SailGP Auckland: Sir Russell Coutts on task of getting full 12-team fleet ready for Auckland debut

SailGP’s return to New Zealand will see a new milestone reached by the global foiling league; one months in the making.

The league’s bid to feature a full 12-team fleet for the Auckland event this weekend is set to be realised, with France to return to the starting box.

At the end of season four, the league threatened to cut one of the incumbent teams to make room for newcomers Brazil and Italy. With 12 teams and only 11 F50 foiling catamarans expected to be ready for the start of season five, several teams were put on notice over the possibility of their involvement in the league ending.

Instead, the Herald revealed in October that SailGP had purchased the AC50 Emirates Team New Zealand raced to victory in the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda.

While both vessels are foiling catamarans, SailGP’s fleet of F50s is one-design, meaning all boats are identical in their make-up. That meant the league needed to go through a months-long process to get the boat up to league specifications to get it on the water. While the league would not comment on what they paid for the vessel, the acquisition was expected to save SailGP US$800,000 ($1.43 million) in time and production costs.

Speaking to the Herald about the task, SailGP chief executive Sir Russell Coutts said getting that work done — most of which was completed at SailGP Technologies in Warkworth — was a significant undertaking.

Among the changes, Coutts said almost every element of the AC50 had to be changed, from moving the cockpits to changing the electronic and hydraulic systems, installing battery packs on-board to making changes to the rudder.

“It’s a pretty significant rebuild and pretty significant modification.

SailGP will make its debut in Auckland this weekend. Photo / Bob Martin, SailGP.

“In fact, if you take the cross beams and the centre pod, they’re pretty much the only things that don’t get modified on the boat.”

Because of the time needed to make the required changes, the French SailGP team were left out of the opening event of the new season in Dubai last month — won by New Zealand’s Black Foils.

The French were one of the teams at risk of losing their place in the league before the new boat had been acquired, along with Canada, Spain and New Zealand — all the teams that were still receiving league funding at the end of season four.

The Herald understands the new boat is on track to be on the water by Friday at the latest.

While Coutts said the French team are no longer in that position, the two parties reached an agreement on them not taking part in leg one of the 14-stop season. France were compensated with five points in the season standings — the equivalent of a sixth-place finish.

“They’ve got some new partnerships and so forth that they’ll be announcing in due course, but we had the unfortunate situation where we had 12 teams and 11 boats available.

“We had to negotiate with somebody and we elected to do it with them. Fortunately, they accepted those terms and we’re able to move forward.

“These sorts of things are not always straightforward, but we reached an agreement with them, and I think they’re satisfied with the agreement.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.