“We’ve got a pretty good core team, but, we couldn’t get all of the sailors we have in the core team on the one boat. I guess it came down to a bit about how we think we could put our best foot forward,” Outteridge said of how the sailing crews were selected for the regatta.
“Josh and Jake have been doing a fantastic job in the wider programme, but because they still meet the youth category, it was a bit of a no-brainer to put them on that [second] boat. We’ve selected Erica to be the skipper of the Women’s America’s Cup team, so she was always going to be on that boat as well, and Serena really proved to be such a strong candidate when it comes to the women’s team.
“[They] kind of ended up being relatively obvious decisions in hindsight, and I think that’ll put us in good shape to have two strong teams.”
Team NZ are one of three teams that have taken that option, and skipper Nathan Outteridge said it was an opportunity to not just put some pressure on the main team sailors, but also the next generation talents within the group.
Italian challenger Luna Rossa and British entry GB1 have also entered two vessels into the regatta in Cagliari, while France’s La Roche-Posay Racing Team and Switzerland’s Tudor Team Alinghi will only feature their top team.
Late entries from the United States and Australia will not feature in this regatta, given they were only recently confirmed to be joining the starting line for the main event in Naples next year.
“Results are obviously very important. It’s a really good way to benchmark us against other teams. Putting the results side of it to one side, I guess for us it’s a chance to go through our operations and processes. As you know, we’ve got new people into the sailing team, we’ve got the youth and women’s group here as well who are also part of the team for this weekend, but we’re trying to help prepare them as best we can for future events,” Outteridge said.
“It’s a really good chance to put everyone under pressure. There’s one thing to be sailing in Auckland day in and day out and if we as a sailing team don’t deliver on a training day, you can let it slide. If there’s a technical issue with the boat and the boat’s not functional, it’s disappointing, you lose an hour or two of sailing, but you can’t afford those things on race day.
“So, for a global team, it’s more about everyone delivering in their areas. We’ve got a really good build-up over the next few days still to come and we get three days to really sort of put everything into practice, but also at the same time it’s a good chance to check in against other teams and we’ll have another event in a couple of months where we’ll be able to hopefully take another step forward again.”
America’s Cup preliminary regatta
Cagliari, Sardinia. May 21-25 from 11pm (NZT).
Thursday: Practice racing.
Friday: Up to three fleet races
Saturday: Up to three fleet races
Sunday: Up to two fleet races and the final two-boat match race.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.