America’s Cup: Team New Zealand reveal timeline for new boat build after important AC75 test sessions

Team New Zealand won the 36th edition of the America's Cup aboard Te Rehutai. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

The clock is ticking for Team New Zealand.

With the 37th America’s Cup to be held in Barcelona next October, the deadline is fast approaching for the team to finalise the hull design for their new AC75.

For this cycle, teams are only permitted to build one new 75-foot foiling monohull, making the time on the water in their old vessels vital for providing data to design from. Team New Zealand have been sailing Cup-winning vessel Te Rehutai for the past few weeks after modifying the vessel to better fit the new class rule and were the third syndicate to launch an AC75 after newcomers Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and American Magic.

Time is almost up for preparations on a design front for Team New Zealand. Team designer Dan Bernasconi told the Herald that with the boat taking almost a year to build, they are very close to signing off on their new hull shape.

“It’s always a really difficult decision. As designers, we’re pushing to go as late as possible to push the button on when we commit to the hull shape,” Bernasconi said.

“It roughly takes a year to build a boat – slightly less than a year, but close to – so without giving too much away, we’re very, very close to starting to build our race AC75 now. We’re in the final stages of the hull shape design.

“We would love to have another month even to work on that hull shape, particularly given we’ve only recently got our AC75 back in the water and we’re learning loads each day. But at the other end you don’t want to launch too late because we know at the other end, from the day you launch to the day you race, you just get faster every day and you’re getting more and more out of the boat you’ve got.”

In an event when the design of the vessel can play such a big part in the outcome, this period is a pivotal time in the cycle for Team New Zealand.

The design has been a new challenge as Barcelona is expected to produce some swell on the racecourse while the 2021 regatta in Auckland was contested on flat water.

The defenders of the Auld Mug also have to account for the added handicap of proximity to the race venue. Because they will be having to ship their boat to Barcelona, Bernasconi estimated the team will lose about a month of time that could otherwise have been spent refining their performance.

“Teams that are based in Europe don’t lose out on that window,” he said.

“We’ve got to factor that in. It’s good to have deadlines, otherwise we’d keep designing forever and optimising forever. We’re committing to the hull shape really soon, then downstream from that there will be a whole series of deadlines that come along one after the other as we get into the more detailed design and build of the other components.”