America’s Cup: Formula is firmly secured

Team New Zealand will on Friday unfurl their plans for the 36th America’s Cup when they announce the Protocol for the event. While the key changes have already been signposted, the devil will be in the detail. Dana Johannsen highlights what to expect.

Team NZ have signalled their intention to strengthen the nationality rules for the next event, with the Protocol expected to contain more robust “constructed in country” rules as well as a nationality requirement for competing crews.

The constructed in country rule is not a new condition introduced by Team NZ – it is a fundamental principle in the Deed of Gift. This rule has gradually been watered down over the years to the point where at the last event in Bermuda, only a small section of the bow was required to be built in the country of the competing team.

Team NZ have already indicated a preference to hold the next America’s Cup in Auckland in early 2021. The regatta is expected to return to a traditional challenger selection series after Oracle Team USA this year broke with tradition and inserted themselves in the challenger series, which saw them carry through a one-point advantage into the Cup match.

Italian media are reporting that Luna Rossa‘s backers Prada will be the new naming rights sponsor of the challenger series. If so, the arrangement would end Louis Vuitton’s 37-year sponsorship with the challenger series, so evidently Team NZ and Luna Rossa are not fiercely guarding every tradition.

There has been suggestion Team NZ will also hold a series of pre-regattas in the lead-up to the 2021 event, so we can expect these plans to be outlined on Friday. Dalton last week gave La Stampa a heads-up, confirming a pre-regatta circuit will begin in 2019.

Earlier this month the Herald reported Auckland has less than two years to build facilities for the America’s Cup, with the first of the challenger syndicates set to arrive in mid-2019.

Urgent work is under way by the Auckland Council to consider options for basing the syndicates on the Auckland waterfront, which include a 60m to 80m Halsey Wharf extension north of the Viaduct Harbour, an extension to Westhaven Marina and Captain Cook Wharf.

The urgency surrounding a site for the America’s Cup syndicates, which requires 30,000sq m of space, was disclosed at council’s planning committee at the beginning of September.

Dana Johannsen’s full article in the New Zealand Herald: www.nzherald.co.nz