Glenn Ashby has fond memories of the 36th America’s Cup.
The first iteration of the AC75 era of the event, Ashby played a key role in helping Emirates Team New Zealand defend the Auld Mug in Auckland aboard their AC75 Te Rehutai in 2021.
Now, Ashby is giving that vessel another life as the head of performance and design for the new Team Australia challenge.
The late entry from across the Ditch has acquired the Te Rehutai platform as part of a design package purchased from Team NZ, and work is now being undertaken at the Team NZ building facility on the North Shore to bring it in line with the latest class rule.
“It was really the only way for us to hit the ground running. We simply just didn’t have time to put our own design team together. We didn’t have time to even order materials or build a boat. We’re that late in time,” Ashby told the Herald.
“It’s really a fantastic opportunity to give Te Rehutai another life ... to be able to reuse that boat again under the Australian flag in the green and gold will be absolutely fantastic.”
The rebuild will be a collaborative effort between the Kiwis and the Australians, with all teams having to meet the constructed-in-country requirements in line with the protocol.
Ashby would not comment on what Team Australia paid for the design package, but said the programme was mutually beneficial for both his group and Team NZ.
“There was sort of a global figure that we’d sort of come together. And obviously there’s resource that’s going into that boat that we’ll be paying for as part of that design package. I’d love to be able to give you the exact figure, but I’m not at liberty to do so unfortunately,” he said.
“Team New Zealand have supported us really well, and we’re hoping that in return we’ll be able to sort of support Team New Zealand as well. And obviously the more teams we can have involved with the America’s Cup, the better it is for everybody.
“I think that’s certainly something that we’re all very passionate about in the sport together, and it’s been really nice to facilitate a programme and a situation that works well for everyone.”
Team Australia become the seventh syndicate to enter the 38th America’s Cup, which will see next year’s regatta in Naples, Italy feature the most teams since 2007’s America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain.
Like fellow late entries Team USA, the Australians will not feature in this weekend’s preliminary regatta in Cagliari, Italy, but Ashby left the door open on whether they might feature in the next one.
There have been no further preliminary regattas confirmed yet, but it is expected there will be at least one more before the end of the year.
As it stands, Team Australia have named just two athletes in their team – head of sailing Tom Slingsby, who is expected to be one of the two helms, and sailor Tash Bryant. Both sail for the Bonds Flying Roos in SailGP, while Slingsby was a helmsman for American Magic in the last America’s Cup. Grant Simmer, who was part of the Australia II crew who claimed a famous victory in the 1983 edition of the America’s Cup, is also involved as team chief executive.
As for Ashby, while he has experience on the AC75, he said he was happy to stay behind the scenes this time around.
“Tom’s sort of indicated that he’d be pretty keen to get me on board, but I said to Tom, ‘look, I think my best value for the team really is going to be overseeing the sort of global performance and strategy of the team moving forward’.
“I’ve had a great run over the years, and I think, as much as I love my sailing, I’ve had a good run and happy to hand that over to the new generation coming through and just hopefully I can provide them a fast enough boat to be successful.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.