Planning under way for next cup

WELLINGTON: The details are still sketchy, but Team New Zealand is already planning for the next edition of the America’s Cup.

Barely an hour after Peter Burling’s Kiwi crew beat Oracle by 55sec to win the America’s Cup series 71 in Bermuda, Team NZ chief executive Grant Dalton was fielding questions about the syndicate’s defence.

Dalton confirmed Italian syndicate Luna Rossa as the challenger of record.

The 36th edition of the race will almost certainly be held in Auckland, most likely in 2021, and with the possibility of a return to the monohulls of previous years.

But he and Team New Zealand principal Matteo de Nora were reluctant to release further details.

‘‘The future we’ll decide with our challenger so we’re not going to say much about it right now,’’ de Nora said.

‘‘We know that we want to go back to the future, so we have several weeks to concentrate on what we want to do.

‘‘Naturally, not only the team, but the technicians and challengers will be part of the decision.’’

Dalton said Team NZ’s plan would play out over the next couple of weeks, and confirmed the syndicate was keen to keep the America’s Cup regatta affordable.

‘‘But it is the America’s Cup and the top of the sport, not a little beach regatta. It’s never going to be cheap.’’

Team NZ would conduct a review of its successful challenge in Bermuda, although it probably would not be as rigorous as that which followed the heartbreaking loss in 2013.

The Kiwis squandered an 81 lead four years ago in San Francisco to lose the challenge series 98, and Dalton said some harsh lessons were learned from the defeat.

‘‘We had a pretty brutal debrief after San Francisco — we came up with 20 points, and that really set up our road map,’’ he said.

‘‘One of those things was we had to invest in technology on a pretty limited budget, and we had to invest in the people that could provide that technology.

Team NZ skipper Glenn Ashby, the sole remaining member of that crew, said it was ‘‘absolutely unbelievable’’ to finally win back the Auld Mug.

‘‘A few years ago, it was absolutely brutal for the team,’’ he said.

‘‘It was a hard pill to swallow — for myself and a lot of the other guys with the team this time round, it is a great redemption and a relief to right the wrongs of the last campaign.

‘‘There’s that feeling of relief and immense satisfaction that as a fantastic team we’ve actually been able to pull off almost the unimaginable against all odds.’’

Dalton, fronting the postrace press conference with Ashby, helmsman Peter

Burling and de Nora, covered a wide range of questionsbut delivered his best oneliner when an illtimed phone call interrupted proceedings.

He took the opportunity to deliver a dig at America’s Cup Event Authority and longtime rival Sir Russell Coutts, glancing down to check his mobile phone mid sentence.

‘‘That’ll be Russell — just tell him I’ll call him back.’’ — NZN