Frank Racing - GC32 racing Tour , Lagos Cup,Portugal. Practice race. GC32 Racing Tour. 27 June, 2018 - photo © Jesus Renedo / GC32 Racing Tour
Dear Recipient Name
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for July 3, 2018
Entries closed on Saturday for the 36th America's Cup, with Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron announcing that just three teams had entered - the same three that had earlier and separately announced their Challenges.
There have always been two ways of looking at entry numbers in the America's Cup. One is just the numbers game.
The other is the resources behind the teams.
On the latter basis, all the announced teams have a stronger financial resource than the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand. The British Challenge, INEOS Team UK have the biggest single sponsorship in sailing at NZ$220million - that is enough to fund Team New Zealand more than twice over.
Part of that $220million was to buy out the Brit's existing sponsor base - headed by naming rights sponsor Land Rover. That group had been back in the funding harness for 2021 since Sir Ben Ainslie and his crew failed to progress beyond the Semi-Finals in Bermuda.
The three teams who have challenged are what Emirates Team NZ CEO Grant Dalton calls "Super Teams" - well-financed, well-resourced and any one of them would make a formidable Challenger in the Match.
Several teams who had indicated that they were entering, or were rumoured to be doing so, failed to file a Challenge.
Subsequent inquiries by Sail-World with either the teams themselves, or others in their regions, indicate that they couldn't reach the level of finance with which they were comfortable in the time available. The start-up task is doubly difficult for a start-up team unless they have a financier who understands the America's Cup Challenger life-cycle.
Addressing the "no-go" reasons advanced by many for the current America's Cup. One of the Challengers who has not yet proceeded say their budget was 46million Euros - that's very close to Emirates Team New Zealand's stated budget for the 35th Match. It's also well short of the big budget numbers talked of by other Challengers and sages on the fringes of the Cup.
The Sardinian Challenge say they had a major sponsor fall over late in the piece, but say that otherwise all the components are in place. Franck Cammas says he is still searching for a major sponsor for his Team France to replace the departed Groupama.
The announcement of their sailing team by New York Yacht Club's American Magic challenge revealed that it comprised sailors from five different nationalities. That point would tend to give lie to the notion that the 100% Nationality Rule in the Protocol is a major stumbling block for entries. INEO Team UK's nine-strong Sailing Team has three nationalities - only one of which does not have British or at least dual nationality.
As we note in a story in this edition which looks at the Entries, and takes a look at the numbers and spread from the 1987 Cup to 2017, it is apparent that the America's Cup has failed to recover from the Supreme Court action which began after the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia.
Even with just the three Super Teams coming up against the most successful Defender in contemporary America's Cup history, the 36th America's Cup will be a brutal contest, in the most radical boats seen in sailing history.
And whoever is the winner come March 2021, fans can be assured that the America's Cup will be going to a good home - be it Cowes, Newport, Sardinia or remaining in Auckland. The Cup will in future be under the care of a Trustee Club which respects the obligations and spirit of the Deed of Gift and places those values above the vision of a billionaire who wishes to turn the trophy into something it was never intended to be.
No more of the nonsensical "bidding the venue" - the 37th Cup will be sailed in the waters of the Defender.
The effect of the reduced numbers for 2021 will have little impact on the America's Cup base planning process which is underway. Space was always going to be very tight - even with seven bases rather than the initial eight. Now the Super Teams will be able to spread out - Corporate and VIP hospitality will be expanded, and that will mean a bigger spend in Auckland.
As a spectacle, the 36th America's Cup will be a "must-see" - either on the water from ferry or superyacht, ashore or on TV - that will minimise the impact of reduced fan numbers and team members caused by the less than expected entry.
Next moves for the Volvo Ocean Race have been announced, with an open forum for competitors, designers and sailors being held in The Hague.
The proposal is to develop a fully crewed version of the IMOCA60 that can be used in the Volvo Ocean Race.
The new owners of Volvo Ocean Race announced yesterday that a partnership agreement has been made with the International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA).
If successful they will produce a boat which can be used in Round the World crewed racing (VOR) and Singlehanded (Vendee Globe) and the suspended Barcelona World Race (two handed).
The new VOR boat will be a foiler, crew number is uncertain, but will contain an On Board Reporter, and is expected to have female and youth quota for the crew.
As indicated in Sail-World's earlier interview with one of the new owners of the Volvo Ocean Race, Johan Salen, the move to IMOCA60's marks the way to shift boat ownership away from the Volvo Ocean Race organisation to the teams and individual boat ownership.
There is no word on what will happen to the current Volvo Ocean 65 fleet. Six of those are owned by Volvo Ocean Race and two by teams/privately owned. The idea is to move them all to private ownership. One is currently listed for sale - Price on Application.
An announcement on the VO65 situation is expected in a couple of weeks.
Nearer to home the question is whether a New Zealand based team can be put together for the next event getting underway in late 2021.
On Sunday, in Lagos, Portugal the Simon Hull led crew aboard the GC32 Frank Racing had an outstanding day in the second event of the GC32 World Tour.
Coming up against two America's Cup skippers, Ben Ainslie and Franck Cammas, the New Zealand crew won the first two races of the final day and finished with a 2-4-4-3 scorecard. Although this isn't the Kiwis first series in Europe, it is their first serious dig against some very experienced competition.
The crew of Guy Endean, Harry Hull, Stu Dodson and Josh Salthouse are drawn largely from the Youth America's Cup events, however Guy Endean has been a part of the last two America's Cups.
Although they finished 5th overall, the New Zealand crew were only two points adrift of third placed Ben Ainslie. They were the first placed in the Owner Driver leaderboard, and also were fastest time in the speed test.
Next event is at the end of July in Palma, Mallorca.
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Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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