Team New Zealand's relieved to be back out on the water, after a serious high-speed crash caused major damage to their test boat last month.
The newly repaired and rebranded AC40 is a key part of the team's preparation for the 2024 America's Cup, and they're confident they're now better, faster and stronger as a result of the incident.
"It happened quite quickly and quite violently," said Team NZ chief operations officer Kevin Shoebridge, recalling the frightening moment on the Hauraki Gulf.
"First of all, the guys were all fine, so that was the main thing."
But while the crew were unharmed, the boat certainly wasn't as fortunate. The nose diving in heavy seas off Waiheke Island caused significant damage to the bow.
The incident piled pressure on the shore crew to promptly finish their repairs and limit the amount of sailing time lost.
"We had to basically really quickly build a new mould from scratch, laminate the new shells, produce those, cure them and then get them here," explained shore crew manager Sean Regan.
"We did most of the work in house here as far as stitching it back together and that process takes time. But we squeeze it all up, run a night shift, run around the clock and so over about two and a half weeks we got it all back together."
But the team have made the most of a bad situation, using the setback as an opportunity to improve the boat further.
"I think it was a blessing in disguise," said Shoebridge. "We were out there trying to test the boat in quite tough conditions and we learnt a lot about what the boat can handle.
"It cost us a couple of weeks, but in the scheme of things and life, not too much at all.
Regan adds: "For us as a team it's good, but also for the AC40 class boat it's good, because now we've made changes to the design and construction the teams are going to get a better boat for it."
Because sometimes even crashes can have a silver lining.
Watch the full story above
