Auckland not set in stone as venue

AUCKLAND: The next America’s Cup regatta will be sailed in Auckland in 2021 in 75foot monohull yachts but only if New Zealand’s largest city can build the infrastructure needed to stage the regatta, holder Team New Zealand said yesterday.

It took international sport’s oldest trophy off Oracle with a stunning 71 victory in Bermuda’s Great Sound in June in a regatta raced in highpowered foiling catamarans.

TNZ boss Grant Dalton released the protocol, or rules, for the 36th America’s Cup at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron yesterday. They have been written in consultation with official challenger, Italian syndicate Luna Rossa.

Dalton said the date was yet to be confirmed and TNZ had not signed a host city agreement, as Auckland still had no infrastructure for the America’s Cup base and it needed to start construction by the middle of 2018 for a 2021 regatta.

‘‘The intention is to hold the Cup in 2021,’’ Dalton said. ‘‘At this stage no infrastructure exists to hold it by that date.

‘‘We [New Zealand] have just come out of an election but there has been some planning going on. Infrastructure needs to be started by mid2018.’’

Dalton added that if Auckland was unable to complete preparations in time, the regatta would be moved to Italy, but it was not a warning shot to the Government.

‘‘We need to give certainties to teams,’’ he said.

Dalton, who had already signalled his desire for a nationality clause, said each crew of 10 to 12 sailors must be contain at least 20% from the challenging country.

The rest of the team must have established residency criteria, which Dalton said was determined by being resident in the country for 380 days from September 1, 2018 to September 1, 2020.

‘‘The most significant America’s Cup in my time was when Australia II beat Liberty in Newport, Rhode Island in 1983,’’ Dalton added. ‘‘It was country versus country.

‘‘Countries need to be encouraged to grow their own talent. ‘‘It’s not an attempt to stop yachtsmen make a living but for a country to look at its own first before they go overseas.’’

The specifications for the new boats would be released on November 30.

Dalton added that each syndicate could build two boats and there would be preregattas in 2019 and 2020. Contrary to what he told Italian media two weeks ago, he said there was still the possibility for cyclors to be used.

Last week he was quoted as telling La Stampa that ‘‘grinders will return’’, indicating the cyclors would not feature, but he said yesterday the rules did not preclude them.

Races for the next regatta were likely to be ‘‘longer than Bermuda’’, which were typically about 20 minutes, but Dalton said they would be less than an hour.