America’s Cup: Emirates Team NZ – Day 23

America’s Cup: Emirates Team NZ – Day 23 – No gain without pain.
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 8 Oct 05:00 PDT

Emirates Team New Zealand sailed for a second successive day on the Hauraki Gulf – enjoying a sunny day accompanied by a brisk 16-22kts westerly (offshore) breeze, and choppy seas.

The sea state was most likely attributable to a wind against tide situation.

Today the emphasis seemed to be on crew-work with maybe some new tacking techniques being trialled, as discussed in the Recon Team report below.

Late in the session, the team experienced some issues with their jib sheeting system, which would appear to have had an upgrade while the team was away in Naples.

The team lost 40 minutes due to repairs on the water, however were able to get sailing again and undertook some more drills before calling a halt after a four hour sailing session.

[Sorry, no video was available at the time of publication of this report, It will be added when it comes to hand – SW-NZ]

Recon Report – October 7, 2026 – Sailing Day 23 – Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand

Recon Team track – Emirates Team New Zealand – October 7, 2026 – Auckland – photo © America’s Cup Media

Wind & Sea Conditions:

PM: Sunny. Wind: 16-22kts 090° (E)
Sea State: Choppy (PM)

Sailing Stats:

Dock Out: 1200hrs
Dock In: 1622hrs
Time sailed: 4hrs
Foiling time: Not reported
Tacks: No data Gybes: No data

Crew List:

Port Helm: Seb Menzies (NZL)
Starboard Helm: Nathan Outteridge (AUS/NZL)
Port Trimmer: Iain Jensen (AUS)
Starboard Trimmer: Andy Maloney (NZL)
P5: Jo Aleh (NZL)
P6: Josh Armit (NZL)

Key Points:

Back to back sailing days.
M3-0 Main
Long downtime with jib traveller breakdown.

Clear skies and a cool SW breeze for ETNZ as they rolled out of the shed at 1015 for back to back sailing days. There was a slight delay as the breeze took longer than expected to build but eventually ETNZ pushed off the dock at 1200 on their way to Narrow Neck Beach. The crew consisted of Outteridge, Menzies, Maloney, Jensen, Aleh, Armit.

ETNZ were off the dock at 1200 and off the tow at Narrow Neck beach at 1216. Hoisting their rarely used and recently recut M3-0 and J3-1 jib. They sailed onto the foils in 12-16 knots and quickly proceeded to sail long gybes down to Tiritiri Island. The breeze was considerably lighter down this end of the harbour. ETNZ had a noticeable touchdown in the gybe and then finished the session with a speed run across the wind. The session ended at 1330.

The next session began at 1330 and consisted of long runs up and down the harbour. As the session progressed ETNZ steadily increased the manoeuvres. The was a noticeable increase in light downs today. This could be a result of rebalancing systems with the M3 main and also from the crew pushing the ride height lower in the flatter sea state. It seemed the windward board was being raised a lot quicker in the gybes than yesterday, the boat also seemed a lot flatter going into the tacks. There was negligible “roll” into the tacks in these earlier sessions. The session ended at 1410.

ETNZ then changed to their J5-0, an older generation sail that seems to have been recut. The breeze and sea state quickly built with the resulting session being in 16-20 knots across the harbour with a significant wind against tide chop further out the harbour. Some solid runs up and down the harbour dialing in the j5 before ending the session at 1448 for a lunch break and battery swap.

ETNZ then mounted on several cameras to the outside port foils and started a session throwing the boat around aggressively in the now 20+ knot breeze and moderate sea state. ETNZ seem to be growing more and more confident in these aggressive pre-start simulations. The session ended abruptly however with an issue to the jib traveller system. This system being an area of focus and teething problems both yesterday and today. 40min of repair later and ETNZ was once again sailing. Progressively making their back to North Head, mixing figure of 8s with straight lines. ETNZ appear to not be practicing “timed pre-starts” but rather throwing the boat around in a less formal practice. The day ended at 1622 dropping sails off of North Head.

Overall, a productive day of testing on the M3-0 main and standard amount of sailing hours despite the 40min stoppage for gear failure.

Additional Images: