Auckland the future of SailGP in New Zealand?
Auckland could step in as the host for next year’s SailGP event in New Zealand, but only if it takes place at the Wynyard Point and Sir Russell Coutts pays to get the land improved.
Last weekend’s event in Christchurch made headlines for all the wrong reasons, with racing abandoned due to a Hector’s dolphin being on the course, something that drew further disdain from Coutts.
Coutts told TVNZ last Friday that it was unlikely the event would be returning to Christchurch, because he wanted it scheduled in February to fit in with the rest of the calendar. He has been informed that this won’t be possible.
Then on Saturday, he read out a long, uninterrupted statement on NewstalkZB, and again put the event's future in Christchurch in major doubt, which could open up the opportunity for it to be held annually in Auckland.
There is a contract in place with economic development agency Christchurch NZ, government agency New Zealand Major Events and SailGP for it to take place in Lyttelton again next year. There are out clauses, but it wouldn’t be a straightforward process for either party to walk away.
Kylie Hawker-Green, NZ Major Events manager, said there would need to be agreement around any shift in location.
Stuff understands that having a SailGP event in New Zealand means more to Wellington-born Coutts, and he wouldn’t be as willing to walk away from here as he would other countries.
But how Coutts feels about SailGP returning to Christchurch is unknown.
This year’s New Zealand round of the SailGP series was supposed to be in Auckland, as part of an agreement to alternate it between the biggest cities in each island.
Coutts always had his heart set on basing the Auckland event at Wynyard Point, and high-level meetings were held at an executive level over a location for it in the city.
But in November, it was announced that Auckland had pulled out of hosting the event because it became apparent that Wynyard Point wouldn’t be available. A month later, it was confirmed that the event would return to Christchurch.
The land at Auckland’s Wynyard Point had been leased to oil company Shell, which pulled out of New Zealand in 2018. But a document dated June 25, 2010 required Shell to remediate the land for the purpose of decontamination.
A remediation programme was proposed by Shell and submitted to Eke Panuku, an Auckland Council-controlled organisation.
Had SailGP held this year’s event in Auckland, it would have had to inherit the cost of fixing the land from Shell, but Stuff understands that it didn’t want to.
For the event to go to Auckland in 2025, SailGP would again need to pay to get the site to a suitable standard.
“Wynyard Point can be made available for events such as SailGP,” the Eke Panuku spokesperson said. “However, this was, and will continue to be, subject to reaching agreement on addressing a combination of important requirements specific to this site.
“This includes land stability, any remaining contamination risks, access, and working around any site works under way at the time. Any mitigations required will need to be met and funded by the event organisers.”
So it could be down to Coutts and whether he’s willing to pay to use Wynyard Point. If not, that could be the end of any hope of SailGP coming to Auckland.
The daughter of an iconic America’s Cup sailor is among Team New Zealand’s relaunch of their two-boat testing programme with their new youth and women’s teams.
Two members of both the women’s and youth squads have been training at Team NZ’s base in Auckland this week, sailing around Waitematā Harbour for the first time since the return of the Kiwi syndicate’s second AC40 Cup boat from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Gemma Jones, whose father Murray was part of six winning Cup teams from 1995 to 2017, and Liv Mackay have been aboard the AC40s and will be with the five-strong Kiwi crew racing in Barcelona in the Cup’s first standalone women’s event in its 173-year history.
Alongside them in Auckland this week were two sailors from the five-man Kiwi youth team, Oscar Gunn and Leo Takahashi, and it marked a milestone in this year’s Cup build-up as they left behind the racing simulator for the real deal on the water.
“It was nice to get some water over the face,’’ Jones said. “It’s a different sensation. There’s only so much the simulator can replicate.”
While other members of the youth and women’s teams were absent because of preparations for the Paris Olympics, the reintroduction of their two testing boats zipping around the Hauraki Gulf is significant.
Jones, Mackay, Gunn and Takahashi will mix and match between the AC40s in match-racing scenarios against the likes of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from Team NZ’s top crew, allowing them to train in the Cup boats they will sail in competition in Barcelona.
The AC40s are half-scale compared with the AC75s that will be launched soon for the main America’s Cup event.
They were sailed in last year’s preliminary regattas in Vilanova i la Geltrú and Jeddah and have been used for testing because of their similar design as a foiling monohull.