America's Cup- Emirates Team New Zealand gears up on less money

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 26 Feb 2015 Emirates Team New Zealand has pushed the start button on their campaign for the 35th America's Cup, with a budget that has been reduced by an estimated 20% from the San Francisco campaign.

The decision to relocate the Venue for the Match to the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda has resulted in reduced attractiveness to sponsors, which in turn has led to cuts in the program, in terms of personnel costs and numbers and boats.

In an announcement by the team today a planned twin AC45 development program has been cut to just one surrogate AC45 boat. The team will only race a single one design foiling AC45 on the America's Cup World Series regatta circuit.

Only a single AC62 is permitted to be built by Challengers under the current Protocol, which governs the conditions for the 35th America's Cup. In the San Francisco campaign, the team had two AC72's.

Those moves have in turn led to cuts in the sailing crew, the most visible of which is the non-appointment of Dean Barker as skipper. In a statement issued by the team, the role of Skipper appears to have been abolished, and helming duties will be shared between wingsail trimmer, Glenn Ashby and 49er World Champion Peter Burling.

'The way it will work at this point is that Peter will sail the one design AC45 in the ACWS events. With his 49er regattas, by definition that means that he is not available somewhere else, and Glenn will drive the surrogate AC45. The original idea was that we would have two surrogates, and Dean would drive one and Glenn would drive the other. When we had to drop a surrogate, we had to make some other decisions.

'We hope and believe that Peter Burling will be able to move up to deal with the crew and the input and everything else that goes with sailing a big boat. In the meantime we are bringing Glenn along, who can already do all of that, as well.'

Also gone in the budget reduced program are the SL33's which fall just outside the size to be counted as a surrogate boat under the Protocol and which served the team well in its development program in the last campaign.

'We have been through a process that started after San Francisco. The review is probably more rigorous when you lose, particularly after you are up 8-1. That review has been right through the organisation with everyone involved. It started as an anonymous 'what do you think we can do better', then it was bought together in an open group, and the findings were put together.

'We identified out of that review a need to considerable up our capability in performance growth and also the coaching. That is ultimately the role we hope is filled by Dean.

'We didn't have the potential left in our boat. We had hit our straps right from Day 1, but maybe we could have done more.

'One of the things that we thought Oracle did very well was to identify how to make the boat go faster right at the very end. There was a Brains Trust involved in that, of which Russell Coutts was one as far as we could tell.

'If you looked through the windows of the Oracle Chase Boat you could see Murray Jones, Grant Simmer and Russell Coutts. They are very experienced guys who in Coutts' case can sail the boat as well as work on performance as well.

'We thought we had that function covered last time, but we didn't do it very well. It was too much of a potpourri, and it needs specific skills. We believe that Dean is the right guy for that role.'

When asked whether Dean thought he was the right guy for the role, Dalton explained that Dean was part of the review which identified the role and recognised that there was a need to fill that role.

'We hope he accepts it. It is a very senior role, speed-loop related, and suits a guy who can drive as well as understand the process of design, and who can help mould the shape of the speed, and foils and everything that goes with the complete package.'

Both in the 2010 and 2013 America's Cups, Oracle made much of their ability to record and analyse huge amounts of performance data and had the ability with their principal sponsor, Oracle Corp, to be able to bring the resources and tools together to analyse that amount of data.

'Although we were doing the analysis, last time, we weren't moving the package forward. There were a lot of subtleties that we missed, particularly in upwind foiling. We couldn't get onto that because we couldn't capture the essence of what we needed to do.

'Again we think that Dean with his experience, and knowledge and understanding of our culture is the right guy for that role.'

Dalton adds that they have employed a top data analyst out of Artemis Racing to crunch the numbers but need someone with the sailing smarts and understanding to identify the key issues and bring those into focus.

Dalton says another issue that came out of the review was 'how we coach'.

'This is not a classic match race, and we tended to work in that environment, when it was nothing like that.'

'Yes we adapted, and Rod Davis did a great job, but this new role is much more high-speed and sailing technique.'

'Before Bermuda was announced these were two separate roles, but we had to combine them because of the cost.'

Also gone in the reduced budgets is the intention to conduct trials, or seat racing - to borrow a rowing term - to select crew and helmsmen. Without two matched AC45's it is now not possible to conduct a proper selection trial, and the crew will be selected 'on pedigree'.

'We have had to make some different decisions, which are Glenn and Pete, and hopefully Dean as Performance Coach. We now just have to look to their pedigree and the number of world championships they have won.'

'Glenn was with us from Day 1 of the 2013 campaign, has won seven world championships what is now a foiling catamaran, and at the last worlds at Takapuna, was just dominant. With those two guys, we have had to make some calls, and they are budget related calls to some extent. We have two hugely talented guys who we hope are complemented by Dean.'

Emirates Team New Zealand has re-signed several of the crew from 2013 - Ray Davies, Jeremy Lomas, Winston Macfarlane and Derek Seward.

Peter Burling has a combined 49er and ACWS program of nine regattas in 2015, over a space of five months. Dalton claims that there is no clash - except that the first ACWS in Cagliari, Italy starting on June 10, finishes just two days after the Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth. 'It's tight but he has to leave that night. If he can't make that one or any other, then we have Glenn Ashby to step in.'

The campaign steps up on Monday, with the team swelling to 50 full-time staff - half that of the 2013 campaign at its peak. Not disclosed is how any of that number are new hires as opposed to those who have been working part-time, or full-time on very modest retainers since San Francisco.

The 20-strong design team that has been running part time for a year will step up to a full-time basis, and new design team members will be starting.

The major increase will be in shore-crew with an urgent need to get one AC45 converted to the one design foiling package, while the other from Team Australia will become the surrogate AC45 - used as a test bed for the AC62 design.

The first boat has to be retrofitted with foils and in Cagliari, Italy by the beginning of June. The priority then shifts to the surrogate AC45.

Dalton is guarded in his comments on funding. 'We have enough funding to go forward, in a very similar fashion to what we did at this stage of the 2007 and 2013 campaigns. In my experience, you never have all the money when you start.

'But you have to make some calls, and get underway.'