AC-visiting superyachts excused Australian quarantine.

Plenty of superyachts among the AC36 spectator fleet © Carlo Borlenghi

With both New Zealand and Australia enjoying extremely low Covid cases and almost no community transmission, Australia established quarantine free access for New Zealand arrivals by air some months ago. This open access is now also available to superyachts, just in time for the completion of the America’s Cup.

David Good, CEO of Superyacht Australia commented. “The last two vessels to apply to enter Australia from New Zealand have been approved to do so without quarantine requirements upon arrival in Sydney. The vessel occupants will be able to step off and go ashore as soon as they receive a negative Covid test result on arrival. This is now available for arrival into New South Wales to superyachts and occupants who have been in New Zealand for longer than 14 days.”

“Each vessel injects millions of dollars of economic contribution through the extensive use of contractors and tradesmen whenever they are in a port or marina. Australian shipyards are some of the best in the world, so it will be great to see these yachts making use of our skilled marine trades and shipyards, which will keep these vessels in the region for longer,” stated Good.

“With the Olympics scheduled in Japan in a few months, it is likely that many of these vessels will remain in the western Pacific for at least the remainder of this year. Hopefully the next staging of the America’s Cup will again be held in Auckland with a compressed turnaround to encourage even more big boats to venture into the Pacific,” concluded Good.

160 superyachts were expected to attend the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland before Covid reduced that number to 20. Although heavily reduced, the economic spend of this fleet is still estimated at tens of millions of dollars.