In a sense it has been New Zealand's Cup ever since, even after 2003 when it became Sir Russell Coutts' Cup. Though he won it and defended it under foreign flags he remained here and kept much of the America's Cup industry here.
Dalton took over the remnants of Team New Zealand and made it his mission to bring it "home", and on Thursday as the rain came down, there it was. The great silver pewter, held high, getting wet, Dalton surrounded by the fine young sailors he had taken to Bermuda, Peter Burling looking like the reincarnation of Sir Ed with his shock of hair and crooked grin.
The crowd where I was waited an hour for the parade to reach us, plenty of time to look around the Viaduct and be reminded what this trophy has done for Auckland.
The waterfront west of the Ferry Building is now superb. The scale of the buildings and spaces are a work of art, the apartment blocks are classy and not overbearing, the restaurants and bars are lively and the moored boats are a drool fest.
Could the second coming of the Cup be as productive? You have to believe it will be the making of Wynyard Wharf and the Western Reclamation. The tank farm (please don't tell me it's considered picturesque now) can be bought out of its lease and bowled earlier than scheduled.
The syndicate bases would sit comfortably among the marine workshops on that side of Westhaven. We could build something beautiful on Wynyard Pt.
But first, Dalton has to do what Coutts did with the America's Cup. Coutts obviously did far more than organise and lead a defending syndicate. He would have been instrumental in getting some of the challengers to Bermuda, possibly all four that signed up to his plan for the Cup's future.
Team NZ says it has other ideas for its future, Dalton wants nationality to matter more. I hope he is being realistic.
New Zealand's interest in the America's Cup began in that exhilarating first few years of economic liberalisation. It's exactly 30 years since the KZ7 summer when Sir Michael Fay and Chris Dickson illustrated what enterprising Kiwis can do.
Could the second coming of the Cup be as productive? You have to believe it will be the making of Wynyard Wharf and the Western Reclamation.
Somewhere on Thursday's parade route, Fay and Dickson and everyone who has had a hand in our America's Cup history deserved to be watching with pride. Fay's big boat, still mounted outside the maritime museum, no longer has its mast. Is it about to give way to a catamaran?
How much has changed in 30 years? We are still an open, market-led economy and we have discovered that good government - meaning careful spending, balanced budgets and low government debt - is the most crucial component of an open, competitive economy.
But no country renounces all government investment in selected industries. All give out grants in the name of research and development.
So I suppose I shouldn't resent the $36 million the Labour government gave Dalton for the San Francisco campaign or the $5m this one gave him for Bermuda, which it has repeated now.
But I wish he didn't need it. His tenure of the America's Cup will depend on his ability to find and retain sponsors. Public money feels like poison for this sort of enterprise.
Coutts is said to believe New Zealand is too remote for most prospective challengers. We couldn't get them here for preliminaries this time. So Dalton has hard work ahead of him.
As tough as it has been to win the Cup, keeping it alive may be even tougher.
He hopes to attract a double figure number of challengers to Auckland in 2021 as well as putting a nationality rule on entrants. That sounds ominous.
Apart from the British entry all the crews at Bermuda were predominantly Australians and New Zealanders.
But this is no time for misgivings. I'm standing in a crowd of jubilant Kiwis, not overawed by the achievement this time, just glowing with admiration for these young sailors and the whole operation behind them, New Zealanders.
