America's Cup, next gen Kiwis coming through fast

The foiling pathways that have been created via the Puig Women’s America’s Cup and the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup events, are not to be underestimated and what we saw in Auckland today was the next-generation of New Zealand sailing’s superstars coming through strongly aided and cajoled by some of the very best tutors in the business.

For Emirates Team New Zealand, their programme shifted today firmly onto getting a mixture of their Youth and Women’s teams as much time in the boat as possible with a five-and-a-half-hour session into the early winter dusk. If they had nav lights, you rather suspect that the sailors would have stayed out all night. This was fun and learning in equal measure in a breeze that built and faded through the afternoon from flat calm to 5-12 knots at times and on a super-flat Hauraki Gulf that was perfect for manoeuvre and sail trim training.

At times it was desperate to keep flying and keep the bustle out of the water, at other times it was just electric to watch and showed just how tricky the AC40 is to master. Time in the boat is everything and whilst we are more than used to seeing the top professionals able to sail these boats in any conditions, when you are getting to grips with the controls for the first time, it’s not easy. A couple of hairy gybe exits where the ride height got out of whack kept everyone honest onboard but in the main this was a solid training session on the one-design foils but with the LEQ12 sail set-up. The LEQ12 itself was due to sail but stayed shoreside, meaning it was a one-boat session with the Youth & Women crews rotating in and out to give everyone a chance to sail.

In total some seven sailors got the ride today including: Jo Aleh, Olivia Mackay, Gemma Jones and Leo Takahashi on helming duties and Molly Meech, Oscar Gunn and Veerle ten Have doing the trimming. Great session, tons of take-aways and plenty of smiles shoreside as they stepped off the boat at just after 5.30pm.

Speaking afterwards, Gemma Jones who is the embodiment of this Kiwi team’s mentality summed up the day saying: “It’s been really fun, they're pretty amazing boats to go out and play on and pretty quickly we're all on the boat all by ourselves which is pretty special and Emirates Team New Zealand have been so helpful in coaching us, teaching us, so we're very happy about that...Each day we are training a bit and then sometimes they ask one of us to come on for the racing which is like another level for us to learn and really cool to see it and racing at the moment yeah it's just been mostly getting used the boat so getting into racing is another steep learning curve in itself.”

Asked about the challenges they face, Gemma gave a great answer saying: “I think for me I've been changing between trimmer and driver which has been pretty tricky, changing that mindset and then also there’s a lot of people to get through with the Youth and the Women's teams, a lot of changes going on all the time and changing roles, changing sides, we haven't quite locked into the position so once we do that then we'll be able to gel as a team but I think at the moment the challenge is the constant change.”

And in the real spirit of ‘team’ unity, Gemma commented on her preferred role on the boat, saying: “I don't really mind just wherever the team wants me, I'm happy with that. I'm surprised how much I'm really enjoying trimming at the moment so I'm really indifferent.”

With some of the Youth and Women’s team members getting into their final preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, those that remain will start to gel ahead of their move up to Barcelona in a few weeks’ time. Emirates Team New Zealand are fielding top teams for the Youth & Women’s events and will be in the reckoning come race-time. Impressive to watch, thrilling for the future of New Zealand sailing at the highest level.