Nathan Outteridge Named Skipper As Emirates Team New Zealand Reveal Core AC38 Line-Up

Emirates Team New Zealand has revealed the core group of sailors that will spearhead the team’s attempt to defend the America’s Cup for the third consecutive time.

The announcement was made today in just about the most understated way possible via the briefest of stories on the team website which was mirrored across social media. The accompanying images show the group around a boardroom table 'plotting the strategy to defend the America’s Cup again in 2027'.

Australia’s Nathan Outteridge has been promoted to skipper – a role left vacant by the recent shock departure of Olympic gold and silver medallist Peter Burling after three back to back America’s Cup victories. Outteridge – also an Olympic gold and silver medallist – steered the New Zealand AC75 on the port side during the Kiwi’s successful defence of the 38th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Spain last year.

Fellow AC37 campaigners Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke, and Sam Meech were also confirmed for the new campaign, along with a surprise newcomer in the form of British Olympic medallist Chris Draper. No roles have been confirmed at this stage, but Outteridge is likely to move into the starboard helmsman position, with Maloney and Tuke reprising their roles as flight controllers and trimmers. That leaves Draper and Meech as the two candidates for the port helming role, although which one would likely get the nod is impossible to assess.

Meech, 34, (above) raced at AC38 as a cyclor aboard the New Zealand AC75 but had also played a key role in the build-up to the event as a helmsman aboard the Kiwi team’s AC40 and LEQ12. He won a bronze medal in the Laser class at the Rio 2016 Olympics and finished 10th at Tokyo 2020.

For Draper, 47, (below) – who won a bronze medal in Athens, Greece at the 2004 Olympics – this will be his third involvement with the America’s Cup. In 2011 he helmed the Team Korea AC45 in the early part of the America’s Cup World Series, before moving to Luna Rossa as helmsman of the Italian AC72 at the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco. When Luna Rossa pulled out of AC35 Draper moved to Dean Barker’s Softbank Team Japan as tactician and wing trimmer.

He joined SailGP in its first season where he first took on the role of CEO and wing trimmer in the pre-Ainslie era of the British team, before joining Nathan Outteridge at Team Japan where the pair finished second in the international circuit’s inaugural season. Since then he has also been wing trimmer for the Canadian SailGP Team, and most recently was recruited by Tom Slingsby in the same role for the Australian SailGP Team in Season 5 of the international circuit.

There is added significance to Emirates Team New Zealand recruiting a non-national sailor in that it hints strongly at a relaxation of the strict nationality rules which the Kiwis put in place after winning the America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017. Whether the additional no-poaching rule – which effectively excluded sailors switching teams – will also be revised, is yet to be seen.

Aside from the departure of Burling, the Kiwi squad is also missing the talents of Josh Junior – who is believed to have switched allegiances to the Italian Luna Rossa syndicate for the 38th America’s Cup. According to the release further sailor announcements will be made ‘in due course’.

With this team announcement out of the way, there is an expectation that Emirates Team New Zealand will shortly announce the venue for the 38th America’s Cup – strongly rumoured to be Naples, Italy – followed soon after by a reveal of the AC38 protocol document which lays out the rules and format of the next edition.