America’s Cup: The Teams

EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND

DEFENDER, ROYAL NEW ZEALAND YACHT SQUADRON

Though pulling off an event like the America’s Cup during a global pandemic was never going to be easy, the Kiwis also (inevitably?) found themselves having to contend with the latest in the long line of America’s Cup scandals, which only further complicated things. Specifically, in June of 2020, Emirates Team New Zealand announced a handful of “spies” had infiltrated its base. Worse yet, as more information came to light it became increasingly unclear whether this had truly been a security breach, or was merely whistleblowers bringing to light legitimate concerns about the potential mishandling of public funds. (The team was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.) After that came ETNZ’s choice of courses, one of which was