Richard Gladwell: Sail World NZ Editor ahead of the America's Cup race against Ineos Britannia

Published Oct 10, 2024, 9:37 PM

Sunday marks the start of a big week ahead for Emirates Team New Zealand as they face Ineos Britannia in the race to retain the America’s Cup. 

The first team to win seven races will take the Cup, the first two races taking place Sunday morning if weather permits. 

Richard Gladwell, Editor for Sail World NZ, told Ryan Bridge that it’s always the defender's to lose, and Team New Zealand would have to screw something up to lose the Cup. 

He said that they’ve had three months of development on top of Ineos Britannia, and they can certainly do a lot in there. 

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Sunday marks the start of a big week ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand as they face any Espritannia in the race to retain the America's Cup. Thirteen races first to seven whens. Whether plays ball first should be Sunday morning, very early our time. Richard Gladwell is the Sale Sale World end Z editor. He's with us this morning. Good morning, Richard, I'm very well. Thank you. Are you feeling confident?

Oh yeah, I mean, I think the thing with the Cup is it's it's always the defenders to lose. So the defender has already got to screw something up to lose it. But I think you know, when you look back at it, they haven't had a lot of racing against any ofs. But yeah, I mean a team Zell Rook sharp and they should should be able to do it. They've always had a design each over the other guys, and it's just all part and parcel of the that the defender does have. People look at that racing and think it was already close in the Challenges series, but the point they forget is that tem Zilms have another three months of development on top of those guys, So you know, you can certainly do a lot in there. And I don't think this is going to be a speed contest. I don't think there's you know, it's a race that's going to be won by super boat. But I think they will have just that little little edge.

I was going to ask about speed. Should we be worried that they didn't race at the top end speeds and so far in Barcelona.

Well, I think it's going to work against the British, to be honest, because most of their racing was in strong winds and the forecast for the weekend of Monday is pretty light. Winds will certainly have a lighter end of the lighter end of the scale. So yeah, it helps us. I think you're just yeah, it's just it's very to read, and I mean everyone gets super nervous about it and and all that sort of thing with these races are very tight. I mean the legs are only about three and a half minutes long. You know, it's all over very quickly. O're extending about to eight legs to get to their target time, which is about twenty six minutes. But you know, you do see a lot go on there.

Do do you think, do you think many people will watched, Richard. I mean, obviously the timing is terrible for here in New Zealand, but.

Well, I don't know, and I think it's that is really bad for New Zealand because you know, you hear people now they won't get up and look at it, you know, midnight or one in the morning. And the other problem they've got over there, particularly when you like it's just I mean, I've been up working all night. But the women there, they started they try having one race at twelve o'clock their time, which is one o'clock in the morning time. That got wiped out with these terrible cross seas that were there, so everyone was falling off foils and they stayed around for another three hours after that and then it gave it away.

See that's the thing, Richard. If you're getting up to watch and then you're waiting, waiting, waiting while everyone's falling over, you may not stay up too late. Richard, thank you very much for your time. Great to have you on the show. As always, Richard Gladwell's Sale World New Zealand editor. The America's Cup kicks off proper Sunday morning. Our time for.

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