The Cat Shot
by John Curnow, Sail-World.com AUS Editor 14 Jul 02:00 PDT
Shooter says 'You're outta here!' And you're most definitely gone... hurtled off the front by a steam catapult, and you'd better make sure you lit the wicks on the afterburners before you get there! © Photo supplied
May 14, 2026 may well have been when the fighter was 'thrown' off the front of the carrier, as it were. Aviator saluted the Shooter, who then tapped the deck, and a couple of seconds later you disappear over the bow, only to climb back out into free air, courtesy of a screaming turbine with a throttle pinned to the front of its gate.
We were there for that, and spoke with the team at length in Australia's Back! All the while since, we've been pondering that no F35-C Lightning II just magically appears in front of the jet blast screen with the shuttle miraculously attached to its front landing gear. There's a lot that goes on way before that point, and after, for that matter...
The team member who had been beavering away prepping the Fighter for this very grand and complex mission was none other than Head of Performance and Design, Glenn Ashby. So May was not the start, per se, and given that this campaign is essentially on a vertical trajectory to get the boat shipped to Italy before Christmas, now would be a really good time to check back in with the Aussie Legend.
"Absolutely. There has been a lot of work and discussions that were carried out over the last couple of years, and I was largely chipping away quietly behind the scenes. Nothing could really happen with the campaign unless we had the funding sign-off, which arrived in March. In essence, I was building the opportunity during this time," said Ashby.
A 'meaningful programme' was always the aim, and Ashby is very clear that now that they are airborne, the throttle has not moved back one iota. Obviously, the date is set, so the runway is very much a known quantity. No use praying for more.
Back story
So just how much was achieved over the course of the last two years before the cat shot? Was it 5%, or more like 15%? "I've never thought about it like that, but in my view, I think you can probably say almost a 50%. I know some people might look at that differently, but the conversations that I'd had during that time with Team New Zealand - Grant Dalton, Kevin Shoebridge, and Dan Bernasconi - the way that I'd explained to them for Australia to get on to the start line for this very short runway coming into Naples, is that we'd buy a design package. There just would not be the time to design and build our own boat. So, as things went forward, I just kept working with Dan Bernasconi on the technical side of things saying, if this was to happen at this date, what would we do?"
"We had to keep morphing the project to suit, and one of the early conversations that we had, which no one has really ever sort of known about, was that we were actually looking at building a Team New Zealand boat three (same as NZL and FRA). That was in the first 8-10 months after Barcelona. As time raced on, and the America's Cup Partnership came together, we were at the point of needing to lay down material orders and so forth, which we just simply couldn't do, because we didn't have the funding signed off. At the time, it became a little bit of a problem."
"Then, as the rules then got written and started to be developed for Naples and AC38, as well as going forwards, I spoke to Dan and asked about these old grandfathered boats in terms of what would we be able to be put into the rule to keep them alive? It's such a shame to have these older boats not be able to have another life. He then talked to a few of the other technical guys within the other teams, and they all came up and agreed that a percentage change, which is how they end up agreeing that a 12.5% surface area change would be a fair compromise."
"They are now basically on par with the current boat, and as a shell, effectively are as good as what a new, current updated aerodynamic and structural package is for AC38. This was the key in the lock and the opening of the door for us. The rule being agreed by the other teams who wanted Australia and other teams to be involved was a terrific achievement."
Watching movies (again) - Cut it. Shut it. Chop it. Paste it.
It all meant Te Rehutai was a real option, and shortly she'll start to get the all-important hydraulics and electronics installed. Ashby is clearly excited by it all, and justifiably so. I was also impressed by the fact the new bow is being built by McConaghy's in Gosford. Smart move. They've seen that movie twice before, of course. The new part will be sent to ETNZ soon enough, and at that point, Team Australia's craft will really look like Team AUS. Fresh paint and there'll be no mistaking it...
The question is, does it mean we have to call the boat Anzac?
Interestingly, the other element to note is that the renovation of Te Rehutai is far faster than laying up a new hull. "There were such good bones, the boat was in such good condition, and actually had already been modified a little bit to turn it into Boat 2.5 for Team New Zealand to train on in Barcelona. A lot of modifications and work had already been done. It was actually much more beneficial for us financially, and time-wise to do the retrofit (including all the OD pieces), rather than building a new boat," stated Ashby.
"We needed the funding, and we needed the ability to have a boat. Those two things were probably equally as important for the campaign as a whole. We were never about just making up the numbers. We want to go there and race really well and do way better than people probably would have thought that we could do. In addition to being a genuine contender, we are committed to building a legacy, as well."
"It's a massive, massive undertaking. Until you've actually been fully immersed in a Cup campaign, you don't really know how hard it is. It is actually a lot harder than everyone probably thinks from the outside, and with those two pieces in place, once we'd pulled the trigger, then it was all about putting the people together, and that process now is going extremely well."
People power
What started as a core group of five or six people with John Winning Jnr at the helm, per se, is now 30-strong, and building. There's technical, legal, admin, sponsorship, and of course, sailing. The A-Team is not only A for Australia, but A as in best as the buy-in spreads like a manufactured virus. They'll be 80 or 90 strong by the end of the year, to which Ashby said, "...daunting and exciting, all rolled into one!"
N.B. Standby for some names to drop soon, is how it has been put to me BTW. Those press releases will be on Sail-World.com as soon as we get them.
"We're looking right across the board, in all different areas for the technical and sailing teams, both now and also for the future. One of the big things for me is not only who we're using now or looking at now, but it's who's coming through, because Cup cycles come through really quickly. We've definitely got established, experienced people, but I've also been really looking around and making lots of phone calls and inquiries on who's coming out of university at the moment to see who might be a good fit for a mechatronics role, for instance. It is definitely a blend of right now, and also the future, as we intend to be here not just for AC38, but 39 and so on."
"There'll be all sorts of things going on over the next few months. The beauty is with the simulators these days, is that it gives an opportunity to crash and burn and do 100 takeoffs in a simulated world before you actually have to do it in real life, and those opportunities didn't really exist even 15 years ago," said Ashby.
"There was no such thing as a simulator when I first started coming into the AC. It was just about going out for trial and error, coming back, learning, and going forward. Whereas now the young sailors have the ability to sail the AC40 and do 1,000 hours on the AC40 simulator before they actually get to step on a yacht. So, they've already got probably 80 or 90% of the understanding by then."
Closer than ever
It's always a little bit different from simulation to reality in any simulated environment. You can never get it 100% perfect, because there are always tiny little differences with the atmosphere, the water, the wind, and the way the wind weighting is. So, being at 80 or 90% means it can be about muscle memory, and then focus on trimming and the comms, which is super-important. The new breed are in a terrific position before they even get on the water," stated Ashby.
Like the campaign itself, the outcome of the above means you're efficient by being there already, choosing the correct option from the get-go, and also "...push away the distractions that inevitably come in an AC."
Ashby is also ultra-clear that his mission is "How do we get our boat across the finish line in front of the other guys? I've just got to keep bringing it back to that, because you can get totally lost with all the other peripheral things. If we are slow, everyone will be pointing the camera at me and going, 'Glenn, why are we so slow?' Whereas if we're in the mix, it'll be nice to be able to put our arms around the whole team and say we've done this together and this is where we're at." Clearly, Ashby gets up every morning and thinks about winning races...
Note too that Ashby knows all about both sides - camera and rail gun - just think Bermuda and San Fran... "It's hard enough when you win to deal with it all. When you lose, it's even worse."
Now there would be a myriad of projects going on and a plethora of tasks inside all of those. Ashby is just back from seeing the new 'Anzac', and the AC is not the only programme he's involved with, so is it all in his head? Are there 15 spreadsheets with 20 tabs each that are involved? Is there an AI engine that drives it all, or is more like a D10 Caterpillar in crawler gear?
"I'm very, very fortunate that I have got really good people around me that are extremely organised, your John Hildebrand, Andrew Henderson, those types of people that are very, very experienced, massively documentation and process driven. It is them, along with Mark Allison, for example, who do not leave any stones unturned and pick the eyes out of what they're doing. Seriously though, putting the right people in place in their departments is extremely important. It's their organisation and communication skills that's the difference between winning and losing the America's Cup."
"The people that we have in the programme are just fully invested mentally and physically into the campaign. They're the best in the business, not only in Australia, but worldwide - they're at expert level. It's one thing that we do have as Australians - great skilled people right across, you know, all departments. We've got some fantastic internationals coming on board as well, which gives it a great mix and adds to the culture of the team as well. Their ability to be experts in their field, and then shoulder tap people in their industry is first class."
The passion runs deep, and the emails with CVs attached are even longer. The team is an amalgam of those working under one roof, and those spread all over the globe, but then that is the nature of the new world. Interestingly, the base at Naples is being built currently, and I bet when they get there in early 2027 that it will be the first time all are under the one roof.
Fatboy Slim (Right Here. Right Now.)
"The big focus for me personally at the moment is working or continuing to work with Team New Zealand on how the boat's tracking, and the bow at McConaghy's, which is around 2/3 of the way there. In a couple of weeks, it will be shipped over to ETNZ. There are lots of hydraulic and electronic components being ordered at the moment, ready for the fit-out later in the year. There is also some structural testing to be completed, the mast has been ordered with Southern Spars, and eventually some paint."
To say nothing of sails, right in Ashby's wheelhouse, foils and arms, and you have to get it to Naples in December and it takes at least six weeks to ship it, for the An-225 is no longer. The reason all that is important is the test flights will be there, not Auckland, and it really means it has to be gone all too soon, leaving August, September, and a smidge of October to panel beat it all into shape, and have it out of the spray booth, all buffed and glossy. Game on, eh?!
It really does underscore the word, turnkey, now doesn't it... It is all about maximising the quality sailing time for Tom and team out of Naples.
"So, we will spend the time in the shed making sure that everything's working as needed. So all the mechatronics and all the human interface equipment is working exactly as it needs to be. We can do a lot of that before the boat actually leaves on the ship. Then when we get to Naples, we'll be looking at probably about a two to three-week window for foils in, because the one-design foil arms won't be shipped to New Zealand. They'll go straight from Persico near Brescia. The foil arms will turn up, we'll put the trailing edges on them, plug our foils into those arms, fit the arms to the boat, plug all the hydraulics in, and run everything up."
"There's a lot of shed testing we can do before we even launch the boat. Effectively, the boat will be recommissioned on the hard, the rig will go in the boat, we'll get everything where it needs to go, and make sure that things like all the instrumentation are working. So that when the boat does go in the water, hopefully we can be out doing a foiling tack within 15, or 20 minutes," added Ashby.
"Clearly, we need to make sure that we use our time extremely efficiently once we start sailing early next year, because we've only got about eight or nine weeks of on-water sailing before we're into our first race. So it's not a lot of time to get up to speed, and whilst that first race is a preliminary event, we're into racing proper only two or three weeks after that. We know it is the pointy end of the spear, and I'm definitely out there with the whittler, just filing that up, because I know exactly what the point needs to look like when we get to the pointy end of the racing!"
As for the souls on board, well it might be a smaller number in total, but as Ashby points out, you won't want to be stepping onto the AC75 for the first time.
What's real for now is all the crew working on the hull and parts. Ashby reflected after the recent trip to see the boat that it's 'super-real'. Vacuum pumps, cutting, machinery being operated, and action aplenty.
A team is only ever as good as the people, and Team Australia is loaded. It should be, for mission is but part of the equation. For too long, everyone was everywhere. Now there is a pool, not a scattergraph or collective. That statement alone underscores the commitment, the desire, the intent, the esprit de corps, and the gaze into the crystal ball.
If the America's Cup itself is now like a post-Ecclestone F1, then the AC75 vessels are probably a bit more Moto1, and far, far less the bucking broncos that were the 500cc two-strokers. It means the racing will be the focal point, not the spills. For Team Australia that's great news. Look out everyone else, for they know their racecraft.
Thank you for being a crucial part of Sail-World.com
John Curnow
Sail-World.com AUS Editor