{"id":611021,"date":"2026-09-25T04:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611021\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T04:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:28:10","slug":"americas-cup-how-new-phase-of-life-ushered-in-the-next-thing-for-team-nzs-erica-dawson-on-the-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611021\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Cup: How new phase of life ushered in \u2018the next thing\u2019 for Team NZ\u2019s Erica Dawson \u2013 On The Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThen this opportunity came up, and it\u2019s just such a cool opportunity to be involved with this team and to learn a whole new boat and style of racing.<\/a> I think it\u2019s just a big step forward for me in my sailing career.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dawson will shift from trimming to helming for the Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup team\u2019s bid in Naples next year, while she spearheads the women\u2019s and youth programmes. <\/p>\n

This week, she will sail on Team NZ\u2019s second AC40<\/a> for the preliminary regatta in Naples \u2013 featuring sailors with the potential to feature in the women\u2019s and youth regattas \u2013 alongside skipper and co-helm Jake Pye, and trimmers Serena Woodall<\/a> and Josh Armit, with Helena Sanderson as the reserve sailor. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same group who sailed the second boat at the first preliminary regatta in Cagliari earlier this year, when they finished fifth in a field of eight. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of committed early in the year to this team and trying to get the best performance possible by sticking with the same crew, so that\u2019s kind of where we\u2019re at, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re sticking with for this event,\u201d Dawson said. <\/p>\n

This campaign has been a different experience to the last America\u2019s Cup for Dawson, who has had a longer runway to the women\u2019s regatta. <\/p>\n

Ahead of the Barcelona event, which featured the inaugural Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup, the New Zealand squad was confirmed less than a year out from the competition. <\/p>\n

For the most part, the women\u2019s and youth sailors have been working in the simulators, with more consistent time on the water in the AC40s to come later in the campaign. However, Pye, Armit, Woodall and Sanderson have all been involved with the main America\u2019s Cup team\u2019s AC75 campaign, absorbing information on both sides of the Team NZ campaign. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the team has been brought into the [AC]75 so they\u2019ve been involved with that programme, which is cool,\u201d Dawson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it also means I think the rest of us, we\u2019re just on board a lot earlier than we were last time in the team and we\u2019re around the base a lot more, and we\u2019re involved in these events, so we\u2019re sharing our briefings and our debriefings and just absorbing as much as we can. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really awesome for the level of the youth and women\u2019s teams, and I guess it also, in a way, we\u2019ve had the opportunity to be a lot more involved with the senior team, so that\u2019s been really cool to learn off them as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Naples this weekend, the team will have an extra boat to contend with as late-entry ARC Team USA make their campaign debut. <\/p>\n

That will see nine boats on the water, as Team New Zealand, Italy\u2019s Luna Rossa and Great Britain\u2019s GB1 all enter two boats, with the Americans, France\u2019s La Roche Posay Racing Team, and Switzerland\u2019s Tudor Team Alinghi entering one each. Late entry Team Australia will again be absent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will definitely add to it as well, one extra boat and last time the British didn\u2019t get many races in because of boat issues,\u201d Dawson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will probably feel busier. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to change the way we approach anything or the way we\u2019re sailing; it\u2019ll just be maybe a few more interactions.\u201d <\/p>\n

During practice racing on Friday morning, Luna Rossa\u2019s main team again looked like the ones to beat, with the Peter Burling-led crew winning all three of the day\u2019s races. Team USA finished the day second and Team NZ\u2019s top team third. <\/p>\n

Dawson and the Team NZ women\u2019s and youth entry were sixth. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think for us, just to know that we\u2019re stepping forward and we\u2019re improving each day and we\u2019re not making the same mistakes over, we\u2019re learning from our mistakes and we\u2019re kind of building on them each day,\u201d Dawson said of what a successful event would look like for her crew. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to win a race and get a couple of top threes. I think that\u2019d be pretty cool.\u201d <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThen this opportunity came up, and it\u2019s just such a cool opportunity to be involved with this team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28174,11783,2046,10542,56398,5031,2082,221,78,194,424,117,111,43,139,1536,69,3272,1118,90,45642,46451,7187,223,4468,810,72395,102],"class_list":["post-611021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-americas","tag-brought","tag-career","tag-cup","tag-dawson","tag-erica","tag-for","tag-how","tag-in","tag-kiwi","tag-life","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-nzs","tag-of","tag-on","tag-phase","tag-sailor","tag-team","tag-the","tag-thing","tag-up","tag-ushered","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}