KIWIS SIGN OFF IN AUCKLAND
Emirates Team New Zealand called time on their winter training down in Auckland today with some of the finest race training footage seen to date in top end conditions that puffed up to 25 knots that had the two AC40s absolutely at the limit
The story of the day is in Auckland with Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge being, once again, pushed hard in a series of pre-starts by the ‘test’ team of Josh Junior and Sam Meech with some harem-scarem moves in the final approaches. Accuracy was everything in this strictly non-contact arena but even the most laid-back Kiwi yachtie would admit that at times, this was close.
Pete Burling alluded as such saying: “We've been trying different bits and pieces, obviously these boats are incredibly manoeuvrable, so you've got to try and choose the right thing at the right time and then as a team we got to figure out how that relates actually to the big boat, so yeah it's been a really valuable block just trying to lay a good foundation for when we get to Barcelona.”
All eyes are now on that move up to Europe with a first scheduled day pencilled in for the beginning of July and clearly the team have been monitoring the considerable progress of the Challenger teams over the past few weeks with Pete adding: “Now is really the time to make sure we tried out everything back here, have a little bit of time off so we're ready to hit the ground running in Barcelona, and it’s getting to that exciting part of the campaign, you start to see all the other the teams really hit their stride in the AC75s. I feel like we were quite a way ahead when we launched and with the push we did through that point but we’re definitely itching get back in the AC75 now.
This intense period has certainly been both a profitable time on and off the water for the Defenders as Pete said: “We’re looking forward to getting into it pretty soon after we all get up...so yeah it's coming around pretty quick but you know it's been a whole heap of hard work back here trying to get through a big development list after our block of AC75 sailing in NZ, so really excited to launch with a good ‘ref 2’ on a few parts.” Next stop Barcelona for this impressive team.
