No cyclors in America’s Cup in 2021
WELLINGTON: Traditional armgrinders will return to the next America’s Cup regatta in 2021, ending the use of cyclingstyle stations, Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said yesterday.
Team NZ used the cyclors — grinders who sat on upright bike stations and used their legs rather than arms — to generate the hydraulic power needed to sail the foiling catamarans in Bermuda to win international sport’s oldest trophy from Oracle in June.
‘‘The grinders will return,’’ Dalton told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper yesterday when asked if the cyclors would feature on the new class of yachts for the 36th America’s Cup.
Team NZ, which is still working through the competition rules with the challenger of record, Italy’s Luna Rossa, has already confirmed the next regatta will be sailed in monohull yachts.
Dalton said the conditions on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour were not conducive to sailing the catamarans.
‘‘We believe our design team is capable of giving us another great yacht, and that catamarans wouldn’t be ideal for the conditions [choppy sea state] in Auckland,’’ he added.
‘‘But I want it to be clear that winning the America’s Cup is a privilege, a privilege that includes the duty to safeguard its sporting value.’’
Dalton added that a nationality rule, something the syndicate had previously indicated it wanted to introduce, would be restricted to the sailors and only a percentage of crew members on the boat would need to carry passports from the competing country. — Reuters