Ben
Ainslie, Great Britain's double Olympic medallist, is
in contention to be the helmsman for Team New Zealand
should the Kiwis secure a massive sponsorship deal which
would make them strong challengers for the 2007 America's
Cup.
Grant Dalton, who has a £50 million budget drawn up
and will only go ahead if he "has or can see" 70 per
cent of that sum in the coming weeks, confirmed that
the Team New Zealand are very close to a deal.
Confirmation by the end of this month could see the
bulk of the funding secured. "One phone call could do
that," Dalton said. "And one phone call could still
scuttle it."
He would not reveal the precise sum or identify the
sponsor, believed to be a non-tobacco company currently
involved in motorsport, because he had "seen too many
certainties fall over". But a buoyant Dalton did confirm
that the company was non-Kiwi, was not software maker
SAP (an existing TNZ backer) and that despite keeping
the silver fern on the hulls, the boats would be branded
in the sponsor's name and it would be added to TNZ's
official name.
"It's a big number, it's a big sponsor. They're big
and ugly, and they do big things," asserted Dalton.
"It's a name known to people, but they're very new.
If we get them, it will be fantastic. If we don't, we'll
struggle."
A key task since May has been putting the team's existing
gems back into optimum roles, clearing out the dead
wood and recruiting new personnel.
"We now have the people capable of beating Alinghi and
Oracle," asserts Dalton, "but unless we have the money
to support that, we won't beat them."
Until TNZ is funded, Dalton is refusing to name more
than a handful of the team. Key appointments have been
Briton Andy Claughton as co-ordinator of a design team,
which includes Spain's Marcelo Bottin, who was recruited
last June.
Asked about Ainslie being Barker's alternate at TNZ,
Dalton said : "It's possible. There will be a driver
of the second boat who will have the opportunity if
they prove better. That's how it should be and Dean
signs on to that. It's going to make him sharper and
better."
Meanwhile, Dean Barker focuses now entirely on making
the Olympic team. He has been freed by new boss Grant
Dalton of any day-to-day requirements at the Team NZ
base.
He leaves for Europe on Tuesday. After the London Boat
Show, Barker will join a training base in Spain with
some of Europe's best Finn class sailors. He'll then
head to Brazil. There, he'll compete in three regattas
including the world championships that start on February
14.
Spanish flair to the Team
NZ design team (12/14/03)
(source : NZ
Herald)
Spain's
Marcelino Botin has joined Team New Zealand as a principal
designer.
Botin and his South African design partner, Shaun Carkeek,
are widely recognised as leading IMS (International
Measurement System) designers in Europe.
Botin's recent successes include the Grand Soleil 56
Caixa Glacia and sister ship X Sport and the 42ft Grand
Soleil Italtel, which were first, second and third in
the Mediterranean IMS championships last June.
Team New Zealand design co-ordinator Andy Claughton
said Botin had produced some great designs and was clever
at exploiting the IMS rule, which relates to an international
handicapping system.
"We were looking for someone who could bring a different
eye to the whole design side of things," Claughton said.
"The boats he designs are very much in the Alinghi style
- flat bottomed, hard-turned bilge, slab-sided, so we
saw him as a good advocate of that style of boat."
He said Marcelino Botin saw in Team New Zealand a syndicate
"starting from a strong base, where he would be in a
group where he could contribute and learn at the same
time.
Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said
Botin added strength and flair to the design team.
"The fact that he is Spanish and the 2007 America's
Cup will be held in Spain is a happy coincidence," Dalton
said. "He is a leading European designer and was actually
in Auckland for our design team meeting three days before
the venue announcement."
It is understood neither Clay Oliver nor Mike Drummond,
who were Team New Zealand's principal designers in the
2003 defence, have re-signed at this stage.
"It's starting to look quite promising now," Dean Barker
said. "The biggest thing for us is still the fund raising,
but in terms of people we're very well advanced and
it's been fantastic the way things have fitted into
place with a number of new guys."
Barker said the team was acting like it was a confirmed
starter in the next campaign, even if it was publicly
playing down its chances of making it to the starting
line.
"You are selling a dream still. Until we can confirm
we've just got to have a belief in the guys to go out
and raise the money."
The first America's Cup races will take place next September,
though it is unclear how much weighting the initial
races will have on the challenger series.
"At this stage we're still committed to trying to be
on the start line for those events in September. I think
it's important - it'll really signal the start of our
sailing campaign. We've had a really good design meeting
earlier this week, with a number of our design team
here in Auckland from different parts of the world .
. . the ball is rolling."
To get the signature of Ainslie would send a huge signal
to the rest of the sailing world as he is considered
the most talented sailor of his generation.
The 26-year-old recently won the Finn world champs at
Cadiz, Spain, and will be the hot favourite in that
class at next year's Olympics. Barker had him on board
at the Bermuda Cup earlier this year in his Swedish
Match match-racing campaign and liked what he saw.
"It was great. I've known Ben for quite a while having
seen him around in the Laser scene and different regattas
from time to time. I've been following his career with
a lot of interest because he has been so incredibly
dominant over the last few years."
And the chances of getting him on board a black boat?
"We're talking to a number of people at the moment and
he obviously has a lot he can offer to Team New Zealand."
Team
New Zealand skipper Dean Barker is launching a late
bid to compete at the Athens Olympics in the same class
in which Russell Coutts won gold in 1984. The 30-year-old
helmsman will race two Olympic trials next year in an
attempt to be New Zealand's entrant in the Finn class.
Barker hopes for a two-fold benefit from his 11th-hour
campaign. He'd love the chance to sail for his country
in an Olympic regatta (In 1996, he tied for first place
with Craig Monk before losing out on a controversial
countback) and he believes the experience will sharpen
his skills for the America's Cup.
"After spending a lot of time match-racing and sailing
America's Cup boats it's obviously great for my own
personal skills to go back out and sail in a much smaller
boat which sharpens my skills up again and forces you
to think on your own and campaign on your own."
"Then hopefully that translates into much sharper
racing focus from my point of view." And from Grant
Dalton's and the rest of Team New Zealand's point of
view.
Team NZ close to securing
NZ$100 million (11/26/03)
(source : Stuff.co.nz)
Team
New Zealand says it is not far from signing sponsorship
deals to give it nearly $100 million of the estimated
$150 million it needed to get to the next America's
Cup yacht regatta in Spain.
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said today he had
already signed some sponsorship deals "but not enough
to know that we are going. A couple of phone calls will
change the world".
He would not say exactly how much they needed to get
to the 2007 regatta in Valencia but said it was "not
a lot less" than $150m.
"To go ahead I would want to know I had committed 65-70
per cent of the money and be able to see where the rest
of it was coming from, he said but would not reveal
how much sponsorship money was already confirmed.
"I am waiting for the big phone call for the one that
will take us over the top." That would take the campaign
to around $100m with three years to get the rest, he
said.
This week, Team New Zealand had had its first meeting
of its new design team on conceptual designs.
"I sense in the new designers we have got, coupled with
the old designers, already we have changed the boats
quite a bit."
In its loss to Alinghi the Team New Zealand black boat
had serious structural issues including hull shape changes.
Dalton said the old black boats would be sailed until
the summer of 2005, probably in Auckland, until the
new boats were built.
Dalton said a report on what went wrong for New Zealand
at the last America's Cup would not be released but
his team had identified precisely what the structural
issues were. He added the mistakes of the last Cup would
not be repeated, including the lack of preparation.
"You have to distinguish between engineers and designers.
The engineering team was a person of one last time.
Now it is a body of about six people. It is a think-tank
with the head engineer being a grizzled veteran of the
America's Cup."
Finally, Dalton said the time line had not changed Team
New Zealand's timing on its final decision by the end
of March to go or not to go.
"Team NZ in the right
direction", Dalton said (11/21/03)
(source : NZ
Herald)
After just seven months in the job, it appears the veteran
round-the-world sailor is on track to getting Team New
Zealand on the start-line in 2007.
"In recent weeks we have had some serious success on
the people front," Dalton said. "I'm really excited.
Our design team, our engineers, our statistical analysts,
our new mast design team, new sail design team and our
new crew are a potent weapon".
"I think it is a mix of what we recognised as the best
of the old with a whole lot of new. . . which includes
some grey hair as well", he added. "There are people
arriving from all over the world for that."
Dalton does not wish to announce his latest signings
after travelling globally in the hunt for sponsorship,
sailors and designers. Nevertheless, his signings could
be revealed next week when a design meeting is held
in Auckland.
"We'll have about 20 guys in town. We will set the parameters
of when we sail, when we don't sail, when we start going
to the tank, how we are going to run our testing, the
weather – everything."
With most of the key people now secured, the challenge
for Dalton remains to find the estimated $150 million
needed to reach the startline.
"Money wise I am starting to feel reasonably good,"
Dalton said. "We are going better on shore than I expected,
which is cool."
But while things seem to be on track for Team New Zealand
a quick glance next door at Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW
Racing, who are training in Auckland over the summer
with their star studded sailing crew and Bruce Farr-led
design team, is a reminder of how competitive the teams
are.
"Everything about Oracle says strength. Of the challengers
Oracle is obviously the yard stick we have to get to,"
Dalton said.
On Wednesday the venue of the next America's Cup will
be announced with Valencia, Lisbon, Marseille and Naples
vying for hosting rights. The draft America's Cup Class
rules which are revised after each regatta will also
be revealed. It has been speculated changes may lean
towards lighter boats with more sail area.
"Venue wise, we don't really have a preference. It isn't
affecting us from a sponsorship point of view," Dalton
said. "Our biggest crusade is that they get a handle
on the costs and that the rules they introduce, at a
minimum, maintain costs but hopefully reduce them."
Dalton had originally planned for Team New Zealand to
be sailing in February but has reviewed that decision.
He said an independent review on why the black boats
failed in the last Cup had been completed but would
not be made public.
"We have modifications to do to the boats and by the
time that process is over we'll be into the winter.
The guys are doing other things (competing overseas)
so I don't see any benefit of us sailing in February."
No rush for Team New Zealand
(11/10/03)
(source : NZ
City)
Team New Zealand cannot guarantee an America's Cup bid
yet - but prospects are improving by the day. Managing
director Grant Dalton says he is gradually managing
to steady the syndicate.
He says they have got the right personnel and sponsorship
relationships are building enough to make him think
a viable challenge is taking shape.
Dalton says he will not make a final decision either
way on the bid until March 31 next year. Dalton says
he does not see any reason to reveal information before
then because they do not have enough ammunition in place
yet. He says at the moment they are not in a position
where they could be competitive at the cup.
But Dalton refuses to be intimidated by any billionaire
bruisers. He says there is a bit of pressure knowing
the Alinghi and Oracle powerhouse syndicates hope you
will fall over before you get there. But Dalton says
that just adds motivation for the syndicate to get organised.
With
the Omega Match Racing Team having debuted at the King
Edward VII Gold Cup, Omega announced that it will be
supporting Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker and
team on the Swedish Match Tour.
Omega's support will enable Dean to compete on the Tour
while the TNZ challenge for the America's Cup is in
its "rebuilding stages".
Patrick Buteux, special events manager for Omega, also
hinted at the possibility of Omega's support of two
or three Omega Match Race Teams.
