Emirates Team New Zealand designer Dan Bernasconi said: “Towards the end of the last campaign, in the last two or three months before racing, we were all thinking about what happens next – win or lose,” Bernasconi said. “We had a few people ca- sually ask about whether we were make the small boat that we had, Te Kahu, into a class. It’s a really cool little boat and the sai- lors loved sailing it and there was quite a lot of interest from from local sailors here [in New Zealand]. I guess it gradually turned into something more concrete and more of a reality as sort of a multipurpose boat for the for teams to use as a training/deve- lopment boat for the pre-regattas – where it’s easier and more practical to transport AC40s around the world to different ve- nues. But also to use it as a training boat both match racing and for development when you can swap out components, put your own foils and sails and rig.“
