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Team New Zealand will not test the smaller AC75 on the water

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«The UK's INEOS, American Magic and Italy's Luna Rossa are all testing their scaled-down AC75 prototypes as they prepare to compete in the 36th America's Cup» in Auckland (New Zealand ) in2021. The only team that has yet to begin testing remains the hosts, Emirates Team New Zealand. The New Zealanders seemed to be behind their rivals in their preparations for the competition. But in fact they decided to outsmart them all.

Looking at their peers who had proven with their designs that the AC75 concept was viable and a boat with such an unusual foil design would work, Team New Zealand delved into computer modelling.

«We have focused our efforts on simulation. We strongly believe in the abilities of our computer developers, that they are capable of building a boat working like this. We're very interested in what's going on in the US and UK, and we're keeping a close eye on teams from those countries. At the same time, we will benefit a bit from our own approach. Other teams probably won't be able to see what we do behind closed doors in a simulation»," explained project designer Dan Bernasconi.

Team New Zealand has agreed to collaborate with Spark. This will allow the team to use the 5G network in simulations before the technology goes public in July 2020. Using the network, the team will be able to receive real-time data on boat speed, loads and pressure and immediately forward it to the designers. In this way, the designers will know about the necessary changes before the team completes tests. In the case of their competitors, this approach requires technicians to travel to trials with the sailors.

«We are working with Spark to develop a test program that will allow us to do "onshore" testing at the 5G lab in Oakland. We will see if we can do tests on the water before July 2020»," says Bernasconi.
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