Following quickly on the heels of yesterday’s landmark announcement of the new America’s Cup Partnership Agreement – which kicks off a two-year rolling cycle for the Cup, beginning with the 38th edition scheduled for Naples in 2027 – the New Zealand team went sailing in one of their AC40s yesterday from the team’s base in Auckland on the Hauraki Gulf.
Joining the Kiwis’ previously-announced core squad of Nathan Outteridge, Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke, Chris Draper, and Sam Meech, is a fresh new batch of talent in the form of: double Olympic medallist Jo Aleh, two Emirates Team New Zealand youth sailors – 2025 49er European Champion Seb Menzies and IQFoil sailor Josh Armit who finished fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics – and the 20-year-old Moth phenomenon Jacob Pye, who finished second and third at the last two Moth world championships.
Yesterday may have been their first time on the water in this campaign but the sailors have already been putting in long hours on the team simulator training alongside the team’s more highly experienced sailors, gaining invaluable experience in sailing the AC75, match racing strategy, and the technological innovation that has become synonymous with Emirates Team New Zealand.
“We are learning so much off the more senior guys already,” said Menzies. “It is cool to be amongst them and getting stuck into the simulator and really looking forward to getting into the AC75. Just being able to sail the boat that defended the America's Cup is going to be a big thing, and I’m very excited about it.”
For Aleh, who was one of the drivers aboard the Kiwi AC40 in last year’s inaugural Women’s America’s Cup, the opportunity to step up to the AC75 as part of the sailing team was a thrilling prospect.
“Obviously, the 38th America’s Cup is going to be a real milestone for women in sailing and I feel very privileged to be a part of that and hopefully to be one of the first women racing on the AC75s and illustrating that we can do this,” she said.
Andy Maloney, who joined the team in 2016 in similar fashion as a talented young sailor and is now flight controller and one of the senior leaders in the sailing team, said it was “awesome to have the new energy joining the team”.
“We have brought in a group of extremely talented, well-rounded sailors who all have the skill sets to develop into top AC75 helms, flight controllers, trimmers, and tacticians,” he said.
“Spending time in the simulator with this group and witnessing their talent, while passing on experience in these roles has been a really cool experience. It's awesome to see how quickly they're picking up these roles. They are very impressive.”
