Yachting: Team NZ looking for much more than a tin shed

Grant Dalton at the Halsey St base. Photo / Janna Dixon

Emirates Team New Zealand are discussing a new, permanent home on Auckland's Wynyard Quarter for a base which team boss Grant Dalton describes as "much more than a tin shed".

The team has to move out of their current base in Halsey St to make way for a five-star hotel to be built there some time next year and the team are looking for a settled home.

That could be on the Beaumont St site where Italian America's Cup syndicate Luna Rossa was based as they developed their AC72 catamaran in conjunction with a design-sharing arrangement with Team New Zealand in 2012 and 2013.

"The challenge is that we would like to have more of a legacy building - not just a tin shed," said Dalton. "It is early days yet and we are still in discussions but, ideally, we would become an interactive part of the precinct."

Dalton said the broad concept was for the Team NZ base to host a marine centre of excellence and the team was also talking to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron about a yachting academy there.

"One of our objectives is to grow the Team NZ brand," said Dalton. "It has grown a lot already and is quite strong now - but our aim is to make it more of a community brand."

There are discussions with Waterfront Auckland, the development arm of Auckland City, and Dalton said: "We have a very close relationship with them, a good working relationship, and we have been encouraged by what we've talked about so far."

Dalton said the concept was for the base to combine with shops, businesses and the suggested academy and/or sailing centre of excellence to provide a feature of the west side of the Wynyard Quarter. It would be an attractive destination for local visitors to the precinct as well as tourists, helping to connect the west side of the quarter to the bridge from the Viaduct and the restaurants and bars closer to Halsey St.

A key element is funding, as Team NZ could not afford the development itself.

"That would have to come from onshore," Dalton said. "It's very early days, although we are thinking that we would have to be good to go by about October - after all, we have an America's Cup to pursue."

The base would also incorporate things like slipways and other methods of easily launching boats and - though no one is saying this out loud - would also likely become a focus around which other development could centre if New Zealand was ever to bring the America's Cup home for a defence.

Waterfront Auckland general manager development Rod Marler said the area was one considered for Cup development had Team NZ been successful: "We met at the end of last year and discussed this - and it was obviously driven by Grant's thinking. We are working on possible relocation options and we had already looked at some if we'd been successful in the last campaign.

"That site [Luna Rossa's base] is one alternative and we are looking at the impact of that kind of development of that site, though it is also a strategic area for the marine industry and we are also talking to them. But it does seem an obvious alternative [for Team NZ]; there could be some good synergies and I'd say there is a good desire to see if it is possible."