News Around the World
The more I practise the luckier I get (with apologies to Gary Player). Matt Allen’s Botín IRC 52 Ichi Ban was purpose-designed as an offshore-oriented version of everything that is good and fast about a Super Series TP52. Built in 2017 at Longitud Cero in Spain, she shipped straight to Sydney where Allen put in place a formidable professional sailing programme attracting the cream of Australian and Australia-based ocean racing talent, including Volvo and America’s Cup veterans like Gordon Maguire, Rob Greenhalgh, Tony Rae and Noel Drennan. Ichi Ban won the Hobart Race at the first attempt in 2017, followed by wins in 2019 and 2021. Allen’s IRC champion is always perfectly prepped and updated and her sailing team put in more training and racing miles than anyone else. QED
whom he described as ‘two giants’, to negotiate common ground. ‘It could happen in a couple of hours and the mediator could go home,’ he suggested… Dalton repeated his position that, lined up against powerful
challengers with Formula One connections, an underfunded ETNZ had no chance of retaining the America’s Cup and would probably not survive. ‘We will be stripped. They want to kill us.’ Dunphy remained adamant nothing he had heard altered his
belief that Auckland funding could be found. He said many moti- vations had been attributed to his bid to keep the Cup in Auckland: that he wanted to take over ETNZ or steal their intellectual property; that he was acting for foreign teams, or just wanting to disrupt. ‘All those comments are completely untrue,’ he insisted. ‘My motivation is purely patriotic…’ In the Q&A that followed much that had gone before was just
reiterated. Having called attention to Samuel Johnson’s quote about patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel, Dalton challenged Dunphy on the New York Yacht Club plot and brandished an affidavit that, he said, contained details of the incriminating phonecall. Dunphy confirmed he had two conversations with NYYC, but insisted what had been said about those calls was incorrect. ‘It is inappro- priate for you to choose a forum like this to put questions to me if you are not prepared to talk to me in private,’ Dunphy added. This was a baffling contradiction of a narrative that has persisted
since August and which Commodore Young had repeated less than a minute earlier, namely that it was Dunphy who for months had refused every effort to broker a meeting with ETNZ. Either way, with several members pleading for the parties to stop
‘talking past each other’ and sit down together, it turned out that option was no longer on the table. Following the complete breakdown of trust over the New York affair Dalton revealed the ETNZ board had taken a formal resolution to ‘permanently reject’ any attempts by Kiwi Home Defence to become involved with the team and specif- ically will not engage in any dialogue with Jim Farmer, Mark Dunphy, Kiwi Home Defence or any of its agents.
28 SEAHORSE In an apparent stalemate and with threats of legal action hanging
in the air, the AGM broke up in an atmosphere of frustration and regret over lost opportunities. As the crowd dispersed into the night, up in its sanctuary overlooking the scene of the dispute the America’s Cup maintained its impassive vigil. There it will remain until its next chapter is written when the 2024 defence takes place at a venue to be announced by 31 March… Christmas and New Year celebrations followed in due course.
Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour sparkled in record summer temper- atures. It seemed much longer than a year since these same waters played host to New Zealand’s second successful defence of the America’s Cup amid scenes of national rejoicing and celebration. Meanwhile, Dalton’s envoys departed to inspect four potential
overseas venues and continue discussions that will determine where the next America’s Cup will be sailed. Ivor Wilkins
AUSTRALIA Hard sailing and hard lessons The 2021 Sydney to Hobart Race was an epic test for all who entered. Many recent Hobarts south have been light-medium downwind affairs, with some crews revealing they barely got the foredeck wet. Most of Australia received heavy rainfall in November and December, and New South Wales was no exception. Across this wide brown land we never complain about rain, particularly at the start of our summer when to see the forests and national parks lush and green is a massive relief, knowing that bushfires are likely come the furnace of high summer. By mid-December the weather systems were still throwing cold, wet conditions up from the big freezer deep to the south of us. But would that stop before Boxing Day? Already unlikely – and the closer it got to 26 December, definitely not. A bruising 76th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race it would be. Sunshine and a southerly breeze greeted all 88 yachts on the
four starting lines for the 1pm start, with the 17 doublehanders keen to get a clear start and settle into this race for the first time.
ANDREA FRANCOLINI/ROLEX
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112
