America's Cup: Racing practice on the Waitemata - Video
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com 24 Jun 2020 01:46 NZST
24 June 2020
Emirates Team NZ's Test boat - Te Kahu - Waitemata Harbour, June 2020 © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
Last Tuesday, Emirates Team New Zealand finished their block of development on their test boat Te Kahu with some racing practice on part of Course C, between North Head and Orakei Wharf.
The course was probably half-size of what would be expected in the America's Cup proper.
The laid course consisted of two-marks at the bottom to form a gate and a single mark at the top. Although there were plenty of other marks in the area that could be used as target practice.
For those who measure practice sessions in terms of dry laps, Te Kahu performed well, with the boat only coming off the foils when the crew had a time out at the end of a race.
Although the team hasn't made any comment, to speculate the next stage is likely to be to transfer the better developments of the last four months over to Te Aihe, and see how they perform full size.
The test boat was testing different wings each side, but even so it has looked a lot more steady in its foiling performance after the lockdown than it did previously. However factored into that must be whether the boat was flying on auto-flight control or with a rules compliant manually adjusted system.
One take out from the session is whether the AC75 with its wings projecting well outboard, is whether there will be a risk of snagging a mark anchor line - as Te Kahu appears to do in one shot - but is just a trick of the long 1200mm camera lens.
In the video coach Ray Davies gives his perspective on the progress with the program, to date.