New tack for superyacht regatta

This country's marine industry received a huge boost by staging the Millennium Cup event for superyachts between the Louis Vuitton and America's Cup regattas in 2000 and 2003.

When the big one was captured by Europe, planners here looked at keeping the Millennium Cup in our waters to lure superyachts to the South Pacific.

Then a trio of local industry movers and shakers, who do most of their business offshore, decided that wasn't the best option.

Marten Spars' chief Paul MacDonald, Stuart Robinson, top man at Robinson Marine Interiors, and Tony Hambrook, managing director of Alloy Yachts, decided on another tack.

"We agreed the best approach would be to take our event to where the real action remains - the middle of the America's Cup racing," says MacDonald, who is also chairman of the New Zealand Marine Export Group.

"It's been a real coup for us arranging to stage the 2007 Millennium Cup as the last race of the Superyacht Cup series at Palma, Majorca, from June 19 to 23 next year. That restores our event to the gap between and Louis Vuitton and the America's Cup and keeps the New Zealand presence at the forefront of superyacht action."

Announcing the event at the Auckland International Boat Show this month, MacDonald said organisers already had 60 per cent of the $1.4 million needed to stage the Palma event and the rest was being quickly signed up.

"We knew that to be successful we would have to align ourselves to a superyacht event in Europe," MacDonald says. "So with the help of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise we approached the Superyacht Cup Group, which has been running a successful regatta in Palma for 10 years."

Traditionally the event has been held in October, the end of the season in the Mediterranean. For the past six years New Zealand has sponsored the last race of the regatta, finishing up with a Kiwi-style barbecue.

A meeting of the main players from England, Holland, Spain and Italy last year decided on the move to June for next year. This will keep visiting superyachts busy with a format that allows owners and crew to sail in an a relaxed atmosphere.

The New Zealand Millennium Cup will be raced on the last day of the Superyacht Cup Regatta.

It is now being called Superyacht Week and includes two regattas hosted by two of the world's biggest shipbuilders and naval architects, Royal Huisman Shipyard (Holland) and Dubois Naval Architects (Britain). These will run concurrently with the main programme and feature only boats designed by Dubois and built by Royal Huisman.

The racing will be a pursuit event over three days and will be followed by a feeder race to Tarragona on the Spanish mainland. From there the yachts will sail south to watch the America's Cup racing off Valencia.

Says MacDonald: "Having the Millennium Cup in Palma at this time will help keep New Zealand on the map as leaders in the international sailing scene. It is a wonderful opportunity for our marine companies to gain additional exposure at the leading edge of the superyacht sailing scene."

Alloy Yachts and Robinson Marine interiors kick-started the Millennium Cup budget with $150,000 each. Since then, High Modulus and Marten Spars have also fronted with more dollars to take the total close to the $1 million-plus target.