KEY POINTS:
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton blocked veteran yachting broadcaster Peter Montgomery from covering the Louis Vuitton Pacific series. During discussions with TVNZ over coverage of the regatta, Dalton said he stipulated Team NZ would have a say in who covered the regatta.
"The arrangement that I made
personally with TVNZ was that we would be involved in the selection of the commentators. My preference was then, and still is, Martin Tasker and Peter Lester."
He told the Herald on Sunday last night he had requested that Montgomery was not asked to commentate on the series. "I think it's time to move on."
Neither Montgomery nor TVNZ returned Herald on Sunday calls last night.
But Dalton, fresh from a Team NZ win over BMW Oracle yesterday, said it was time to "reblood" everything about the sport, including broadcasting coverage. "This regatta is an opportunity to start to move on and change."
He hoped the new event would help to revitalise the sport. "It has got a bit dead and staid, too predictable."
Team NZ was also introducing fresh blood and Dalton said he thought Tasker, Lester and John McBeth were doing a great job for TVNZ.
The whole approach to the regatta commentary was new, including live coverage on radio station FM103.
Using one camera on North Head and Virtual Eye, the regatta could be covered relatively cheaply "in recessional times".
Dalton denied any bad blood between him and Montgomery and said he held him no grudge. But sources close to Team NZ say the team think Montgomery is too closely aligned to Alinghi and Brad Butterworth.
During the last America's Cup in Valencia, rivalry between the teams ran deep as Alinghi tried to take control of the cup to a new dimension, including press coverage.
Last night Dalton said he was "delighted" with the way the regatta, organised jointly by Team NZ, Louis Vuitton and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, was progressing. It was good to see Oracle boss Larry Ellison back in New Zealand and out sailing with his syndicate yesterday, he said.
With the future of the America's Cup bogged down by expensive court battles between Oracle and Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi, Dalton hoped the Louis Vuitton Pacific series would help boost the all-important support of the New Zealand public.
While he couldn't influence the outcome of the court case, he hoped the regatta would make those participating want to get back out on the water. "It's just cool to be all be out sailing again."
