Grant Dalton update

The Emirates Team New Zealand boss shares his thoughts on the Volvo Ocean Race and the latest in his litigation

Lean, superfit Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton was in Alicante over the weekend to witness the start of the Volvo Ocean Race, an event he has twice been a winner of, most memorably as skipper of the maxi ketch New Zealand Endeavour when the likes of Mike Sanderson and Ericsson 4’s Brad Jackson were among his crew.

Obviously we are keenest to find out about Team New Zealand’s litigation with Alinghi/Societe Nautique de Geneve and getting Dalton while jet-lagged, having just flown half way around the world seemed the perfect opportunity.

However first the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-9 - his first impressions? “It looks amazing and you can only congratulate Volvo and the organisation for putting it together the way they have. I was surprised and pleased by the way it was received by Alicante, probably in the same way as Valencia embraced the America’s Cup and I look forward to understanding where the race is going in the future.

“The course is a big change. But otherwise, I, without being involved, don’t believe it has changed at all. The Volvo and the America’s Cup are very similar. People often wonder how we can change from one to another: piece of cake - [Peter] Blake proved that. I don’t believe the race fundamentally will have changed. I don’t think it is probably any harder than it was with the Volvo 60s when all you did was stack sails all day. Its presentation has improved, but I think fundamentally you have got to have good people, good design, fast boats, good sails, enough money. All those fundamentals never change - in the next 500 years those things will never change.

“And it is preparation and when you get on the course it about going the right way. In the last one we finished in 2002 [on Amer Sport One] - we didn’t start building our boats until seven months before the race. We could have come third or fifth going into the last leg and we were the only boat that positioned ourselves right and suddenly we were third. Frankly we should have been last in that race - well, ahead of the chicks of course!”

With the present America’s Cup hiatus Emirates Team New Zealand were seriously looking at entering this year's Volvo Ocean Race as a filler, particularly when Peter de Ridder pulled the plug on his largely Team New Zealand-manned VO70 campaign led by Ray Davies. “We talked quite hard about doing a boat for this year and I know if we’d had any idea about what was going to go down, we definitely would have done a boat. There is no reason why we shouldn’t look at that in the future as well,” says Dalton of the event that is so close to his heart. “I’d certainly consider coming back for sure. That is one of the reasons we are here.” Aside from witnessing Saturday's start, Dalton was in town with former Tyco skipper Kevin Shoebridge to attend Sunday’s meeting looking at the future of the Volvo Ocean Race.

“It is a good strategic move by Volvo to have announced the next race already, particularly given the economic climate we are in. In any sport at the moment costs have got to be considered. At the moment it looks expensive and even if the world comes right, it is going to take years to come right.”

As to who his favourite in the present race was, Dalton said he didn’t know. However he liked Puma because it was designed by Botin & Carkeek, Marcellino Botin being one of Team New Zealand’s key designers. Also Puma has Aussie 49er legend Chris Nicholson on board who sailed with him round the world on Amer Sport One.

So to the Cup. Back in March this year Team New Zealand entered into litigation with the America’s Cup defenders over breach of contract. When the Kiwi Cup team had signed up for the 33rd AC they had been assured that the next event would take place in 2009.

Since then the case has taken something of a back seat compared to the main on-going litigation between the Golden Gate YC (BMW Oracle Racing) and the Societe Nautique de Geneve (Alinghi), now into its final phase, awaiting judgement at the ultimate court in the USA - the Court of Appeals.

The latest round of talks in the Kiwi case has come about thanks to the advent of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. Dalton explains: “We invited Alinghi to come and they said ‘we’ll come if you drop your legal case'. We took that seriously and put a set of six conditions to them that would make us drop the case: None of them arduous and none of them financial. When you go through the scenarios now there are only so many things that can happen after the next court case because it is the end in theory.”

In theory if Alinghi win, then it returns to being a multi-challenger event with the original Spanish Challenger of Record. If BMW Oracle Racing win and their club, the Golden Gate YC are reinstated as Challenger of Record and there is no mutual consent between the parties involved, then the 33rd America’s Cup will be a Deed of Gift match between two large and incredible multihulls and it will be then down to the winner of that event to get the ball rolling, as quickly as possible one hopes, for the next multi-challenger 34th America's Cup.

“There are only so many ramifications,” says Dalton. “For us and all the challengers it has been about certainty. One of our conditions was that they would guarantee an event no later than 2011. Because no matter how you cut this up you end up that it can be done no later than 2011. And at that point we stick. They don’t want to do that and we don’t want to change down any more than that. However in saying that, if they were to come to a settlement with Oracle, that would probably guarantee an event and we’d probably be happy to break away.”

Dalton admits that their litigation is very dependent upon the outcome at the Court of Appeals. So if there is a DoG match when does he think the next multi-challenger affair might take place? “It depends on who wins that match. If Oracle won that match they’d do it quickly because they understand it needs to be got on fast to try and save the Cup really. Alinghi may or may not do it quickly.”

So assuming there is no settlement in their dispute with BMW Oracle, Alinghi control only two of the three possible outcomes. Dalton confirms that if in either of the outcomes Alinghi can guarantee that the next Cup will be in 2011, Team New Zealand will drop their case.

“For us it is not a difficult point as it gives certainty not just to us but to everyone, because at the moment, particularly in this economic environment, the market needs certainty. That’s all it needs - certainty. How do you do a contract with a sponsor when you don’t know when it is? If you can say it will be no later than 2011, then it will be much easier.”

Meanwhile at least there is finally the prospect of some America’s Cup class racing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, even though Dalton stresses it is definitely not planned to be in competition with the America’s Cup (to the extent that all AC branding will be removed or face the wrath of Alinghi’s lawyers).

“It is an idea that Bruno [Trouble] and myself started talking about in December last year. It’s timing wasn’t ideal then, but it is perfect now. We have been taken by surprise by the interest hence we have announced that we have increased it to 12 teams, which is a massive logistical jump from where we started at six. And we now have four boats, because we are bringing the Oracle boats in. They go on a ship in less than two weeks. And it has turned into quite a big event. A superyacht regatta will be floated in the next few days. It’ll be summer in the city - it is going to go off. And we are inside [the harbour] which is logistically tricky, because there are a few things to bump into.

“From our point of view it is a way of re-engaging the New Zealand public who are disillusioned with the America’s Cup - as are the rest of the world frankly. And thanks to Louis Vuitton, the New Zealand Government, Auckland City and Sky City - I think it is going to seriously go off. 12 teams - that is a lot of people.”

At present they have applications from 23 teams to fill the 12 available spots. According to Dalton they will have to introduction a way of selecting which will be allowed to race and priority will be given to the challengers from the 32nd America’s Cup. “The Australians, who have entered with Iain Murray, and Marc Pajot - I hope we’ll have room to keep those guys involved. The timing has co-incidentally perfect. It is cheap. And the world of match racing is just looking for something like this to feed on.”

So with the event coming up Emirates Team New Zealand will be looking at temporarily re-employing. “Our guys, who are now primarily redundant now, have two avenues of employment within the team over the next year - this and the new TP52 we are building, which in itself takes 20 odd people. In making the best of a bad situation we are pretty rock solid. I’m getting huge loyalty from the guys, particularly when I know how fickle this game is.”

Still, we can't help feeling that a Team New Zealand entry in the Volvo Ocean Race would be a very interesting prospect...