Mood buoyant over fresh start for Team New Zealand

By JULIE ASH

The larger-than-life photo of Sir Peter Blake still greets you as you walk in the door.

Team New Zealand may have packed up and moved down the road to the old OneWorld base, but there will always be a place for the man who brought the America's Cup to New Zealand.

And the man in charge of the new Team New Zealand, Grant Dalton, has probably looked to Blake's image for inspiration a good few times over the past months as he strives to get the syndicate on the start line in the next Cup.

"The America's Cup meant a lot to many people - we just have to get it back," Dalton has said.

This time last year, two months before the start of the challenger series, syndicate row was abuzz. Security was at an all-time high as teams tried to protect their design secrets.

Now a simple push is all that is needed to open the gate and walk into Team New Zealand's new compound.

But it is not all doom and gloom - a stroll into the new boat shed provides a flashback to happier times.

There sit 1995 America's Cup winner NZL32 and NZL60, which was used to defend the Cup in 2000.

They are the concrete evidence that New Zealand is capable of winning yachting's greatest prize.

Inside the new base are the offices of Dalton, design guru Tom Schnackenberg and skipper Dean Barker - a trio some syndicates would give their right arms just to have.

"This is a fresh start for us," Dalton said of the move which came about because the council plan to turn their old base into open space and a marine facility.

"I think it will be good."

Since the new Team New Zealand was born in April, Dalton said it had advanced "truckloads".

Already signed are 37 people in the areas of sailing, design, sails, rigs and administration.

"In every case there is part of the old in there but it has been refreshed as well," said Dalton, who is reluctant to discuss any of the other signings just yet.

"My worries are to make sure the sailing team continues to be strengthened. At this point I am not confident it is as strong as it needs to be. I am becoming pretty confident with the design team - I think that is looking pretty cool and it is new."

He said just 12 more signatures were needed to secure the team's key people.

So Dalton, business manager Ross Blackman and sponsorship manager Tony Thomas will head overseas next month to try to find the estimated $150 million needed to mount a challenge.

"Some companies that were part of the event last time but were not on the boat, we have the opportunity to go to them, to go to the parent off shore," Dalton said.

"But old sponsors are our key because they understand the game. We hope that we get a significant number of them on board.

"But it has been hard to develop deep and meaningful conversations with a sponsor with the same team or no team because that's the first question they ask - what's different? Now we can start showing them."

Should everything go to plan, Dalton said, the black boats would be out on the Hauraki Gulf early next year.

"We will go to Newport at the end of June and compete in our first regatta.

"We will probably take the same boat on to Europe and do maybe two regattas. Then we'll come back and alter the boats. Then in November next year we'll go full noise."

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup