America's Cup: Emirates Team NZ - Day 23 - Jib issues add intrigue to fresh air session
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 8 Oct 05:00 PDT
Jib sheet issues - Emirates Team New Zealand - October 7, 2026 - Auckland © Sam Thom/America's Cup
Emirates Team New Zealand sailed for a second successive day on the Hauraki Gulf - enjoying a sunny day accompanied by a brisk 16-22kts westerly (offshore) breeze and choppy seas.
The sea state was most likely attributable to a wind against tide situation.
Today the emphasis seemed to be on crew work, with maybe some new tacking techniques being trialled, with a view to sharpening pre-starts - as discussed in the Recon Team report below.
Late in the session, while sailing in a fresh breeze on the #5 jib, the team experienced issues with their jib sheeting system, which appeared to have been upgraded while the team was away in Naples. The issue seemed to be more about an adjustment to the deck markers, and not a breakage. It could have been related to the sheeting positions for the #5 jib. Just something that would have been nice to be fixed on the water, rather than have been left for the shore crew and re-tested on another day with a different jib and different conditions.
The team lost 40 minutes due to repairs on the water. However, they were able to get sailing again and undertook some more drills before calling a halt after a four-hour sailing session.
[Sorry, no video was available at the time of initial publication of this report. It will be added when CupSpy returns to New Zealand on Saturday.]
Recon Report - October 7, 2026 - Sailing Day 23 - Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand
Recon Team track - Emirates Team New Zealand - October 7, 2026 - Auckland - photo © America's Cup Media
Wind & Sea Conditions:
- PM: Sunny. Wind: 16-22kts 090° (E)
- Sea State: Choppy (PM)
Sailing Stats:
- Dock Out: 1200hrs
- Dock In: 1622hrs
- Time sailed: 4hrs
- Foiling time: Not reported
- Tacks: No data. Gybes: No data
Crew List:
- Port Helm: Seb Menzies (NZL)
- Starboard Helm: Nathan Outteridge (AUS/NZL)
- Port Trimmer: Iain Jensen (AUS)
- Starboard Trimmer: Andy Maloney (NZL)
- P5: Jo Aleh (NZL)
- P6: Josh Armit (NZL)
Key Points:
- Back to back sailing days.
- M3-0 Main
- Long downtime with jib traveller breakdown.
Clear skies and a cool SW breeze for ETNZ as they rolled out of the shed at 1015 for back-to-back sailing days. There was a slight delay as the breeze took longer than expected to build, but eventually ETNZ pushed off the dock at 1200 on their way to Narrow Neck Beach. The crew consisted of Outteridge, Menzies, Maloney, Jensen, Aleh, Armit.
ETNZ were off the dock at 1200 and off the tow at Narrow Neck Beach at 1216. Hoisting their rarely used and recently recut M3-0 and J3-1 jib. They sailed onto the foils in 12-16 knots and quickly proceeded to sail long gybes down to Tiritiri Island. The breeze was considerably lighter down this end of the harbour. ETNZ had a noticeable touchdown in the gybe and then finished the session with a speed run across the wind. The session ended at 1330.
The next session began at 1330 and consisted of long runs up and down the harbour. As the session progressed ETNZ steadily increased the manoeuvres. The was a noticeable increase in light touch downs today. This could be a result of rebalancing systems with the M3 main and also from the crew pushing the ride height lower in the flatter sea state. It seemed the windward board was being raised a lot quicker in the gybes than yesterday, the boat also seemed a lot flatter going into the tacks. There was negligible "roll" into the tacks in these earlier sessions. The session ended at 1410.
ETNZ then changed to their J5-0, an older generation sail that seems to have been recut. The breeze and sea state quickly built with the resulting session being in 16-20 knots across the harbour with a significant wind against tide chop further out the harbour. Some solid runs up and down the harbour dialing in the j5 before ending the session at 1448 for a lunch break and battery swap.
ETNZ then mounted several cameras to the outside port foils and started a session throwing the boat around aggressively in the now 20+ knot breeze and moderate sea state.
ETNZ seem to be growing more and more confident in these aggressive pre-start simulations. The session ended abruptly however with an issue to the jib traveller system. This system being an area of focus and teething problems both yesterday and today. 40min of repair later and ETNZ was once again sailing.
They progressively made their back to North Head, mixing figure of 8s with straight lines. ETNZ appear not to be practising "timed pre-starts" but rather throwing the boat around in a less formal practice. The day ended at 1622, dropping sails off of North Head.
Overall, a productive day of testing on the M3-0 main and the standard amount of sailing hours despite the 40min stoppage for gear failure.
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