Posted by The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has decided on the 9th of December to hold the ‘Special General Meeting’ to discuss with the membership the venue for America’s Cup 37. This is in response to (I understand) a petition from 33 RNZYS members for such a discussion.
Instead of commenting on the statement from the Squadron committee, I will quote it here: ” There needs to be a reality check in respect to a New Zealand-based AC37 Match. ETNZ needs to secure funding, with local and central Government support, to hold this event in Auckland. Unless this happens, we need to consider offshore venues. The consequences of not doing so are potentially dire – no cup defense at all, and giving the America’s Cup back having been unable to stage a defense and meet our obligations under the Deed of Gift.”
“This means the loss of the America’s Cup, the loss of our Team New Zealand, and the potential loss of future America’s Cup challenges from the RNZYS, and most likely New Zealand. So, while we understand and support the sentiment of the petition and their desire to “have the event in New Zealand”, the answer is not that simple.”
What the committee is saying is exactly what we commented on Sailing Anarchy weeks ago when the naysayers started to sound off about an ‘offshore’ defense.
It is no secret that Haas is not at the front of the grid in motor racing’s F1 because their budget is a fraction of Mercedes or Red Bull. To stand any chance of successfully defending ETNZ has to have a realistic R & D budget to be able to, just as an example, properly analyze any shared recon information they receive…
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