Kilda.
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. The first stage of the thirty seventh America's Cup is about to begin the world's longest continuous sporting competition. Team New Zealand will be looking to defend their title in October. Their challenger is due to be decided over the coming weeks
as the Louis Vuitton Cup gets underway in Barcelona. But in amongst all the intrigue about which team will come out on top, there's a lot of background as to why this is all happening on the other side of the world rather than in our backyard. And Zaid Herald's sports reporter Christopher Reeve will be heading to Barcelona for the main event, but joins us now on the Front Page to preview what's coming up and a recap of
why it's happening overseas. Christopher, can you give us a rundown on how the Louis Vuitton and America's Cup are going to run this year?
Yes, so, the Louisvuton Cup is the challenger series obviously sponsored by Louis Vuitton, so they've got that name. This year, it's going to be a little bit different in the sense the Team New Zealand the Challenger are the defenders. Sorry, They're going to be competing in the round robin series of that Challenger series. So you've got two round robins. At the end of those two round robins, the bottom team on the table will drop out and that'll be
their campaign done three and a half years done. Like that, Team New Zealand will also drop out at that point, and then you've got the semi finals. The four remaining teams go head to head and then top two the winner of that one goes on to the Cup match.
And who are the teams that will be hoping to challenge Team New Zealand.
You got any Us Britannia from the UK, they're the Challenger of Record, Lunaros Aprador Perelli I'll get that name right from Italy, Orient Express Racing team from France, American Magic from the New York Yacht Club and Alingi Rebull Racing from Switzerland. They're another new team this year back in the swing of things.
The Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Limited aka the British team. I suppose issued the challenge for this event the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Back in twenty twenty one, right after Team and Zed defended the Cup, You've got some big news. A challenge has been lodged, it's been accepted. Who is it?
Well, the Royal Yacht Squadron has accepted a challenge from the Royal Yacht Squadron in the UK for the thirty seventh America's Cup. The main thing I guess right now is we'll be selling you know, the same boats AC seventy five, so we should see them out again, you know, hopefully in New Zealand.
But is this just one old fashioned formality I suppose, or is there a real meaning behind that?
Yeah, there is a little bit of a meaning behind it, which is why so many of the challenges want to be in that position. Basically, the first yacht club to issue a challenge to the defender and has that accepted as the Challenger of record, and that just means they get to be in the room on some of the decision making and they get to run the Challenger series in August, so they get a little bit more skin
in the table, I guess you could say. But Yeah, The America's Cup is one of those strange sporting events where basically the winner gets to make all the rules, and so this just has a challenger in a position to I guess be involved in that a little bit.
And who are the key players on Team Me and Z's side this time? Are we seeing that dynamic duo of Peter Berling and Blair Chuke back on the water?
We are.
It's a little bit different this time around. The makeup of the boat's going to look a little bit different because they're going to have two helmsmen rather than just Peter Berling as the main helmsman. So they've brought in Nathan Aldridge, who's a very very well credentialed Australian. He's gonna helm on one side of the boat. Pete's gonna helm on the other. Blairchuk is going to be flight controlling and trimming, and Andy Maloney's going to be there
as well, So he's come back. And we're going to see the cyclas this time around as well, rather than just having grining pedestals. So a little bit different, but a little bit the same.
I understand that the teams will be racing on ac seventy five yachts this year. What do we know about these boats?
This will be the second generation of those boats, So those are the ones that got brought in for the regatta in Auckland, which probably wasn't the best sailing that you could see on those boats. The weather wasn't ideal to get them up and foiling as much as they probably would have liked. So I'm hoping this time around, in the second generation, they've made changes to the number of crew on board, so they've got eight this time around rather than eleven, and the boat's going to be
a little bit lighter. Hopefully they've figured out a little bit more how to operate in the light years. But yeah, it's a second time we'll see these in a campaign, so hopefully we'll see a little bit more of an advanced product.
Do you know what the environment's like for those boats? Where they're going to be sailing this year.
Very different to Auckland, And I guess as a fan of the sport, it's got me quite intrigued that they've taken it to Barcelona, because I guess where they're going to be sailing is a lot bumpier than you get out in Auckland. We saw out in Auckland that try and find sort of the flattest, most calm see that they could sail on out in Barcelona. They don't really get that choice. They have one race course and basically they have to deal with the sea state out there.
As we've said, Team New Zealand are defending the America's Cup once again, but for the first time they won't be defending it in New Zealand. Can you give us the rundown on what led to CEO Grant Dalton taking it overseas, starting with them rejecting a ninety nine million dollar offer from the government in Auckland Council to bring it back in twenty twenty one.
Yeah, So Grant Dalton has always been very clear on the number that he believed was needed to run a successful campaign, and he's always emphasized the campaign being successful. He wants to basically put the team in the best position to win, rather than do an underfunded one and they lose at home. So he's always been very clear on the number, and he didn't believe that the number on the table from New Zealand was going to be enough.
Barcelona came with a little bit more. They've got the infrastructure there, and he said an interview last week the week before that moving it to Barcelona was worth about twenty million to their campaign.
If you win the event like we have, it's one hundred million dollars just to run the event, and in New Zealand that would be impossible to raise. Because we're running the Youth and Women's America's Cup. We're building a series of hydrogen boats, so we've been able to do a range of things that we would not have been able to do to increase the sport and increase their visibility being here in Barcelona.
In the end, I can see why he's done it. I can also see why local fans were unhappy at the time, and some probably still are.
Do we have any idea of how much taxpayer and ratepayer money was invested in setting up for the thirty sixth America's Cup and building all those facilities down by the waterfront.
Yeah, so the reports that came out afterwards suggested more than two hundred and fifty million of public money was invested into that regatta. That obviously included infrastructure down at the viaduct, a lot of temporary stuff, so all the bases. Now there's only one really left there, which is the one team New Zealand have taken over after they moved out of the Viaduct Events Center. Yeah, they basically turned that viaduct into a race village and when the campaign
was over, that all disappeared. So there's not really any traces of that down there now. But I know they did some work around the Key Street area and the Wynyardwarf area to kind of, I guess, upkeep the areas. I know there were some projects brought forward, so a little bit went on.
There was a lot of disappointment at the government and council level at the time about this decision about not bringing it back, and that flowed over to the public. Do you think there's still that touch of resentment over what happened or do you think people will move on once we actually get into the racing again.
Yeah, it's an interesting one. It depends on I guess what position you're in the council and government level. I think they would have hoped to get at least another campaign out of their investment, because you have to remember for the thirty six America's Cup COVID hit, which meant they didn't get all the super yachts coming in to watch, which really kind of hit how much they could make from that campaign. So a second campaign in the current
conditions you might have seen a different result there. And fans of the sport put it in the context of rugby, like if the All Blacks won the World Cup and had the right to choose where it was hold next, if they didn't choose New Zealand, I think there'll be some pretty unhappy rugby fans. So it's the same with sailing. Obviously, this is the pinnacle event in the sport and people want to see it. And the fact that if they want to watch it live, they're going to have to
make their way to Barcelona. I don't think many people were too happy about that.
We'll get up really really early, right, Yeah, that's the.
Other thing, even if they want to watch it live. I was looking yesterday at the preliminary Regatto which is on in a couple of weeks, and the racing for that is at two pm in Barcelona, which is about midnight New Zealand, so some late nights ahead.
Sports old Trophy, maybe New Zealand's Cup, but the race that you the key we taxpayer has think hundreds of millions of dollars into is sailing away to Spain. Nearly three hundred and fifty million was pumped into the twenty twenty one America's Cup over four years. The Council's contribution was mainly for services in kind, including free rents at the waterfront event center. Was always taken for granted that if Team New Zealand won, it would defend it here next time.
So media reports I've been prepping for this frame Team New Zealand as underfunded. Is that a real concern for the team or are they perhaps underfunded compared to our international counterparts.
I think that would just be in comparison to who they are up against, and I guess the budgets behind them. America's Cup teams are very very secretive about their operations and don't like to reveal too much. But you look at Eneos Britannia, who are backed by Jim Ratcliffe who
runs Ineos, a lot of money behind them. They've been working with the Mercedes Formula One team as well, so it's not just money, it's also what they can access in terms of their design and their build and all the different minds that come into it, and it's the same with a Lingy. They've got a relationship with Red
Bull Racing and obviously Lunarosa prior PERELLI. We know that they've been there, they've done that, they got good backing, So I think it's just in relation to who they're who they're coming.
Up against, and that money that goes towards things like what the boat and stuff. How much do those boats cost? Do we actually know?
I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, and I think if I researched it, you can maybe find a number, but I would imagine they're very expensive boats because they're very specific to this sport, so you're not going to find them anywhere else. You're not going to find the parts anywhere else.
Do you think the government could really even justify giving that kind of money to a team that has multiple sponsors or.
I think so. A few people might disagree, but I feel like if they believe it's worth it, why wouldn't they offer to invest in the team, and even in the event moving forward, you know, if it was to pay off, it all just comes down to whether it's worth it in the end, like everything.
Else, and early bets on here, Chris, but we are looking to the future on this podcast. So do you think Team New Zealand can win for the third time in a row.
Team New Zealand can definitely win for a third time in a row. The fact that their design team kind of came up with the concept for these boats is always going to be a big plus in their favor, regardless of this being the second generation and teams having more I guess understanding of how they work. I feel like Team New Zealand are always going to have just that little bit extra of being able to figure things out with the boats. They have the sailing team to
win it. They've had the training, the time to I guess build those combinations with the different setups. The one thing we haven't seen yet is the new race boats actually racing against one another. So for the last month or so they've been in Barcelona and on the race course together and you see the odd sort of cross between the teams because it's a very small area, but they've been prohibited from actually racing against each other, so you can't really work out who's going well who's not.
So that last preliminary regatta, which is in Barcelona. That'll really give you a good indication of where every team is at this point in the campaign. So I think every team at the moment will be confident, but once they see how the others are really going, then you'll start to see I guess some wheels turning.
Thanks for joining us, Christopher. That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage ends it dot co dot z. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.