Sir Ian Taylor: Why America's Cup change presents a real opportunity for New Zealand

Barcelona will host the next America's Cup. Photo / Maria Muna

OPINION:

I don't personally know Andrew Johns, the lawyer who is providing advice to Sir Michael Fay on the America's Cup Deed of Gift, but I do seem to recall that he was the lawyer who discovered a loophole in that Deed of Gift that meant Sir Michael could challenge for the Cup in a 90-foot boat back in 1988.

Unfortunately, Dennis Conner's lawyers found a bigger loophole that Johns hadn't identified, which meant that KZ1, 'the Big Boat', was comprehensively beaten by a smaller, faster, catamaran. And, obviously, because this is the America's Cup, he took that result all the way to the Supreme Court in the United States – where he lost.

Sir Michael Fay. Photo / File.

In their open letter of resignation to the RNZYS, Johns, Fay and Alan Sefton claim that "under the terms of historic Deed of Gift the squadron has no license to relocate the venue off-shore……"

The Deed of Gift, a copy of which I have in front of me (I know, I should get a real life) does not make any mention of 'venue'. What it does say is:

"The Club challenging for the Cup and the Club holding the same may, by mutual consent, make any arrangement satisfactory to both as to the dates, courses, number of trials, rules and sailing regulations and any and all conditions of the match …."

Johns may have missed it, but I assume this was the exact clause in the Deed of Gift that saw the America's Cup, won by Oracle Team USA representing The Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Diego, being moved to Bermuda, by mutual consent with the Challenger of Record, Artemis.

Isn't that what the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has done with the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Isle of Wight, who will be represented by Ineos Britannia? Mutually agreed on a venue.

Bermuda is interesting on another front and may well be the reason it wasn't mentioned in the Open Letter of Resignation.

I have mentioned it in the past, but we would not be having this discussion about where to defend the Cup if it hadn't been for the tenacity of Grant Dalton, backed by Sir Stephen Tindall and Matteo De Nora, who scoured the world for funding for the Bermuda challenge after the government had pulled its funding from the team at the last minute.

The press release announcing the closure of the team had already been written when Grant set out on a seven-week drive to find the money to, literally, keep the team afloat.

That he succeeded is now written in the history books. The Cup was won 7-1, with almost no funding from New Zealand.

Te Rehutai, the magnificent flying machine that many critics claimed would never sail, was the brainchild of the team that sacrificed so much to win the Cup for us in Bermuda. The largest television audience in the history of the America's Cup was just one of the huge returns that New Zealand got from Grant Dalton and Team New Zealand's refusal to simply lay down and die.

And now, in Barcelona, this team will take New Zealand's reputation for technology and innovation to new heights.

They have already begun.

In the five months since the Mark Dunphy promise of millions of dollars in funding came to little more than empty promises, Team New Zealand has:

· completed the design and build of all of the componentry for the eight AC40's that will be a feature of both the Women's and Youth America's Cup — a first in the history of the Cup. All the rigs have been built here as well.

· designed and built, in Auckland, a first-of-its-kind hydrogen foiling boat that will be used by all competing teams in the Cup as their chase boats.

· a company in Christchurch are supplying the architectural design for the future hydrogen boats being built.

· the new Team New Zealand boat is being designed and built here in New Zealand.

· the team has been involved in the design and build of a sail-powered land yacht which will be making an attempt on the world land-speed record — in Team New Zealand colours.

Meanwhile in Barcelona, the city has thrown itself totally behind making this one of their showcase sporting events of the decade. F1 teams have come on board and negotiations are in their final stages for a 'Drive to Survive'-like television series that will bring even greater profile to the event and the teams. One of those with New Zealand in its name.

This is now the real opportunity for New Zealand.

We should get alongside Team New Zealand in Barcelona and showcase what it is about this country that has seen us involved in every America's Cup since 1986. That's 36 years where we have built on the great legacy started by Sir Michael Fay and continued by Sir Peter Blake, Alan Sefton and Sir Russell Coutts.

A legacy that has been continued by Grant Dalton who, in 2023, will have been at the helm of this great waka for 20 years.