Yachting: Dalton's name floated for Team NZ leader

Round-the-world yachtsman Grant Dalton has not dismissed an administrative role with Team New Zealand for the 2003 defence of the America's Cup, but at this stage it's not a priority.

Based in Brittany, France, Dalton is preparing his 33m super catamaran Club Med for The Race, a non-stop around-the-world event, starting on December 31.

Told by a friend of the defections of skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth, Dalton said yesterday that he had done no more than "muse over a what-if scenario.

It wasn't really any more than that. I've had no approach and spoken to no one about it."

Dalton said that without knowing all the facts he was loathe to comment on the reasons for Coutts and Butterworth jumping ship.

"I don't know Coutts particularly well but I'm a good friend of Brad's and I'd need to know the facts a bit better."

Better known for his round-the-world campaigns, Dalton was involved in New Zealand's first America's Cup challenge in Perth in 1987.

In Auckland, Team New Zealand syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg said he had not talked to Dalton.

"It's something we would have to think about."

However, Commonwealth weightlifting gold medallist Tony Ebert, who has worked with Dalton for years on many of his yachting projects, said Dalton was "the man for the job."

He said he and Ross Armstrong, the new chairman of TVNZ - one of the family of five sponsors for the cup defence this year - were impressed with Dalton's ability to secure and manage sponsors.

Ebert said if Dalton headed the 2003 defence it would free Schnackenberg and skipper Dean Barker to do what they knew best - designing and sailing the defence yachts.

"I see Dalton as a champagne copy of Sir Peter Blake [the former Team New Zealand head] in his ability to deliver sponsorship dollars."

Dalton has sailed with Dean Barker and many of the crew in the Team New Zealand camp.

Meanwhile, the British Daily Telegraph said yesterday that successful cup defence skipper Russell Coutts had been lured overseas by a 3.5 million ($11.5 million) offer by Swiss pharmaceutical billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

Bertarelli, at 34, is the 47th-richest man in Europe. He is worth 225 million ($742.3 million) thanks to treatments for multiple sclerosis, Aids and infertility produced by his Ares-Serono company.

The paper said the tortuous handover from Blake to Coutts and now Schnackenberg "caused the unravelling of one of the world's most impressive teams."

-NZPA