Cup Spy: Emirates Team NZ make another tough call on a helmsmen
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 10 Apr 19:07 PDT
Dock out - Emirates Team NZ - 37th America's Cup, October 16, 2024 - Barcelona © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup
Friday's announcement of a split in the decade-long relationship with Emirates Team NZ and its skipper, three times Cup winner Peter Burling, wasn't seen outside the team. However, rumours had been circulating on the Auckland waterfront for a month or two.
The announcement had several parallels with Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's signing with the team in January 2014, followed by the exit of the long-time helm and skipper - Dean Barker - who'd helmed in the Kiwi's Cup win in Auckland in 2000.
The announcement last week that the next America's Cup would not be hosted in Auckland was maybe the last chance of a deal being consummated.
But coming down the track are some changes to the America's Cup and how it will be run. At this stage, those are only known by the Defender - Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and its team Emirates Team NZ and the Challenger of Record, Royal Yacht Squadron.
As its skipper for over a decade, it is a fair bet that Burling would have had an inkling of what they were.
One of the key questions in the Protocol, and Burling's future options, will be how the tight Nationality rule operates.
The current (2024) rule contains a throwback clause to the 2021 Cup. It provides for all (100%) of the crew sailing in each race to be nationals of the country of the Cup which the team represents. There are some exceptions - with sailors who held dual passports, such as Tom Slingsby, who sailed for the USA in the 2024 Cup but represented Australia in the 2012 Olympics. Also, there's the Paul Goodison exception where the 2008 UK Olympic Gold medalist was permitted to sail for the US team in 2024, by dint of having sailed with the New York Yacht Club team in the 2021 Cup. Jimmy Spithill slipped through the nationality net on the same exception for the Italian team Luna Rossa. Nathan Outteridge slid into the Emirates Team NZ afterguard in 2024 by virtue of having been a member of the commentary team (and resident in NZ) during the 2021 Cup.
The point with the 2027 rule is that it is hard to see some throwback to the 2021 Cup continuing. It may allow crews to stay with the same team, by exception or otherwise, they sailed with in 2024. However, it is unlikely that hiring the best crew that money can buy will be allowed, as the Swiss permitted in the 2007 America's Cup. Such a free-market rule works to the detriment of the Defender, Team New Zealand, who are ripe for poaching of key crew as happened in April 2000 and played out in the 2003 - 2017 America's Cups.
Against that backdrop, Burling's Cup options as a sailing team member are very limited. However, they don't apply to coaching roles - and in that regard, he is a free agent and a valuable acquisition for any America's Cup team.
With his achievements to date, he has earned himself a place amongst the top four America's Cup helmsmen of all time - joining Charlie Barr, Mike Vanderbilt and Russell Coutts who all helmed America's Cup winning boats for three successive America's Cups.
The principal reason for Burling's departure is shared by several other sailors on the America's Cup and SailGP circuits.
All crews that elect to sail in both the SailGP League and the America's Cup, have the dilemma that the League is expanding to include more regattas - increasing by two to 14 regattas in Season 5 and 16 in Season 6 (sailing in two flights of eight boats each) and then up to 20 boats.
That expansion cuts across the intentions of America's Cup rule-makers who announced on November 11, 2024, just three weeks after the conclusion of the 2024 America's Cup on October 2024, that sailing days would be restricted - as a budget-limiting exercise.
That means that the quality of every testing day has to count, and teams cannot sail with the second-string sailing crew while the first team is away for a week for a SailGP event.
"With the America's Cup now shaping up to be contested in more regular cycles, the requirements on team members are changing. As the balance between design, simulation, boat build, testing and racing windows become more compressed, the integration of key sailors with the design team becomes more critical than ever", was probably the most telling part of the joint statement issued by Emirates Team NZ, and their former skipper.
Peter Burling, with his split SailGP and America's Cup commitments, was likely to find that he is very stretched in terms of time to do the America's Cup testing and training and SailGP racing, plus travel time. Others in the same time predicament include Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney. However, helmsmen are likely to be harder to replace than flight controllers or sail trimmers.
The limitation on teams sailing any Cup-relevant boat (except an AC40 in One Design mode) is that under the November 11, 2024 memo, they are not allowed to start sailing until after September 30, 2025 - that is five months away - with plenty of team meetings over design input, development and training likely to occur before then, and certainly once the venue is known - which again ETNZ will know before everyone else.
The Protocol's contents, understood to be largely complete, are unknown except to Emirates Team New Zealand, as Defender and Chief Negotiator, and the Challenger of Record, Royal Yacht Squadron. Both teams know how those rules, to be published in June 2025, will affect their plans for test sailing.
Making timing matters even tigher is the likelihood of additional Preliminary regattas in both the AC40 class and AC75s (using boats from the 2024 America's Cup). Teams will work those commitments around their own training schedules and aren't going to be too willing to accommodate SailGP commitments - particularly when every sailing day is a counter under the America's Cup Protocol.
The announcement last week that the 38th America's Cup will not be hosted in Auckland probably makes Peter Burling's life, and others with young families, more complicated. That was perhaps the game-breaker in terms of an agreement between the two for the 2027 America's Cup.
Friday's media statement notes that Burling's contract discussions have been ongoing since Barcelona six months ago. That is a very long time and indicates that there was a gulf between the two in their expectations - remembering that Peter Burling was probably looking for more money and Grant Dalton, the CEO, knew that budget caps were coming - and how everything was, or wasn't, going to fit together.
The assumption is that Nathan Outteridge has already signed on with the Defender as a co-helmsman.
Quite what has happened with Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney from the 2024 America's Cup crew will be revealed when the team starts training. However, when he joined the Brazilian SailGP team, Maloney made it clear that he was keen to sail again with Emirates Team New Zealand. Whether that enthusiasm is still present remains to be seen.
In terms of talent coming through the ranks, Team New Zealand has some work ahead of it. Neither the Youth Team nor the Women's team made the Finals of their respective events in Barcelona. The Youth team did not make the top six (Semi-Finals) and were beaten by three non-Cup teams. A lack of wind disrupted the Women's event, and the Final took place between just two teams, with no Semi-Final. 2024 Olympic Silver medalists Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie are likely to come into consideration. Also worth a very serious look are the current World Moth Champion Mattias Coutts and runner up Jake Pye.
A wild card option is former World Match Racing champion, and the Red Adair of the SailGP circuit, Phil Robertson (NZL) who was co-opted as a training helm and coach for Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the lead-up to the 2024 America's Cup. He would bring to the team a match racing proficency that it has lacked since the departure of Dean Barker following the 2013 Cup, and Russell Coutts before him. Robertson's inclusion would inject some chilli sauce into the Kiwi team's starting playbook - which has always been an easy read for other teams.
A further unknown in the Protocol is how many crew will be onboard board an AC75 in 2027. The question, probably already answered by the Defender and Challenger of Record, is whether cyclors are retained to essentially pump hydraulic oil all around the 20-30minute America's Cup course or if the decision is made to reduce the crew from eight cyclors/sailors to just six sailors.
There are no signs yet as to which of the teams from the 2024 America's Cup will make the startline or if any new teams are coming into the next America's Cup.
We guess that entries are expected to open on August 1.