America's Cup: Curious call by Kiwis in a perfect sea-breeze.
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 4 Nov 00:55 PST
Emirates Team New Zealand - Sailing Day 32 - November 3, 2026 - Auckland © Sam Thom / America's Cup Recon
Emirates Team New Zealand made a curious call on Tuesday, ending a test session after just 3 hrs 45 mins.
Under the current America's Cup rules, teams are limited, as a cost-reduction exercise, in the number of days they can sail in a six-month period. As the America's Cup Defenders, Emirates Team NZ has the least of all at 45 days. The obvious strategy is to extract as many hours as possible out of those limited days.
So it was surprising to see the Kiwis pull the pin in the early afternoon after just three and a half hours, and an early start to boot.
The Tuesday session was 45 minutes longer than Saturday's, which was sailed in fresh 20-25kt winds.
Tuesday started light and built throughout the morning into a classic seabreeze of your Glory Days. While the breeze was from the opposite direction (NE) to Saturday (SW), it is unusual for that breeze to increase to much more than 15kts. Nevertheless, it crept up to 17kts before easing a little.
Seeing an AC75 ripping around in excellent foiling conditions looks impressive and is great for foil testing. But the Paddock in November is a long way from Naples in July. We can see from the PredictWind windroses for Naples and Auckland that light winds are expected on the Golfo di Napoli in July - based on 10 years of data for the month.
Auckland, by contrast, generally enjoys much fresher conditions in the current month of November - not really that relevant for the 2027 America's Cup Match on the other side of the world, in which Emirates Team New Zealand, as Defender, are the only certain starter.
So there was some head-scratching on the way home about why Emirates Team NZ had pulled the pin on a session and didn't stay out to sail a perfect sea-breeze. The local schools were out doing learn-to-sail sessions, which are part of the curriculum at most North Shore schools.
But a check of the latest feature from PredictWind, which conveniently appeared in our Inbox later that evening, offered some insight into why.
We all know that the weather in Naples is unlikely to be exactly as the windrose suggests, but given its ten-year span, it is probably not far wrong. And generally speaking, Naples has earned its reputation as a renowned light-air venue.
The early finish also points to where the Kiwis are in their preparation for the 38th America's Cup. Readers of the Recon reports will have noticed a familiar routine evolving - the session is split into longer speed-testing runs and manoeuvres to provide test data for the analysts and designers on the day's test script. The other side of the daily routine revolves around race practice and crew co-ordination, as well as checking that the mechatronics settings are co-ordinated and optimal for a particular manoeuvre, angle of sailing, and wind speed.
The early return is usually a sign that the team has completed its test script for the day, that the design team have all the data they need, and it is time to hand the boat back to the shore crew for maintenance, and maybe an early night. It also points to their testing efficiency.
Tuesday was Day 32 of the team's 45-day allocation, which must last until January 15, 2027, when it resets and refreshes.
It will be interesting to see over the next couple of months how the Kiwis spend their days - doing more of the same as Tuesday and picking the lightest phase of the day and then going home, or being more selective as to when they sail and putting in the extra hour or more.
Certainly, what we are seeing now is a long way away from the days of the Blake era when two IACC boats were towed out, rigged, and then spent long days speed testing on long tacks well out into the Hauraki Gulf, looking for that extra tenth of a knot speed gain, and understanding the reason why.
Recon Report - November 3, 2026 - Sailing Day 32 - Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand
- AM: Sunny. Wind: 5 - 14kts 045° (NE)
- PM: Sunny. Wind: 10 -17kts 045° (S)
- Sea State: Flat (AM & PM)
Sailing Stats:
- Dock Out: 0900hrs
- Started Sailing: 0930hrs
- Stopped Sailing: 1314hrs
- Time sailed: 3hrs 30mins
- 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)/Josh Armit (NZL)
- P5: Jo Aleh (NZL)
- P6: Josh Armit (NZL)
Recon Unit Report – November 3, 2026
Key Points:
- Lighter winds.
- Starts and racing practice in the Back Paddock.
ETNZ rolled out of the shed at a much earlier 0740hrs Tuesday morning to make the most of lighter breezes before a stronger NE forecast for the afternoon.
Interestingly, ETNZ declared a modification to their starboard foil wing over the weekend, FW8-F, and yet on Saturday’s session or today’s there have been no foil cameras attached.
Jo Aleh was asked about this in the post-session interview [not yet available for publication], but no clear explanation was given. Perhaps testing has already been completed on the Port foil, and now the Starboard foil has been modified to match. If so, then further modifications are unlikely before the completely new foils are attached next year.
After Foil Arm testing, ETNZ were off the dock at 0900. The crew consisted of Nathan Outteridge, Seb Menzies, Iain Jensen, Andy Malone, Josh Armit, Jo Aleh.
Another long 20km tow down to the Back Paddock where they came off the tow at 0926. Hoisting their M2-1 and J2-1 and sailing onto the foil at 0944 in a light 5-8 knot NE breeze. Some long runs up and down before ending the session by throwing the boat through circles in the bottom end of the wind range. 1017 end of session.
With the breeze steadily building ETNZ changed to their J3-1 and at 1032 were back up sailing. This time there were much longer runs up and down, sometimes with only a couple of tacks or gybes. This usually suggests testing by ETNZ however with no foil camera or drone following it would suggest testing of systems below the deck.
By the time the session ended at 1115 the breeze had built to a solid 14-17 knots.
At 1132 starting buoys were laid and a ETNZ sailed a session of rolling pre-starts, this time with a couple of port tack starts. The breeze settled into a lighter 12-16 knots and after half a dozen prestarts with no upwind legs the session ended at 1150. A short break and then another session of rolling prestarts in 12-14 knots started at 1203 and ended at 1220. The final session of rolling prestarts started at 1234 and after the first entry ETNZ had a brief stoppage at 1240.
Crew were seen looking at the jib traveller system, however no team from Chase One jumped on board and a few minutes later at 1244hrs ETNZ resumed sailing.
The session ended at 1203 with Chase One picking up the starting buoys and ETNZ sailing back up the harbour to North Head.
At 1314 ETNZ dropped sails next to Beam Rock before towing back to base.
Overall, another shorter sailing day starting with long runs before a heavy focus on rolling prestarts.
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