Performance improvements under the new rules for the 38th America’s Cup are more likely to come from a multitude of incremental gains, rather than from a radical design breakthrough that would turn AC design thinking on its head.
That’s all according to Emirates Team New Zealand’s lead designer Dan Bernasconi, talking in Auckland yesterday after the Kiwi AC75 was rolled out of the shed and rigged for the first time in this latest Cup cycle, after a major revamp that involved some 10,000 hours of work.
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Two members of the America’s Cup shared reconnaissance programme – videographer/photographer Sam Thom (NZL) and rib driver/reporter Pierluigi De Felice (ITA) – were on hand to chronicle what turned out to be just a rigging and calibration day due to strong easterly winds out on the Hauraki Gulf.
Speaking to the recon pair after the boat had been de-rigged and returned to the hangar, Bernasconi admitted that the team was disappointed not to be able to go sailing for the first time, due to the weather.
The plan, it seems, was to have worked through an on-the-water checklist of system tests to make sure the boat was fully functional out on the water after its slate of modifications.
“Structurally, we have made some changes to the boat,” Bernasconi said. “We want to make sure everything’s in good shape and we just want to lower our risk by doing that on a day when it’s not gusting up to 20 knots – particularly with a new sailing crew as well.”
I check-in with Tudor Team Alinghi’s director for technical and sailing, New Zealand America’s Cup veteran Dave Endean – the man in charge of making sure that in AC38 the Swiss syndicate improves on its somewhat lacklustre performance in the last Cup in Barcelona.
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