THE JOINT RECONNAISSANCE PROGRAMME – NEW FOR AC37 IN BARCELONA

“It’s all about opening up the America’s Cup to both existing fans of the design race and new fans coming to the sport for the first time. We will be bringing the whole fan experience to a new level and giving the media really good content to work with.” – Dan Bernasconi, Emirates Team New Zealand

What is the AC37 Joint Reconnaissance Programme?
The programme is something that Emirates Team New Zealand have been mulling for a while and its implementation is new for AC37. Each team appoints a Recon Unit made up of a RIB driver who can take data points and make observations and a photographer with additional videography and editing skills. Each team has a Recon Administrator who sits on the Recon Panel and any decisions required to be made with regards to personnel or operation of the Recon Unit are referred to the panel for a majority vote when the panel meets regularly over Zoom.

Recon outside of the Joint Recon programme is expressly forbidden in the Technical Regulations. Teams can ask specific questions or for specific data to be captured by any Recon Unit – and these questions are viewable by all. All data, imagery, reports and observations are loaded daily into the Recon Cloud which is accessible by all teams and some members of the media.

Official output is curated by the ACE Media Team and displayed across all official AC Channels.

Why was this implemented?
Two main reasons: cost-saving and safety. In Auckland at AC36 there were a number of incidents involving recon units placing themselves in dangerous positions to get spy shots (bow-on in particular) and the costs to the teams of putting multiple chase boats out on the water to cover the teams in multiple locations as they trained was becoming excessive and untenable.

Who views it?
Every team has 24/7 access to the Recon Cloud with permissions to use any of the content for their internal purposes. The Teams may also request photos or data to be taken by the Recon Unit of any specific component of the boats or sailing state which will be processed on a best endeavours basis and within the strict distance rules set out in the Technical Regulations both on the water and shoreside.

Selected media will also be granted access to the Recon Cloud to encourage analysis and build a narrative around the technology of the 37th America’s Cup.

221011 ARBR B1 D19 Highlights

What are the outputs?
The Recon Unit’s Report is a vital daily document that marries with the interview and photography as this forms the basis for the publicly accessible report that is placed on the America’s Cup website. As we move forward with LEQ12’s testing out componentry initially and then in just over a year, the launch of the first new-gen AC75s, the style of output will have to evolve to be more technical and concentrate more on development.

 (Magnus Wheatley)