Winning at home a big motivator
TEAM New Zealand believe their stunning young crew will be motivated to defend the America’s Cup at home.
The bulk of the syndicate start the long trek from Bermuda to Auckland today, arriving on Wednesday with a celebration planned for Thursday.
They are eager to enjoy the moment but also aware that they will quickly need to start planning for the 36th edition of the Cup to be held in Auckland, most likely in 2021.
The decision by Team New Zealand to go for a cleanout in the wake of the San Francisco loss and invest in young talent proved inspirational with skipper Glenn Ashby leading his rookie crew to glory with a 7-1 demolition of Oracle Team USA in Bermuda.
The fresh talent, headed by star helmsman Peter Burling, 26, and Blair Tuke, 27, have plenty of Cup sailing left in them and retaining their services will be crucial.
Offers are sure to be waved in front of some of them but loyalty will play a role as will the desire to show off their skills in yachting’s ultimate game at home.
‘‘There are a lot of key people in this team through design and sailing and everything. Everyone has worked so hard together as a team to finally win this thing, I think they will be more than motivated to keep that group together to try and defend it,’’ Team New Zealand chief operations officer Kevin Shoebridge said.
‘‘This has been a great team and it’s a really strong team and it’s a young team and we don’t want to lose that.’’
But Cup veteran Shoebridge said experience showed that changes were inevitable
‘‘Things will always have to change, nothing stays the same and, just like we did at the end of San Francisco, we will sit down when the time is right, have a review and see how we look and take it from there.’’
They will make those decisions from a far more powerful position than four years ago when their ugly loss threatened to sink the syndicate.
Now, as Cup holders, they get to make the decisions that will shape the next regatta, doing that with Italian challenger of record Luna Rossa.
Shoebridge said that until those plans were finalised the syndicate would be in something of a holding pattern.
‘‘It’s a bit of a funny situation . . . obviously we have a lot of thinking to do about the future. We are by no means set in our ways as to what that is going to be and we have discussions that need to take place with the challenger of record. That will be the first priority over the next month or two,’’ Shoebridge said.
‘‘Once that is decided, then you have to make decisions about REUTERS what the team will look like.
‘‘What we don’t want to do is rush into making statements or plans that haven’t been thought through because they can turn around and bite you a couple of years later. So we want to do that properly.
‘‘We are in a pretty nice position right now. We know we are in the next Cup, so all that is great and that in itself will create the certainty and the go-ahead that we need.’’
As Cup holders the sponsorship drive should be far easier than the financial struggles of the last campaign.