America’s Cup: Team New Zealand set to ship second boat to Barcelona; expected to settle in new base next month

Another month, another checkpoint. It has become a regular occurrence for Team New Zealand.

Last month, the America’s Cup defenders wrapped up a two-month training block on their AC75, shipping the vessel to their base in Barcelona where they will continue training later in the year.

Now, another boat is set to follow suit.

The team have been running through racing scenarios on their two scaled-down vessels, a crucial testing period as it is the only time they can run through race scenarios before racing in Spain in mid-September.

But that block has ended, with the team preparing to ship their AC40 north, leaving them only with their LEQ12 to work with in Auckland.

While the AC40 will be the vessel on which the teams compete in the preliminary regattas before it is used for the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups, the LEQ12 is a testing-only boat.

“The good thing with the LEQ, with the manual flight control, with a boat that’s so light and responsive, you get really good feel on the wheel and really good feel through the flight control systems to know where the limit is,” Team New Zealand helmsman Nathan Outteridge said.

“When you go into the bigger boat it’s a bit different; it’s more of a bus. It’s a bit more mechanical and you don’t get the same sort of feedback.”

Named the LEQ12 as it must be less than or equal to 12m in overall length, the boat is used as a design platform to test and develop new ideas and how they might work or impact sailing the full-scale AC75.

In a race where the design of the final race boat plays such crucial roles, the development opportunities and platforms play vital roles.

“Nothing beats racing against competitors when your boat’s faster than theirs. That’s what we’re here for at the moment – to make this thing go as fast as we can and find a way to control the beast,” Outteridge said.

“We’re trying to find the edges of development. Internally, there’s probably been a few things we’ve done that haven’t taken as big a step forward as we’ve wanted to and other things that have surprised us and we’ve gained quite a bit from. The America’s Cup is a design race, and we’re in this phase of testing and development and it’s going really well. We’re not down here for too much longer; we’ll move up to Barcelona and be on to different priorities there.”

Only two teams are on the ground in Barcelona. This week, American Magic became the second team after Alinghi to dip their hulls in the Spanish waters.

The other four competing syndicates are expected to be in Barcelona by mid-August, ramping up training ahead of the first preliminary regatta about 50km away in Vilanova i La Geltru. Team New Zealand are expected to have their operation on the ground in Barcelona by mid-July.

“We’ve probably got one more week of sailing here before we head up,” Outteridge said. “I’m really looking forward to continuing this design and testing loop – and getting into some warmer weather.”