Speaker 1: Kilda.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. The first
Speaker 2: stage of the thirty seventh America's Cup is about to
Speaker 2: begin the world's longest continuous sporting competition. Team New Zealand
Speaker 2: will be looking to defend their title in October. Their
Speaker 2: challenger is due to be decided over the coming weeks
Speaker 2: as the Louis Vuitton Cup gets underway in Barcelona. But
Speaker 2: in amongst all the intrigue about which team will come
Speaker 2: out on top, there's a lot of background as to
Speaker 2: why this is all happening on the other side of
Speaker 2: the world rather than in our backyard. And Zaid Herald's
Speaker 2: sports reporter Christopher Reeve will be heading to Barcelona for
Speaker 2: the main event, but joins us now on the Front
Speaker 2: Page to preview what's coming up and a recap of
Speaker 2: why it's happening overseas. Christopher, can you give us a
Speaker 2: rundown on how the Louis Vuitton and America's Cup are
Speaker 2: going to run this year?
Speaker 3: Yes, so, the Louisvuton Cup is the challenger series obviously
Speaker 3: sponsored by Louis Vuitton, so they've got that name. This year,
Speaker 3: it's going to be a little bit different in the
Speaker 3: sense the Team New Zealand the Challenger are the defenders. Sorry,
Speaker 3: They're going to be competing in the round robin series
Speaker 3: of that Challenger series. So you've got two round robins.
Speaker 3: At the end of those two round robins, the bottom
Speaker 3: team on the table will drop out and that'll be
Speaker 3: their campaign done three and a half years done. Like that,
Speaker 3: Team New Zealand will also drop out at that point,
Speaker 3: and then you've got the semi finals. The four remaining
Speaker 3: teams go head to head and then top two the
Speaker 3: winner of that one goes on to the Cup match.
Speaker 2: And who are the teams that will be hoping to
Speaker 2: challenge Team New Zealand.
Speaker 3: You got any Us Britannia from the UK, they're the
Speaker 3: Challenger of Record, Lunaros Aprador Perelli I'll get that name
Speaker 3: right from Italy, Orient Express Racing team from France, American
Speaker 3: Magic from the New York Yacht Club and Alingi Rebull
Speaker 3: Racing from Switzerland. They're another new team this year back
Speaker 3: in the swing of things.
Speaker 2: The Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Limited aka the British team.
Speaker 2: I suppose issued the challenge for this event the Royal
Speaker 2: New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Back in twenty twenty one, right
Speaker 2: after Team and Zed defended the Cup, You've got some
Speaker 2: big news. A challenge has been lodged, it's been accepted.
Speaker 2: Who is it?
Speaker 4: Well, the Royal Yacht Squadron has accepted a challenge from
Speaker 4: the Royal Yacht Squadron in the UK for the thirty
Speaker 4: seventh America's Cup. The main thing I guess right now
Speaker 4: is we'll be selling you know, the same boats AC
Speaker 4: seventy five, so we should see them out again, you know,
Speaker 4: hopefully in New Zealand.
Speaker 2: But is this just one old fashioned formality I suppose,
Speaker 2: or is there a real meaning behind that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a little bit of a meaning behind it,
Speaker 3: which is why so many of the challenges want to
Speaker 3: be in that position. Basically, the first yacht club to
Speaker 3: issue a challenge to the defender and has that accepted
Speaker 3: as the Challenger of record, and that just means they
Speaker 3: get to be in the room on some of the
Speaker 3: decision making and they get to run the Challenger series
Speaker 3: in August, so they get a little bit more skin
Speaker 3: in the table, I guess you could say. But Yeah,
Speaker 3: The America's Cup is one of those strange sporting events
Speaker 3: where basically the winner gets to make all the rules,
Speaker 3: and so this just has a challenger in a position
Speaker 3: to I guess be involved in that a little bit.
Speaker 2: And who are the key players on Team Me and
Speaker 2: Z's side this time? Are we seeing that dynamic duo
Speaker 2: of Peter Berling and Blair Chuke back on the water?
Speaker 5: We are.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit different this time around. The makeup
Speaker 3: of the boat's going to look a little bit different
Speaker 3: because they're going to have two helmsmen rather than just
Speaker 3: Peter Berling as the main helmsman. So they've brought in
Speaker 3: Nathan Aldridge, who's a very very well credentialed Australian. He's
Speaker 3: gonna helm on one side of the boat. Pete's gonna
Speaker 3: helm on the other. Blairchuk is going to be flight
Speaker 3: controlling and trimming, and Andy Maloney's going to be there
Speaker 3: as well, So he's come back. And we're going to
Speaker 3: see the cyclas this time around as well, rather than
Speaker 3: just having grining pedestals. So a little bit different, but
Speaker 3: a little bit the same.
Speaker 2: I understand that the teams will be racing on ac
Speaker 2: seventy five yachts this year. What do we know about
Speaker 2: these boats?
Speaker 3: This will be the second generation of those boats, So
Speaker 3: those are the ones that got brought in for the
Speaker 3: regatta in Auckland, which probably wasn't the best sailing that
Speaker 3: you could see on those boats. The weather wasn't ideal
Speaker 3: to get them up and foiling as much as they
Speaker 3: probably would have liked. So I'm hoping this time around,
Speaker 3: in the second generation, they've made changes to the number
Speaker 3: of crew on board, so they've got eight this time
Speaker 3: around rather than eleven, and the boat's going to be
Speaker 3: a little bit lighter. Hopefully they've figured out a little
Speaker 3: bit more how to operate in the light years. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a second time we'll see these in a campaign,
Speaker 3: so hopefully we'll see a little bit more of an
Speaker 3: advanced product.
Speaker 2: Do you know what the environment's like for those boats?
Speaker 2: Where they're going to be sailing this year.
Speaker 3: Very different to Auckland, And I guess as a fan
Speaker 3: of the sport, it's got me quite intrigued that they've
Speaker 3: taken it to Barcelona, because I guess where they're going
Speaker 3: to be sailing is a lot bumpier than you get
Speaker 3: out in Auckland. We saw out in Auckland that try
Speaker 3: and find sort of the flattest, most calm see that
Speaker 3: they could sail on out in Barcelona. They don't really
Speaker 3: get that choice. They have one race course and basically
Speaker 3: they have to deal with the sea state out there.
Speaker 2: As we've said, Team New Zealand are defending the America's
Speaker 2: Cup once again, but for the first time they won't
Speaker 2: be defending it in New Zealand. Can you give us
Speaker 2: the rundown on what led to CEO Grant Dalton taking
Speaker 2: it overseas, starting with them rejecting a ninety nine million
Speaker 2: dollar offer from the government in Auckland Council to bring
Speaker 2: it back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Grant Dalton has always been very clear on
Speaker 3: the number that he believed was needed to run a
Speaker 3: successful campaign, and he's always emphasized the campaign being successful.
Speaker 3: He wants to basically put the team in the best
Speaker 3: position to win, rather than do an underfunded one and
Speaker 3: they lose at home. So he's always been very clear
Speaker 3: on the number, and he didn't believe that the number
Speaker 3: on the table from New Zealand was going to be enough.
Speaker 3: Barcelona came with a little bit more. They've got the
Speaker 3: infrastructure there, and he said an interview last week the
Speaker 3: week before that moving it to Barcelona was worth about
Speaker 3: twenty million to their campaign.
Speaker 5: If you win the event like we have, it's one
Speaker 5: hundred million dollars just to run the event, and in
Speaker 5: New Zealand that would be impossible to raise. Because we're
Speaker 5: running the Youth and Women's America's Cup. We're building a
Speaker 5: series of hydrogen boats, so we've been able to do
Speaker 5: a range of things that we would not have been
Speaker 5: able to do to increase the sport and increase their
Speaker 5: visibility being here in Barcelona.
Speaker 3: In the end, I can see why he's done it.
Speaker 3: I can also see why local fans were unhappy at
Speaker 3: the time, and some probably still are.
Speaker 2: Do we have any idea of how much taxpayer and
Speaker 2: ratepayer money was invested in setting up for the thirty
Speaker 2: sixth America's Cup and building all those facilities down by
Speaker 2: the waterfront.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the reports that came out afterwards suggested more
Speaker 3: than two hundred and fifty million of public money was
Speaker 3: invested into that regatta. That obviously included infrastructure down at
Speaker 3: the viaduct, a lot of temporary stuff, so all the bases.
Speaker 3: Now there's only one really left there, which is the
Speaker 3: one team New Zealand have taken over after they moved
Speaker 3: out of the Viaduct Events Center. Yeah, they basically turned
Speaker 3: that viaduct into a race village and when the campaign
Speaker 3: was over, that all disappeared. So there's not really any
Speaker 3: traces of that down there now. But I know they
Speaker 3: did some work around the Key Street area and the
Speaker 3: Wynyardwarf area to kind of, I guess, upkeep the areas.
Speaker 3: I know there were some projects brought forward, so a
Speaker 3: little bit went on.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of disappointment at the government and
Speaker 2: council level at the time about this decision about not
Speaker 2: bringing it back, and that flowed over to the public.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's still that touch of resentment over
Speaker 2: what happened or do you think people will move on
Speaker 2: once we actually get into the racing again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an interesting one. It depends on I guess
Speaker 3: what position you're in the council and government level. I
Speaker 3: think they would have hoped to get at least another
Speaker 3: campaign out of their investment, because you have to remember
Speaker 3: for the thirty six America's Cup COVID hit, which meant
Speaker 3: they didn't get all the super yachts coming in to watch,
Speaker 3: which really kind of hit how much they could make
Speaker 3: from that campaign. So a second campaign in the current
Speaker 3: conditions you might have seen a different result there. And
Speaker 3: fans of the sport put it in the context of rugby,
Speaker 3: like if the All Blacks won the World Cup and
Speaker 3: had the right to choose where it was hold next,
Speaker 3: if they didn't choose New Zealand, I think there'll be
Speaker 3: some pretty unhappy rugby fans. So it's the same with sailing. Obviously,
Speaker 3: this is the pinnacle event in the sport and people
Speaker 3: want to see it. And the fact that if they
Speaker 3: want to watch it live, they're going to have to
Speaker 3: make their way to Barcelona. I don't think many people
Speaker 3: were too happy about that.
Speaker 2: We'll get up really really early, right, Yeah, that's the.
Speaker 3: Other thing, even if they want to watch it live.
Speaker 3: I was looking yesterday at the preliminary Regatto which is
Speaker 3: on in a couple of weeks, and the racing for
Speaker 3: that is at two pm in Barcelona, which is about
Speaker 3: midnight New Zealand, so some late nights ahead.
Speaker 1: Sports old Trophy, maybe New Zealand's Cup, but the race
Speaker 1: that you the key we taxpayer has think hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars into is sailing away to Spain. Nearly
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty million was pumped into the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one America's Cup over four years. The Council's contribution
Speaker 1: was mainly for services in kind, including free rents at
Speaker 1: the waterfront event center. Was always taken for granted that
Speaker 1: if Team New Zealand won, it would defend it here
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 2: So media reports I've been prepping for this frame Team
Speaker 2: New Zealand as underfunded. Is that a real concern for
Speaker 2: the team or are they perhaps underfunded compared to our
Speaker 2: international counterparts.
Speaker 3: I think that would just be in comparison to who
Speaker 3: they are up against, and I guess the budgets behind them.
Speaker 3: America's Cup teams are very very secretive about their operations
Speaker 3: and don't like to reveal too much. But you look
Speaker 3: at Eneos Britannia, who are backed by Jim Ratcliffe who
Speaker 3: runs Ineos, a lot of money behind them. They've been
Speaker 3: working with the Mercedes Formula One team as well, so
Speaker 3: it's not just money, it's also what they can access
Speaker 3: in terms of their design and their build and all
Speaker 3: the different minds that come into it, and it's the
Speaker 3: same with a Lingy. They've got a relationship with Red
Speaker 3: Bull Racing and obviously Lunarosa prior PERELLI. We know that
Speaker 3: they've been there, they've done that, they got good backing,
Speaker 3: So I think it's just in relation to who they're
Speaker 3: who they're coming.
Speaker 2: Up against, and that money that goes towards things like
Speaker 2: what the boat and stuff. How much do those boats cost?
Speaker 2: Do we actually know?
Speaker 3: I couldn't tell you off the top of my head,
Speaker 3: and I think if I researched it, you can maybe
Speaker 3: find a number, but I would imagine they're very expensive
Speaker 3: boats because they're very specific to this sport, so you're
Speaker 3: not going to find them anywhere else. You're not going
Speaker 3: to find the parts anywhere else.
Speaker 2: Do you think the government could really even justify giving
Speaker 2: that kind of money to a team that has multiple
Speaker 2: sponsors or.
Speaker 3: I think so. A few people might disagree, but I
Speaker 3: feel like if they believe it's worth it, why wouldn't
Speaker 3: they offer to invest in the team, and even in
Speaker 3: the event moving forward, you know, if it was to
Speaker 3: pay off, it all just comes down to whether it's
Speaker 3: worth it in the end, like everything.
Speaker 2: Else, and early bets on here, Chris, but we are
Speaker 2: looking to the future on this podcast. So do you
Speaker 2: think Team New Zealand can win for the third time
Speaker 2: in a row.
Speaker 3: Team New Zealand can definitely win for a third time
Speaker 3: in a row. The fact that their design team kind
Speaker 3: of came up with the concept for these boats is
Speaker 3: always going to be a big plus in their favor,
Speaker 3: regardless of this being the second generation and teams having
Speaker 3: more I guess understanding of how they work. I feel
Speaker 3: like Team New Zealand are always going to have just
Speaker 3: that little bit extra of being able to figure things
Speaker 3: out with the boats. They have the sailing team to
Speaker 3: win it. They've had the training, the time to I
Speaker 3: guess build those combinations with the different setups. The one
Speaker 3: thing we haven't seen yet is the new race boats
Speaker 3: actually racing against one another. So for the last month
Speaker 3: or so they've been in Barcelona and on the race
Speaker 3: course together and you see the odd sort of cross
Speaker 3: between the teams because it's a very small area, but
Speaker 3: they've been prohibited from actually racing against each other, so
Speaker 3: you can't really work out who's going well who's not.
Speaker 3: So that last preliminary regatta, which is in Barcelona. That'll
Speaker 3: really give you a good indication of where every team
Speaker 3: is at this point in the campaign. So I think
Speaker 3: every team at the moment will be confident, but once
Speaker 3: they see how the others are really going, then you'll
Speaker 3: start to see I guess some wheels turning.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Christopher. That's it for this episode
Speaker 2: of The Front Page. You can read more about today's
Speaker 2: stories and extensive news coverage ends it dot co dot z.
Speaker 2: The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound
Speaker 2: engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front
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Speaker 2: tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.