NO BARKER BACKLASH
‘I still have some great friends in Team NZ’
A lack of challengers for the 2021 America’s Cup is a disappointment but not a surprise to Kiwi sailor Dean Barker.
Only Challenger of Record Luna Rossa, Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Team UK and Barker’s New York Yacht Club entry American Magic have submitted challenges for the Auld Mug, despite Team New Zealand’s hopes of receiving five or six. Although the late entries deadline doesn’t close until December 31, Barker didn’t anticipate any more credible challengers.
“It’s been difficult; we are back to the same level we saw in San Francisco,” Barker told Radio Sport.
“But that was obviously a bit of a ho-hum event until we got to the match.
“There are many factors I suppose in determining how many teams will turn up. But I suspect the big part of the reasoning for not having as many teams as people hoped or expected is probably the choice of boat,” Barker said yesterday. “It’s a challenge for many people to look at the boat and say that’s an achievable thing to accomplish.”
The America’s Cup boats will be 75-foot foiling monohulls; a radical concept capable of reaching speeds faster than that of the foiling catamarans raced at the 2017 regatta in Bermuda.
Barker saw a silver lining in a lack of challengers, though. He felt if there were only four teams, the budgets and expertise available to them would mean all four were competitive. “Without question, the nice thing is although there are very few entries, the quality of the entries is very high. The other three teams have all got a history in the event in recent times so I think being slightly more established they have a head start on us right now, but we are working really hard to break down that little gap. It all starts when we put the first of the 75 footers in the water sometime next year.”
While there was initially disappointment in Team New Zealand abandoned the foiling catamaran concept for the Cup defence, Barker has come around to the idea of foiling monohulls.
“It’s certainly pioneering the way yet again. It’s an aggressive choice in terms of the class of boat which will have its challenges and will be very difficult to sail and race but that also makes it pretty interesting to purely from a sailing, design, engineering and a competitive standpoint because you always want to keep challenging yourself.
“But from what we are seeing from within our design group, it’s going to be a very hard boat to sail well, particularly with the type of course we going to sail in Auckland Harbour,” said Barker.
“It has everyone talking.
“We have seen the test boat that Ben Ainslie and his British team have been sailing around in and that’s the first time we’ve seen a boat of this type on the water and everyone’s been checking out to see how a boat of this type responds.”
Without question, the nice thing is although there are very few entries, the quality of the entries is very high. Kiwi sailor Dean Barker
It is always a compromise between the budget and the ambition in the technical concept. Franck Cammas
As much as Team France would like to contest the next America’s Cup, without a war chest, it’s unlikely they will mount a challenge.
The French outfit lost naming rights sponsor Groupama this year and have been unable to find a replacement ahead of the December 31 deadline of late entries for the 2021 regatta in Auckland.
Skipper Franck Cammas told the Weekend Herald his team want to be competitive and will give themselves until the start of December to work out if they will be able to do that.
“We are still in contact with prospects, so we will communicate that, but for now, we are not going on, but we have one month to go or not to go, and we want to work until the end of November for that.
“It’s not completely dead but we are not on the way yet.”
When the radical new AC75 design of foiling monohulls to be raced in the 2021 regatta was unveiled, Cup legend Dennis Conner said a team would need $145 million to $217 million to be in the hunt to claim the Auld Mug.
Cammas said he believed that launching a campaign for the 2021 Cup would cost as much as $36 million per year.
“I think it’s more than previous campaigns because the boat is new and it’s bigger. I think the minimum for what we are looking is €20 million per year when we start the project.
“It’s very exciting to start with a new concept like [the AC75], so it’s a big challenge for everyone and I think the America’s Cup is always good to have this kind of challenge. It’s a technical challenge more than a sport challenge and it should stay like that. But we need a big budget to achieve this kind of challenge.
“It is always a compromise between the budget and the ambition in the technical concept. Here, the technical concept is the big ambition, but from my side, I think it’s good to have this challenge. I’d prefer to have that than coming back in the old model.”
Only three syndicates had submitted challenges by the first deadline on June 30 — Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Team UK, New York Yacht Club’s American Magic and Challenger of Record Luna Rossa.
Ainslie’s crew have been heavily backed by their new sponsor, with a war chest of $217 million to play with, while the other two challengers were also thought to have plenty of funding behind them.
A second Italian syndicate was reported to be getting their entry in order, with Cammas’ name appearing as a possible member of the team.
At this stage, the French sailor who won this year’s Volvo Ocean Race as part of Dongfeng Race Team was yet to be in contact with other syndicates. However, he wouldn’t rule out joining another team if the French crew were unable to commit to the challenge.
“For now, I don’t know at all because I’m now focused on Team France and I never try to open the door to go with another team.
“For now, the problem is if we have money to go, how can we do our best with the lack of time we have now compared with the other teams?
“I think the first goal is to link with a big team to try to be on time for the first race. This is more my concern now, then we will see what happens next year.”