America’s Cup Recon Diary: April 17 – Kiwis resume testing and blow up jib
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 17 Apr 05:35 PDT
18 April 2026
Emirates Team New Zealand – AC75, Day 10 – April 17, 2026 © Sam Thom/America’s Cup
Emirates Team New Zealand started their second block of testing today in a modest breeze and flat sea state on the Hauraki Gulf.
The start was earlier than expected, with team design chief Dan Bernasconi indicating at the end of the last session on April 1, that they would resume on Monday.
A little surprisingly, given the mild conditions, they blew the tack out of a jib.
The incident was dismissed by co-helm, Chris Draper, as being disappointing”.
The Recon Unit report is not currently available, however some still images of the incident are available. There appears to have been no structural or rig damage, and this type of failure has occurred previously. Fortunately, the AC75s carry an independent forestay, which saves the rig in these situations. The jib is expected to have been a legacy sail from their 2024 America’s Cup campaign.
We won’t know until the Recon Unit report is published as to what specific changes have been made. However, it would appear that a small vertical fin has been fitted mid-section on one of the wing foils. We have seen these before, and their purpose was explained then as aligning the cross-sectional flows over the wing. The Pitot Tubes (to accurately measure the speed of the water passing over the wings) remain from the first testing block. The rudder appears to be the same one they fitted towards the end of the first session.
One of the crew ventured out onto the foil arm and clambered down the side of the wingfoil using a very clever soft ladder that had not been seen before. Again, more will probably be revealed when the Recon Unit report is released.
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