Team New Zealand is "fighting to retain the America's Cup challengers series after it was taken off them in a raft of changes to the next event, including reducing the size of the foiling catamarans," according to Duncan Johnstone of STUFF. Cup bosses have done a U-turn and are "now looking to race the entire America's Cup in Bermuda, after a majority vote among the six syndicates signed up." Team New Zealand Managing Dir Grant Dalton vowed to "take that to the cup's arbitration panel, believing they have agreed rights to host the series in Auckland -- an event that is a key to their government funding." Without the Auckland event and the "associated economic benefits of having the teams based in New Zealand" in late '16 and Jan. '17, the government has "made it clear" that it will not fund the team. New Zealand PM John Key "all but ruled out taxpayer funding for the team, if there were no races to be held in Auckland." At present the cup "does not have an arbitration panel in place, such has been the tardy nature" of organizing the '17 event. The northern hemisphere teams -- Ben Ainslie Racing (Britain), Team France and Sweden's Artemis Racing -- had all voiced support for the changes, along with holders Oracle (STUFF, 4/1). REUTERS' Greg Stutchbury reported Team New Zealand and Italian challengers Luna Rossa have protested at the decision to "reduce the size of the boats without unanimous agreement." Both have said they had already spent a "considerable amount of money on design work on the bigger boats," while the Italian syndicate has also threatened to withdraw from the regatta. New Zealand's challenge, expected to be around $74.63M for the '17 campaign, has been previously "part funded by the taxpayer," but after failing to lift the Cup in '13 the team was told "any future funding would be reduced and contingent on significant economic return for the country." Dalton, however, said the New Zealand
team would "continue to fight the changes, particularly given they had a
signed agreement to host the challenger event." Dalton: "This isn't about government funding, this is not the end of ... Team New Zealand, it's about enforcing a contract and bringing America's Cup racing to New Zealand as agreed by ACEA" (REUTERS, 4/1).
SAVING MONEY: In London, Ron Lewis wrote the expectation is that the new specs used in '17 "will be adopted for the next edition of the America's Cup as well," thus lowering the "technological and financial barriers to entry for new teams. The smaller boats "will cost much less over the life of a campaign, with potential savings in design, build and operations," thus saving money in both the short and the long term. Ocacle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill said, “This wasn’t an easy process. The established teams, ourselves included, were well down the path of designing an AC62. But there is a bigger picture to consider" (LONDON TIMES, 4/2).
