Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton. Photo / Photosport
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
The Secret Sailor is an internationally acclaimed yachtie with a strong history in the America's Cup.
It is unlikely we will ever again see the battle for the Auld Mug contested on New Zealand waters.
Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron struck a deal tohost the next America's Cup in Barcelona – and the deal gives the Catalans the right of renewal if TNZ defends the Cup.
It's obvious to me that from the outset Grant Dalton didn't want to be here. The guy that could help Team New Zealand raise the money, Mark Dunphy was cut out of the process from the get-go.
I sense that Dalton was fed up at the scrutiny he was under in New Zealand being CEO of America's Cup Events, set up to run the regatta, and also the boss of TNZ. By going offshore to Barcelona, he is setting up TNZ to fail – and I think he sees this as the last campaign for him. TNZ would always have had a better chance of defending on home waters – it's a no brainer.
It's worth remembering that this is Dalton's game. He's designed the class rule, he's decided on the protocol. He holds the commercial rights to everything. He's determined what the cost of operating is - it's his game. He's done it.
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton. Photo / Photosport
So, for TNZ to say it's all too expensive and therefore we've got to go offshore is no excuse. Loyalty, parochialism, patriotism all that stuff that Dalton has rammed down everyone's throat over the past 10 years is all bulls***.
The deal with Barcelona sounds pretty light, 70 million Euros ($112 million) to run the event and fund the team.
This whole saga has left many in the sailing community and wider New Zealand public disillusioned. Surely, this is the final straw. There have been economic-impact studies done over the past 20 years telling everybody about how billions of dollars get poured into the New Zealand economy from the America's Cup being held here - suddenly that economic benefit is gone.
There are many things that could have been done to make the cost of the campaign cheaper. They could have had a shorter time frame which would have made a big difference. You could limit the size of the teams and personnel and make the boats more user friendly so that more teams could challenge and it wouldn't be a mountain to climb to get the technical side of these boats completed. But Dalton has chosen this. It's his game, he can't complain how much it costs.
The team has been successful here in New Zealand. It's whole base of operations is in New Zealand and that's going to change. So, I can't see them moving from here until they have to, they'll just show up in Barcelona at the end. And if you ask me, that's just a recipe for disaster in terms of trying to defend the trophy.
