Team New Zealand

Team New Zealand (since 2007, with sponsorship by Emirates airline, known as Emirates Team New Zealand or ETNZ) is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Team New Zealand has become a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup in 1995 and 2000. In doing this, they became the first team from a country outside the United States to win and then defend the America's Cup. Their success in America's Cup competitions have contributed to New Zealand's reputation for producing world-class boat designers and sailors.

History

Three challenges were launched before the founding of Team New Zealand, all of these backed by Michael Fay.^[1] New Zealand Challenge competed in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup, the 1988 America's Cup and the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup.

Founding

Following the 1992 America's Cup competition, Michael Fay withdrew from backing the New Zealand challenges for the Cup. A new effort under the leadership of Peter Blake and Alan Sefton began putting together a team, raising funds and gaining support for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.^[2] Team New Zealand Limited was established as a registered company in 1993^[3]

1995: Black Magic

In 1995, TNZ stunned the world, beating Team Dennis Conner 5–0 in a "Blackwash" off San Diego, California after winning the right to challenge in the Louis Vuitton Cup. The 1995 challenge had everything – the boat was fast (their winning yacht NZL 32 was nicknamed Black Magic), they had a smart crew led by skipper Russell Coutts, and they were ably led by Sir Peter Blake. As NZL 32 approached the finish line on the last race, sailing commentator Pete Montgomery made the now famous line "The America's Cup is now New Zealand's cup!"^[4]

Both NZL 32 and NZL-38 were built under the supervision of Tim Gurr at the McMullen & Wing yard, Auckland, New Zealand, and were launched in September 1993.

The winning yacht, NZL 32, was shipped back to New Zealand and given to the Te Papa Museum. On 1 May 2008, it was announced by Prime Minister Helen Clark, that NZL-32 would become the new centrepiece to the Sir Peter Blake Exhibition entitled: 'Blue Water Black Magic' in the National Maritime Museum on Hobson Wharf, Viaduct Harbour, Auckland. NZL-32 is to be suspended from the ceiling with numerous exhibits surrounding her about Sir Peter's life. In addition, many other New Zealand-designed yachts will be on display along with stories and history of New Zealand yachtsmen and women. Construction on the new exhibition started in July 2008 and was planned to be complete by November 2009.

2000: "Still New Zealand's Cup"

TNZ (NZL 60) beat Italy's Prada Challenge (Luna Rossa) 5–0 in the 2000 match held on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf. On crossing the finish line in the final race, commentator Peter Montgomery exclaimed "The America's Cup is still New Zealand's cup!!" – echoing his comment in 1995 America's Cup.

2003: "Loyal"; Defeat

In 2003, Team New Zealand's eight-year reign ended after they were defeated 5–0 by Swiss-based challenger Alinghi. TNZ dubbed their campaign the "Loyal" campaign, featuring a Silver fern flag with the word "Loyal" and an existing song of the same name by New Zealand musician Dave Dobbyn. This was largely due to the Swiss boat featuring many of the afterguard members from TNZ's previous campaigns (notably Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth) which, along with a fast boat and a lack of reliability aboard TNZ's NZL 82, contributed to the win.

2007: Emirates Team New Zealand

NZL-92 returning to port in Valencia during the America's Cup regatta

In 2007, the re-branded Emirates Team New Zealand won the Louis Vuitton Cup and advanced to the 32nd America's Cup against defenders Alinghi. Team New Zealand lost the series 2–5 to Alinghi, the last by a single second.

Valencia

In late 2003, TNZ announced their intention to challenge Alinghi at the 2007 Valencia America's Cup, with Emirates on board as title sponsor, and Grant Dalton as Team Boss. Dean Barker skippered a more international team than ever before. TNZ were among the "big four" syndicates leading up to the 2007 Cup. The big four consisted of TNZ, Alinghi, BMW Oracle Racing, and Luna Rossa.

In the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007 to select the challenger to face Alinghi, TNZ lost their first match to Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, a team who they had beaten in each of their five encounters in the Louis Vuitton Acts. They then won their next 7 races, before losing the final two in round robin 1 to Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle Racing which put them in third place at the end of the first round robin. In Round Robin 2, Team New Zealand were undefeated throughout, taking first place from BMW Oracle Racing. They won their semi-final series 5–2 against Desafío Español 2007 and qualified for the Louis Vuitton finals against Luna Rossa. In the finals, they defeated Luna Rossa with a whitewash victory of 5–0, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup and the right to challenge Alinghi for the America's Cup.

On 3 July 2007, Emirates Team New Zealand lost their final race to Alinghi bringing Alinghi's race wins to 5, successfully defending the 32nd America's cup.^[5]

Americas Cup...

• Race 1: Lost to Alinghi by 35 Seconds
• Race 2: Beat Alinghi by 28 Seconds
• Race 3: Beat Alinghi by 25 Seconds
• Race 4: Lost to Alinghi by 30 Seconds
• Race 5: Lost to Alinghi by 19 Seconds
• Race 6: Lost to Alinghi by 28 Seconds
• Race 7: Lost to Alinghi by 1 Second

Alinghi wins the America's Cup, 5–2.

2009 Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

Team New Zealand hosted the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in January and February 2009 on the Waitemata Harbour in the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland. Team New Zealand defeated Alinghi by a margin of 3 races to 1 in the final. The final races were reduced to the best of five due to difficult weather conditions resulting in the loss of one day's racing.

2010 Louis Vuitton Trophy

In March 2010, the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta returned to Auckland after the first regatta of the series in Nice in November 2009 won by Italy's Azzurra team. On Sunday 21 March 2010, Emirates Team New Zealand won the final of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta with a 56 sec win over Mascalzone Latino.^[6]

2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race

Team New Zealand's Volvo Open 70 in London, September 2011.

On 13 April 2010, along with Camper, the Spanish-based international footwear manufacturer, Emirates Team New Zealand announced that it would compete in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2011–12. The campaign was run by Emirates Team New Zealand and skippered by Olympic and round-the-world yachtsman Chris Nicholson. Following this announcement, Emirates Team New Zealand being recognised as being at the forefront of yachting teams worldwide, as they were actively competing or preparing for the America's Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, TP-52 Med Cup and the Louis Vuitton Trophy simultaneously.^[7]

2013 America's Cup San Francisco

Emirates Team New Zealand's AC72 Aotearoa in San Francisco Bay

On 21 April 2011, Grant Dalton and Emirates Team New Zealand announced their entry for the 2013 America's Cup regatta to be held in San Francisco in 2013. New sponsor Nespresso came on board through parent company Nestlé. Grant Dalton expressed his gratitude to numerous corporate interests based around the world, namely Matteo De Nora and Stephen Tindall among others, in keeping the team afloat through the intervening years in what had been a difficult four years since the last multi-challenger event in Valencia 2007. The team also received a NZ$36m grant from the New Zealand government to compete in the 2013 America's Cup and to promote and export New Zealand expertise in the field of yachting.^[8] This followed on from an economic impact assessment of the 2007 campaign in Valencia had shown a direct economic benefit to New Zealand of $74.4m.^[8] Because of the high cost associated with developing the new AC72 catamaran and the rule limitation of thirty sailing days of development, Team New Zealand entered into a technology sharing programme with the Italian team who had an identical boat and were also based in Auckland.^[9] Since Team New Zealand's July 2012 launch, their first AC 72 boat proved fast and reliable, foil sailing for long periods of time at speeds over 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) with no breakages.^[10]

In August 2013, Team New Zealand won the America's Cup challenger series (Louis Vuitton Cup) by defeating the Prada Luna Rossa Syndicate 7–1 and in September 2013 Team New Zealand challenged the Oracle syndicate for the America's Cup. On 19 September 2013, Team New Zealand lead Oracle Team USA 8–1 needing one more win to lift the Auld Mug. While Oracle Team USA had won three races, due to their cheating scandal involving the illegal modifications to AC45 45-foot catamarans belonging to Oracle and used in the America's Cup World Series, Oracle Team USA were docked two points (meaning they started the competition on −2 points) and had 2 main crew members banned – one for the competition, the other for 4 of the races.^[11] In Race 8, Team New Zealand nearly capsized the boat. This was caused by the lack of hydraulic pressure which caused the boat to move, but the sail to stay in the same place. In Race 13 Team New Zealand were minutes away from finishing the race and winning the cup when the race time limits came in to effect causing the race to be cancelled. The Race was then replayed and Oracle Team USA won the race. Oracle won the Americas Cup 9 points to 8 to retain the Auld Mug. Emirates Team New Zealand have ruled out any post-racing legal challenge. ETNZ syndicate head Grant Dalton stated that Oracle's automated stabilisation system had been checked and approved by the official measurers before the start of racing, and that taking legal action would be "an incredibly bad thing to do."^[12]

34th America's Cup – San Francisco

• Race 1 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 36 seconds (1–0)
• Race 2 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 52 seconds (2–0)
• Race 3 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 28 seconds (3–0)
• Race 4 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 8 seconds (3–0)
• Race 5 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 1 minute 5 seconds (4–0)
• Race 6 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 47 seconds (5–0)
• Race 7 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 1 minute 6 seconds (6–0)
• Race 8 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 52 seconds (6–0)
• Race 9 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 47 seconds (6–1)
• Race 10 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 16 seconds (7–1)
• Race 11 – Beat Oracle Team USA by 15 seconds (8–1)
• Race 12 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 31 seconds (8–2)
• Race 13 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 1 minute 24 seconds (8–3)
• Race 14 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 23 seconds (8–4)
• Race 15 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 37 seconds (8–5)
• Race 16 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 33 seconds (8–6)
• Race 17 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 27 seconds (8–7)
• Race 18 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 54 seconds (8–8)
• Race 19 – Lost to Oracle Team USA by 44 seconds (8–9)

35th Americas Cup

The New Zealand Government has publically announced that it is going to back Team New Zealand in the next America's Cup. Minister Steven Joyce, standing in for Prime Minister John Key, who was overseas, announced that he will hold talks with Team NZ soon. The announcement was greeted with wild cheering by the enthusiastic crowd at Auckland's Shed 10 during a huge and emotional Welcome Home ceremony.^[13]

In January 2014, Emirates Team New Zealand announced the signing of 2013 49er World and European Champions and 2012 Olympic Silver Medalists, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. CEO Grant Dalton first said that the team would campaign two AC45's in future America's Cup World Series.^[14]

On 25 June 2014 Team New Zealand confirmed, in a media statement, their intention to challenge as they had gained sufficient private financial backing without government assistance.^[15]

Yachts used by Team New Zealand

• NZL 32 – "Black Magic" International America's Cup Class. 1995 America's Cup winner
• NZL 38 – "Black Magic II" International America's Cup Class. 1995 Louis Vuitton Cup winner
• NZL 57 – International America's Cup Class. Training boat for 2000 defence
• NZL 60 – International America's Cup Class. 2000 America's Cup winner
• NZL 68 – International America's Cup Class. Training boat bought from Illbruck Challenge (formerly GER 68)
• NZL 81 – International America's Cup Class. Training boat for 2003 defence
• NZL 82 – International America's Cup Class. America's Cup defender in 2003 but defeated 5–0. Used for Louis Vuitton Acts in preparation for the 2007 America's Cup and won the 2004 season
• NZL 84 – 2007 generation International America's Cup Class. Launched in 2006. Won 2006 Louis Vuitton Season
• NZL 92 – 2007 generation International America's Cup Class. Launched in October 2006. Won the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup. Lost the America's Cup 2–5
• CAMPER – 2011 generation Volvo VO70 – Volvo Open 70. Launched in April 2011 for the 2011–2012 Volvo Ocean Race, which they finished in second position overall.
• Other boats related to the 2013 America's Cup campaign: two SL33 catamarans, one AC45 catamaran
• NZL 2 – "New Zealand" AC72. Training boat for 2013 campaign
• NZL 5 – "Aotearoa" AC72. Race boat for 2013 campaign. Won the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup. Lost the 2013 America's Cup 8–9

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Team New Zealand.

• Official Website of Emirates Team New Zealand
• Peter Lester NZ yachting commentator