Lift a glass to 2022
The January issue of Boating New Zealand heralds a new year: 2022. Let’s hope it’s at least as memorable as 2021, but for very different reasons. 2021 began with Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defending the America’s Cup in Auckland, a great event despite Covid-19 disruptions. Thanks to the pandemic, New Zealand – and Auckland in particular – did not reap all the benefits the 2020-21 event promised to deliver. But hey, there’s always next time, right? Well maybe…
The new America’s Cup protocol, which looks interesting – progressive and inclusive – has been announced, but still no venue. Chasing funding, Grant Dalton seems set on taking the Cup defence offshore, claiming the team will collapse if he doesn’t.
Opposing him, a group led by high-profile lawyer and ex-team New Zealand executive Jim Farmer QC and businessman Mark Dunphy, is working to keep the Cup in Auckland. Both parties are lobbying the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, though Farmer and Dunphy’s petition to hold an extraordinary AGM on December 9 was withdrawn at the last moment.
Whatever happens next, it probably won’t be pretty. The venue won’t be revealed until March, but in the meantime, I’m guessing there will be more bickering, bad-mouthing and threats. There may even be litigation. How unlike the America’s Cup!
Personally? I’d rather see Team New Zealand lose in Auckland in front of a home crowd in 2024 – as Dalton insists it will – than win offshore. Anyway, who says a loss in Auckland is a foregone conclusion?
This new year also marks our third dealing with a global pandemic, only now we are learning to live with the virus, a development that took some time coming but was inevitable from the outset.
Everyone in New Zealand will eventually be exposed to Covid-19, either through vaccination or infection – probably this year. I don’t want to waste energy dwelling on the delusions of those vaccine holdouts who value their ‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’ above those of the rest of us. The virus will seek them out anyway.
No. It’s holiday season – time to enjoy the great Kiwi summer. Many of us will spend the holidays on boats or at the coast, enjoying the water, going boating, fishing, scuba diving and swimming. Catching up with family and friends. That’s as it should be.
Not Megan and I, though. We won’t be driving to Russell for Christmas this year because we simply don’t want to deal with holdups or potential confrontations at vigilante-manned roadblocks.
Instead, we will enjoy the sparkling waters of the Hauraki Gulf, revel in a city that’s slowly coming back to life and spend our holiday money at home. Sorry Northland!
I’d like to wish everyone a great and refreshing summer break enjoying what New Zealand has to offer in such abundance – sun, sea and some of the best boating in the world.
Happy New Year from the whole crew at Boating NZ.
Here’s to a great 2022!