Lyttelton Harbour best racing venue
International crews will spend a month in Christchurch training for the SailGP yacht racing on Lyttelton Harbour next summer.
Eight crews, including one from New Zealand, will prepare to race high-speed hydrofoil catamarans in the two-day grand prix event next January. The event will be part of SailGP league’s second season, with racing in eight global locations.
Speaking after a po¯ whiri at Ra¯ paki marae after Christchurch was confirmed as the chosen
New Zealand venue yesterday, SailGP chief executive Sir Russell Coutts said the course would be next to Lyttel- ton’s Naval Point. ‘‘A lot of people have said to me, ‘why Christchurch?’.’’
The harbour would be ideal for live and broadcast audiences ‘‘because of its close-up viewing potential’’, with boats able to race within 10 metres of land, he said.
‘‘It’s going to be an incredible venue. You can get the fans right in close to the water. It will be quite spectacular with the natural asset of Lyttelton Harbour. I imagine the shores and the waters will be lined with passionate fans’’.
Manaia Rehu, chair of Ra¯ pakibased hapu Nga¯ ti Wheke, which is giving guidance on running the event, said he hoped to see chanting waka paddlers out on Whakaraupo¯ (Lyttelton Harbour) supporting the event.
SailGP, first launched in 2018, sees crews race identical boats at speeds of up to 50 knots (100kmh).
The season’s racing begins in Bermuda in April this year, culminating in a grand final in San Francisco in March 2022. Other venues include St Tropez (France), Andalusia (Spain), Plymouth (England), Aarhus (Denmark), and Taranto (Italy).
It will be broadcast to a global audience of up to a quarter of a billion people. Coutts said he had ‘‘no concerns’’ about selecting a city that had not yet hosted such an event. ‘‘The more we looked at it, the more Christchurch jumped out.’’
He said all eight nations had selected their crews although the New Zealand lineup, headed by Olympic and world champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, had not been named. All crews will be mixedgender, and skippers will include Sir Ben Ainslie, on the British boat, and Australian Jimmy Spithill for the US. The event will feature fleet racing.
The Christchurch City Council will upgrade Naval Point this year in advance but it looks unlikely to be the full Naval Point redevelopment planned since 2017.
Based on other cities’ experiences during the first SailGP season in 2018-19, the event could provide a $32 million financial boost for Christchurch.