5-1.
Sailing started again at 12:17hrs. A big downwind run with some tacks. The speed builds looked noticeably slower out of the manoeuvres on the smaller jib. Sailing was stopped at 12:41 hrs, and the jib was changed back to the J4-2. There were also noticeable shape creases in the bottom third of the mainsail.
Started sailing again at 13:07hrs.
A top mark gate was laid, and top mark approaches were practised, followed by prestart practice.
On a final approach, the boat nosedived, and the jib was slow to come back on.
The boat stopped sailing, and the jib quickly changed. It was unclear whether the jib clew was broken. Batteries were also changed.
The breeze built to 14kts.
Sailing timeline for the remainder of the session:
- 13:53hrs - sailing started. Sailing upwind followed by a big round up around 14:15hrs and sailing stopped. There was a downstairs systems check.
- 14:28hrs - sailing started again. Breeze and sea state building. 12-16kts
- 14:44hrs - prestarts were practised and sailing full circle with two boards down. Notably, there was a lot of two-board-down pre-start practice.
- 14:57hrs - stopped
- 15:35hrs - sailing downwind towards North Head [at the entrance to the Waitemata harbour] with some snakes, bear aways, turn ups, and some pre-start approaches towards Chase 1 [chaseboat] on the way. The breeze built to 16-18kts with a medium seastate. Sailing finished for the day.
- 16:00hrs - Dock-in
Crew onboard:
- Starboard helm: Nathan Outteridge
- Port helm: Seb Menzies
- Trimmer: Andy Maloney
- Trimmer: Iain Jensen
- Starboard hull (behind helmsman): Jo Aleh
GB1 Two Boat sailing session. Day 1
Dock out: 12:30hrs Dock in: 16:15hrs
Conditions: 9-10kts from 150°. Flat water
Commentary:
Monday was the first day of sailing for both GB1's AC40 teams.
The session started in flat water with some long upwind and downwind shakedown runs to begin the day. The jibs were changed after around 45 minutes of sailing.
Both boats then combined for a race practice session.
The conditions became influenced by a large rain cell which grew over the City and eventually moved over the bay. This killed the wind.
Crew Athena:
D Fletcher; B Mon;F Dickinson;A Tesei Swap: B Cornish
Crew Siena:
H Mills; F Morris; E Aldridge; A Burnet
Additional Images: