Lone Wolf by Richard Gladwell

Author:Richard Gladwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Upstart Press
Published: 2017-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Pumping pedals — the Cup campaign begins

For almost all of its 30-year America’s Cup history, Emirates Team New Zealand has been one of the first to launch a boat in the new America’s Cup cycle. Except for the 35th America’s Cup — when they were one of the last.

That statistic underscores the fact that Emirates Team New Zealand had been forced into running quite a different sailing programme from the other teams and indeed what it had run in seven of its eight previous America’s Cup campaigns.

The 30-year-old team had been given the green light to go ahead and challenge after a review by the team and Board in May 2014. The brutal review had identified 20 key points or strategies for the team arising from the near-miss in 2013.

Entries closed for the 2017 America’s Cup Regatta on 8 August 2014, and un-characteristically the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron didn’t lodge the challenge until the final day.

That was a harbinger of the team’s precarious financial situation. Emirates Team New Zealand was running very tight on cash flow due to a combination of higher than expected entry fees and bond (US$3 million) and earlier than usual payment date, without any sponsorship flowing in, or even signed.

There were big changes ahead for the team which would shed all but one of its 2013 sailing team, lose its long-serving coach and technical director and come within a few hours of closing down completely.

One of the early losses was coach and Olympic Gold and Silver medallist Rod Davis, who had been with the team for a decade and was now into his twelfth America’s Cup campaign.

Davis was first approached to work with Artemis in March 2014. ‘I had some good talks with Team New Zealand after the last Cup in December. We knew we were going to part ways at that point. The split was very amicable. I got a note of congratulations from Shoebs [COO Kevin Shoebridge]. We’re all good mates, but it was time for a change.

‘Money didn’t have anything to do with it. It is good for me to have new challenges. It is good for Team New Zealand to have a new voice, telling them a new way of looking at it. Ten years is a long time.’ [Davis rejoined ETNZ briefly in mid-December, 2016.]

With no clear plan possible until the shape of the America’s Cup Regatta was disclosed, Emirates Team New Zealand kept race sharp and built a solid base of foiling experience by contesting events such as the International A-class catamaran World Championships at Takapuna. There, skipper Glenn Ashby won his eighth world title in the 18-ft catamaran with team members taking four of the top five places overall. Artemis Racing skipper Nathan Outteridge (Australia) was sixth in the 18-ft foiling singlehander.

There was no America’s Cup World Series operating in 2014. The New Zealand America’s Cup team sailed in the Extreme Sailing Series, placing fourth overall after sailing in seven of the eight events. Alinghi, their nemesis

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