Emirates Team New Zealand have some big differences of opinion with the other five competitors. Back in March 2015 the Kiwis supported then Challenger of Record Luna Rossa and voted against moving from the AC62 to the smaller America’s Cup Class yachts.  In January of this year, the other five teams announced a Framework Agreement governing the next two editions of the Cup; the Kiwis are holdouts. In February the Kiwis launched their America’s Cup Class race yacht with bicycle grinding stations while everyone else has gone with traditional arm powered pedestals. Let’s take a look at all of these issues.

Training Blackout

In 2015, when the Kiwis sided with Luna Rossa in voting against abandoning the AC62 Class Rule,  ACEA’s Commercial Commissioner responded by announcing that the round robin AC Qualifiers would be sailed in Bermuda rather than in Auckland. New Zealand government funding dried up. ETNZ lodged a protest with the AC arbitration board, which, at the time, had yet to be appointed. Confidentiality rules were added to the Protocol prohibiting the parties from so much as acknowledging that there was a case in arbitration, much less what the issues and decisions were. One apparent result was that a 28 day “blackout period” was imposed on all teams – coincidentally ceding ETNZ some catch-up time. The Protocol set the earliest allowed launch date for the new ACC yachts to 150 days before the first race of the round robin AC Quallifiers. This worked out to 27 December 2016.  Oracle, SoftBank Team Japan, Land Rover BAR and Artemis Racing were all training in Bermuda. The New Zealanders had decided to stay in Auckland until March, so they were faced with losing training time while their race boat was shipped to Bermuda. The French faced the same problem but with a far shorter transit. The blackout period was meant to equalize training time for all teams.

Framework Agreement

Looking to the future, all the current America’s Cup teams, except the Kiwis, have put in place an agreement to hold America’s Cup Matches in 2019 and 2021, sailed in a slightly modified version of the current AC Class yachts. The venue is to be selected by the then current defender. In the past, uncertainty about the next America’s Cup has thwarted attempts to put it on a stable commercial footing. Teams cannot commit, sponsorships cannot be sold and other commercial arrangements cannot be made until questions are answered about when, where, who, how and in what boats the next edition will be sailed. The Framework Agreement attempts to solve those problems, but unless the Kiwis come on board, the uncertainty continues as long as they are in the running for the the 2017 AC Match. When the Framework Agreement was announced, ETNZ stated that they “believe the future America's Cup format should be decided by the Defender and Challenger of Record as it has historically been.” On its face, that statement neither challenges the validity of the Framework Agreement, nor does it explain why the Kiwis did not join. The Framework Agreement was carefully written to respect the Deed of Gift. Think of it this way: These five clubs/teams have simply agreed with each other what they will require from a hip pocket challenger. You can be sure that the Kiwis will also agree on terms with a hip pocket challenger if they make it to the Match.

Bicycles

Emirates Team New Zealand show their differences of opinion about ergonomics, too. They took most people by surprise when they launched their race boat in February with bicycle grinding stations. All the other teams considered bicycle grinding but rejected it, feeling that the gains in power did not offset the difficulty of getting on and off the bikes.

The America’s Cup Class yachts need enormous amounts of power from the four grinders on board. The competition may come down to which team has the best system for generating, storing and distributing that power. The class rule calls for three hydraulic accumulators of 4.8 litres each with a maximum operating pressure of 350 bar. One of the accumulators can be used for daggerboard rake, and nothing else. The other two can be used to raise and lower the daggerboards, and nothing else. Together the three accumulators can provide enough oil pressure for one tack or gybe. This means the crew need to grind steadily to repressurize the tanks between manoeuvres and to provide power for jib and wing trim and for rudder rake adjustment. Compare this with the bursts of grinding needed in monohulls for setting or dousing the kite, or for grinding in a big genoa after a tack. Bicycle grinders were tried unsuccessfully on Pelle Petterson’s Sverige in 1977. And they were considered and rejected by later teams, including Alinghi for their 2003 challenge, usually for three reasons:  the grinders had multiple jobs on board; sheets and other lines in the cockpit presented risks and heeling to 30° made pedalling a bike less efficient. None of these objections remains, but a new problem exists: crossing to the other hull during tack and gybes.

One yacht with a dramatically different concept than her multiple competitors – that sounds a bit like 1851 when the Marquess of Anglesley, donor of the £100 Cup, remarked about America, “If she is right, then all of us are wrong.”