Emirates Team New Zealand LEQ12 Day 16 Summary

With the eyes of the America’s Cup world on them, Emirates Team New Zealand are setting the benchmark and announcing the level, seemingly on a daily basis, that every other team will have to strive for in order to prise the Auld Mug from upstairs at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Speaking about the sail programme, Nathan Outteridge gave a fascinating insight and when asked about the inversion he responded: That’s the beauty of development sails, isn't it? And doing multiple iterations of sails you try and work out what wind range you want the sails in and what you want them to do up and down the wind range. It’s no secret that you want them flatter when it’s windier and deeper when it’s lighter and a lot of our sailing so far has been middle to upper end and we’re really looking to try and get the two boats in the water in the lighter breeze to see how our sail design programme is going. And also, there’s benefits of having an auto pilot keeping the boat really nicely locked in versus manual flight and having two boats that are identical etc and how you sail them. It’s fascinating for us, we learn lots from that and it's pretty insightful to go back and review the data and try work out how you can improve.” Section 41. Reconnaissance a) As a campaign cost reduction measure, COR/D has mutually agreed to cooperatively implement a centralised reconnaissance programme for all teams for the reconnaissance of all Competitors’ AC75 Yachts, AC40 Yachts and LEQ12 yachts including both on-land and on-water imagery (the “Joint Recon Programme”). b) Each team is assigned a two-person Recon Unit to follow their every on-water move, but it's not that simple. The cameras are supplied and identical for all Recon Units. Drones are not allowed, and they can't get that close, plus following a boat and keeping a camera steady at 45 knots isn't that easy to begin with. c) A three minute interview follows each on water day, and teams must answer the Recon Unit's questions while trying not to give too much away. It's a raw, unedited view of the never before seen behind-the-scenes development of a team and their boat to win the oldest trophy in international sports. #AC37Recon #AmericasCup #Barcelona2024