I begin this piece with an apology to New Zealand readers. My assumption is that there is still interest in the America’s Cup. All the evidence is however that New Zealanders feel betrayed by the decision of Team New Zealand (aided by the officers of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) to take the Cup to Barcelona and that they have switched off from a team that calls itself Team New Zealand but no longer credibly represents New Zealand. Significantly, a third of the membership of the Squadron resigned or refused to renew their membership, which has put it into financial difficulty.
In the last few weeks, however, as the Cup enters the Louis Vuitton challenger phase, Grant Dalton has given interviews to the 2 major New Zealand newspapers – the NZ Herald on 7 September and Stuff on 11 September – giving his vision for the future of the Cup (assuming that Team New Zealand successfully defends it). In his interview for the Herald, Dalton took the opportunity to defend the Barcelona decision by asserting that New Zealand had suffered financially from Covid to a greater extent than anywhere else in the World and to an extent that “it was impossible to have the Cup in New Zealand financially” – a view that is hard to sustain given the offer of further public money of $100 million increased further by the offer of $40 million from Mark Dunphy.
In the same interview, Dalton then rather undermined his financial justification by providing a further, stand-alone reason, namely that “for the Cup to grow, and as our responsibility as the defender, it had to be in Europe”.None of that suggests that serious consideration will be given to the next Cup, which Dalton says could be held within the next 2 years, being held in Auckland. Indeed, when questioned on this issue, he said it was for New Zealand to approach him with a proposal rather than the other way around. That sounds like seeking a bid in an auction with the prize going to the highest bidder rather than tabling a budgeted plan and ascertaining whether New Zealand can meet it.
Dalton claim that Barcelona is interested in hosting the next Cup but reports suggest that the people of Barcelona have not been enthusiastic about encouraging an influx of tourists attending the Cup. Dalton himself has said (The Telegraph, 4 December 2023) that Jeddah in Saudi Arabia – where one of the preliminary regattas in the present Event was held - would be a strong candidate next time, saying unequivocally that he would have no issue with holding the next Cup there, notwithstanding Saudi’s well-publicised human rights abuses and substantial public executions to which Dalton responded “you can’t change from without, you have to change from within”. Really!
One issue addressed by Dalton in his Stuff interview was the question of cost and, relatedly, the number of entrant boats. There is no doubt that the adoption by Team New Zealand of the high-tech 75 foot foiling monohulls after it regained the Cup in Bermuda in 2017 has raised the financial stakes enormously. As a challenger, Dalton was highly critical of Ernesto Bertarelli (Alinghi) and Larry Ellison (Oracle) for making the Cup too expensive for teams dependent on commercial sponsorship, with the added consequence of limiting the number of entrants. Four entrants in Auckland and five in Barcelona compares, however, with 12 in Valencia in 2007 with conventional monohulls. That regatta, with 9 countries participating, is generally acknowledged as the most spectacular and successful AC regatta yet. By initiating and persisting with the more expensive foiling monohulls, Dalton has given credibility to those who say that the America’s Cup is a rich man’s sport and one which bears no relationship to all other forms of yacht racing.
All a far cry from the era when Peter Blake’s Team New Zealand, sponsored by local companies and the New Zealand public who bought red socks to assist the funding, first won the Cup in 1995 and which led to the development of the Viaduct to host the first defence.
Jim Farmer