New Zealand’s 38 years at the top of the America’s Cup

Sunday, 20 October 2024

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ANALYSIS: Team New Zealand’s victory in the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona has made them the most successful team in the modern era, and the first to win three cups in a row.

The defender’s 7-2 win over INEOS Britannia is their fifth win since the Peter Blake-led syndicate swept the 1995 cup 5-0 in San Diego.

The history-making win is testament to the team’s consistency through good campaigns and bad, with members who go back to the country’s first audacious challenge in 1986 in Fremantle.

It is an understatement to say that New Zealand have punched above their weight in sailing’s premier regatta, which has a history going back 173 years.

In 38 years, the country has built 22 America’s Cup boats and contested eight Cup matches in an era where only Switzerland and the United States have had more than a single victory - two apiece.

Innovation has been a big part of the team’s approach. In 1986-7 the three boats built for the Michael Fay-funded inaugural challenge were the first to have fibreglass hulls.

The Chris Dickson-skippered KZ7 lost only one race before being knocked out of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series by cup legend Dennis Conner.

For 2003 in Auckland, the boat featured a double-hull section called the “hula” although the fragile boat was no match for Switzerland’s Alinghi, which won 5-0.

The team brought foiling to the event, adding foils in secret to the giant AC72 class boat for San Francisco in 2013, with defender Oracle getting wind of the innovation just in time to match it and win.

For 2017, the team committed to taking innovation to a new level, revealing “cyclors” (cyclists) to power the boat’s hydraulics and going on to defeat the defender Oracle Team USA in Bermuda.

The defender led the development of a new style of America’s Cup boat for the 36th Cup in Auckland in 2021 - creating the AC75 foiling monohull, the most radical sailing raceboat yet.

“We've always, always tried to be aggressive. I guess there's not many people on the team who take a conservative attitude to it,” said the team’s long-standing design chief Dan Bernasconi.

Bold moves have not only been confined to the boats. Bernasconi has led the development of sophisticated computer modelling to test design ideas.

In 2015, the team’s chief executive Grant Dalton brought in young Olympic sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke to lead a new generation crew.

Burling in 2017 became the youngest helmsman to win an America’s Cup, and has gone on to become the winningest helmsman, with 22 victories in cup matches.

The ultimate accolade came from the skipper of the team the defender had just beaten.

“In my view, they are the best ever team in the America’s Cup,” said Sir Ben Ainslie.