KERRE McIVOR
Congratulations Emirates Team New Zealand. And hats off to Grant Dalton. What a reversal of fortune for the curmudgeonly CEO — and in just four years. In 2013, the game was all but over after Dean Barker snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in San Francisco.
New Zealand and the sailing world were left stunned when Emirates Team New Zealand squandered an 8-1 lead to let Jimmy Spithill, at the helm of Oracle Team USA, win eight races on the trot to take the America’s Cup.
Oracle rejoiced; New Zealanders had to face the grim fact that all those gorgeous chickens they’d been counting were never going to hatch. Taxpayers saw a hardearned $36 million go down the gurgler and, like mugs who’ve blown their savings on a dead cert beaten at the post, they vowed never to be so foolish again.
But the feisty boss of Team New Zealand wasn’t cowed.
Sure, Team NZ had been beaten in the most humiliating manner and the loss hurt badly. There were all sorts of rumours circulating as to why the mission to bring home the Auld Mug had failed and a lesser man than Dalton would have handed over the reins of the organisation to new blood.
No. Like the Black Knight in Monty Python, Dalton might have looked mortally wounded, but for him, the humiliating loss was just a flesh wound.
He came out swinging in a press conference — ostensibly to clarify the rules Oracle had set for the next America’s Cup, but it ended with Dalton issuing an ultimatum. Give us more money or we’ll be gone by the end of the month.
Many members of the public and some government ministers were incredulous. He suffers an ignominious defeat, he squanders $36m, he gets another $5m of taxpayers’ money — and he’s demanding more money and issuing ultimatums?
The cheek of it was outrageous.
It was another incredible chapter in the enthralling yarn that is the story of the America’s Cup.
And yet in Dalton’s mind, he was simply telling it like it was.
America’s Cup syndicate teams are monumentally expensive to run. Against all the odds, he had secured sponsors and private funding but the funders wouldn’t turn commitments into cash until the following year and, in the meantime, he had to keep the operation going.
The Government dug its toes in and said it wasn’t in the business of funding yacht races (just by-the-by, what on earth was Labour doing funding yacht racing? Michael Joseph Savage would have been rolling in his grave) and a lot of Kiwis and many commentators turned feral. Including me.
I suggested the syndicate personnel do what other contractors do and set aside some money to tide them over between gigs. Or perhaps they could sell one of their properties to keep the wolf from the door rather than expect the taxpayer to keep them in the style to which they’d become accustomed.
Dalton was going to have to do it on his own if he wanted to ensure Team NZ was a contender in the next America’s Cup. And what do you know? The Black Knight did it.
He had nothing but an unshakeable belief in himself and his key personnel and four years later he managed to parlay that into a catamaran showcasing the very best of cutting-edge technology — and a winning team.
The New Zealand public and the yachting world were stunned once more, but this time with admiration for the brilliance of the innovations on board the cat and the genius of the young crew, especially helmsman Peter Burling.
It was another incredible chapter in the enthralling yarn that is the story of the America’s Cup.
And now the team return to New Zealand. The bunting put away in 2013 has been dusted off and champagne left uncorked for years can finally be popped.
And when Dalton and his crew are feted the length and breadth of the country, who can blame him for feeling smug? Because, against all the odds and with his back against the wall, he did it. And he’s the only one not at all surprised.