Covid lockdown inspires a swerve towards a bold future

Hard realities shape the future of NZ’s America’s Cup Defence

With the Covid pandemic fundamentally changing the international sport sponsorship landscape, the survival of Emirates Team New Zealand would increasingly depend on funding from the America’s Cup venue, as opposed to major corporations.

This reality was spelled out during a briefing at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron by Grant Dalton, Kevin Shoebridge and Russell Green as the clocked ticked down on the exclusive negotiation period between the team, the New Zealand government and the Auckland City Council.

More than 400 members packed the ballroom to hear an exposition of where the team stands in terms of funding and how the future might unfold. With two days to go before the end of the exclusive negotiating period, it was clear there was still a considerable gulf between what the government and city council were offering and what the team required.

Both Dalton and Commodore Aaron Young emphasised that if the exclusive period expired without a deal, it did not necessarily mean the event would go offshore.

“The Cup has not left town,” said Dalton. “Everybody needs to calm down a little bit. The end of the exclusive negotiation period does not mean it leaves New Zealand, but it does open up the chance of other bids.”

He revealed that following the Bermuda victory in 2017, the team was in a similar situation. Initial negotiations with the government and Auckland had failed to reach agreement and the team was less than an hour away from signing a deal to stage the defence offshore.

At the last minute, however, the government agreed terms and the Auckland defence was secured for 2021.

Dalton said the negotiations with the government in the wake of the successful defence earlier this year had been conducted in good spirit. “It is not a question of pistols at dawn, not at all. That is important, because whatever happens next that relationship must stay intact going forward. We both know that.”

However, the team’s survival was paramount. Dalton painted a picture of billionaire raiders circling the team as it tried to secure funding for the future in a very tough economic environment.

“The world as it was of big money sports sponsorships doesn’t exist any more. It has gone,” said Dalton. Any new sponsorships came with pandemic clauses that hamstrung teams because they could not utilise all the funds in case they had to pay penalties for events that could not take place due to Covid lockdowns.

“We are not in a 2003 situation,” he said in reference to the loss of the Cup to the Swiss Alinghi team led by Russell Coutts and a key group of former Team New Zealand yachtsmen. “But we are vulnerable as hell, not just from talent poaching, but from other teams trying to drive through our force field to destroy us financially.”

When Covid struck last year, the team foresaw a difficult situation ahead and commissioned an offshore company to pitch for bids from venues to host the next America’s Cup regatta. If no deal was reached for an Auckland defence by the end of the exclusive negotiation period, those bids would come into play.

Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Shoebridge said all the conventional avenues of funding were being explored, but in the new economic landscape the main source of income would depend on the venue fee. “Along with sponsorship and contributions from individuals, the lion’s share will have to come from the venue,” he said.

Dalton emphasised that the main mission of the team remained to win the America’s Cup for New Zealand. However, in order to achieve that, it had to survive financially.

“I have heard some people say it would be better to lose the America’s Cup in Auckland than to win it offshore. I am dumbstruck how anybody could even say that,” he said to loud applause from the RNZYS members.

Commodore Young said afterwards he was greatly encouraged by the enormous groundswell of support he had received from members, who understood the realities of the situation facing the Cup defenders.

There was also appreciation over the announcement during the presentation of a new legacy project being worked on between ETNZ and the RNZYS. “It will be a lasting thing for the club from us,” said Dalton. “It is pretty cool.”

Although the details remain to be revealed, Young said it was about supporting the future of New Zealand sailing at club and grass-roots level. It will be something for the next 150 years,” he said.

Covid lockdown inspires a swerve to a bold future

By Ivor Wilkins When COVID-19 brought Belgian entrepreneur Thierry Verstraete’s world cruise to a halt in French Polynesia, he was not content to sit idly by, sunning himself on the foredeck of his custom 18m sailing catamaran and savouring the fruits of his business success. Instead, he seized on the enforced lockdown to completely reappraise his cruising objectives and set about building a new boat.

The inspiration came from a fleeting glimpse in Tahiti of one of Steve Dashew’s long, lean bare aluminium expedition-style FPBs (Fast Powerboat). “I was interested in this type of boat, because I was already thinking of making a change along these lines,” he says.

“I planned to talk to the owner about the boat, but he left before I could do so.” At these major ocean cross-roads, these encounters are often fleeting as passagemakers come and go. The boat in question, a 70-footer, was on its way to Hawaii and the opportunity was lost.

However, Thierry set about researching the vessel online. His search soon brought him to Circa Marine in Whangarei and a conversation began. “After two weeks of communicating by email and Zoom, I signed a contract without ever setting foot in New Zealand.” The Deo Juvante project was under way.

“It was the fastest contract we ever had,” laughs Peter Barnard, Circa’s Market Development Manager. “It all went very smoothly.”

One quickly gets the sense that speed is Thierry’s default mode. In an earlier life, the 63-year-old raced Porsche and Lamborghini GT3s and Formule Renault cars on the European circuit. He also owned a superbike team. Now he commutes once a week from Gulf Harbour to Whangarei in a Ford F150 Shelby Supersnake truck, capable of 0-100km/ hr in 3.8 seconds.

An experienced yachtsman, he has owned six yachts and completed numerous Atlantic crossings, including a west-to-east solo crossing. Having made a high-speed decision to commission a new powerboat, he decided he could not entirely abandon sailing altogether. He has added a kite system to his new venture, so he still has a sheet and a sail to keep him occupied.

And, far beyond its amusement factor, preliminary studies indicate that the 25m2 Seakite developed by French sailing ace Yves Parlier’s company, Beyond the Sea, will provide an astonishing boost to Deo Juvante’s ocean passagemaking efficiency and cruising range.

Thierry’s arrival in Tahiti was part of an ARC round-the-world rally, for which he commissioned a new Sunreef 60 catamaran, built in Poland. In keeping with his drive for performance, he sought assistance from his friend Alessandro di Benedetto, best known for a solo non-stop circumnavigation in a 6.5m yacht, Atlantic and Pacific solo crossings in a beach catamaran and an 11th place finish in the 2013 Vendee Globe Race.

They optimised the catamaran with narrower hulls to reduce drag and a carbon-fibre rig and custom sail plan to boost power. The catamaran was launched in 2018. Sailing with his pre-teen son and daughter and a South African husband-and-wife crew, Thierry skippered the boat to frequent 1st or 2nd on-line finishes in ARC World passages – until it all came to a screeching halt with the COVID outbreak in March 2020.

With his children – son Clement and daughter Mazarine – happily enrolled in a local school and the South African couple discharged, Thierry found the enforced idleness of the Tahiti lockdown excruciating. “Days were long and boring,” he says, “everything at a standstill, no project and not knowing when we would be able to sail again. That is a very difficult situation for me, so I kept my mind busy, thinking about what I wanted to do in the coming years.

“I knew I wanted to continue to sail the world, sharing this adventure and experience with my kids, having them a while at school in different

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Above: Thierry and Circa Project Manager Penny Lincoln discuss the details of the Deo Juvante plans. Opposite Page: a rendering of the LOMOcean design.

countries, learning about different cultures and languages,” he says.

These musings led to an idea for a fast, rugged, fuel-efficient passagemaker capable of voyaging to remote places including high latitudes, something he and his children could handle alone. The idea is to complete the long passages without professional crew – Thierry is a fullyqualified ship master (STCW500 gross tonnage unlimited) – and then hire locals in various cruising areas, familiar with the locations, culture, and formalities. For longer land-based sojourns, the children would enrol at local schools, something they are already adept at.

On passages, Thierry homeschools the children, who are also encouraged to share watches and take on-board responsibilities. Thierry’s wife, Lydivine, does not enjoy ocean passages, but flies in to join the boat at cruising destinations.

As he was refining his ideas for a replacement boat, Thierry spied the

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Above:: Thierry, Lydivine and their two children, Mazarine (9) and Clement (11). Below: Mazarine and Clement bike to school in Tahiti.

Circa 70 FPB and recognised that concept met most of his requirements.

With Steve Dashew now retired and unable to undertake his hallmark close personal supervision of every project, he has ordered a halt on any further builds to his designs. Accordingly, Circa engaged Auckland-based LOMOcean Marine to come up with new designs with similar objectives for rugged, ocean-capable passagemaking. LOMOcean are no strangers in this area, having designed the futuristic 24m Earthrace trimaran, which Kiwi eco-warrior Pete Bethune piloted to a round-theworld record in 2008, and the equally ground-breaking 31m PlanetSolar, which became the first entirely solar-powered vessel to complete a world circumnavigation in 2012.

“We have always been about efficiency,” says LOMOcean director Craig Loomes. We have done long-range passagemakers before, so it is not as if these concepts are new to us. Long, lean, easily driven hulls have been a feature of several projects we have done in the past.

“The Circa project’s form is a development of that work. The shapes we have produced are quite different from their earlier models. We have put more volume in the ends, we have designed the bow wave to be out of phase with the stern wave, which is more efficient. The styling is also quite distinct.”

When Thierry began his enquiries, Circa were busy completing the first of the new LOMOcean-designed vessels, a 25m version for an Australian client. That provided a basis for their email and Zoom discussions as a back-and-forth process of interior and exterior customisation resulted in a variant tailored to Thierry’s specification.

Two weeks later, in May 2020, the Whangarei team swung into action while Thierry made plans to relocate to New Zealand, no simple matter in a world turned upside down by the pandemic. With New Zealand ports closed to visiting yachts, Thierry engaged 36° Brokers to sell his catamaran (to an Australian yachtsman also stranded in Tahiti) and made arrangements to fly to New Zealand with his family as soon as immigration authorities allowed it. By the time they had completed their two-week isolation and established themselves ashore, the Circa team was about a year into his build. The first time Thierry saw his project in the flesh, it was already fully framed, much of the hull plating was in place and fabrication of the interior joinery was well advanced. The custom interior by Belgian designer Kurt Wallaeys is reminiscent of a Manhattan apartment, with high gloss finishes in black, grey and gold. The schedule is to launch by the end of the year. Thierry’s arrival coincided with the launch and sea-trials of Mollymawk, the first of the new LOMOcean designs, providing realtime, real-life proof of concept. Results, which included a rough-sea passage during the lateMay weather bomb that hit the North Island, significantly outstripped anything Circa had seen before. To comply with European A proud member of the RNZYS classification, Thierry’s boat will be

On arrival in New Zealand, one of the first things Thierry equipped with MAN engines with Verstraete did was join the RNZYS. “The contact with the double Mollymawk’s horsepower, Squadron was through Duthie Lidgard,” he explains. “He is the NZ providing a higher top speed and, agent for handling us here. After I did the two weeks MIQ, I had my if anything, a more efficient cruising first meeting with Duthie at the Squadron. I saw the America’s Cup consumption. and immediately said I have to be a member of this club.” At 10.3 knots, Deo Juvante will

Another Squadron connection involved Conrad Gair of 36° consume just 2.04 litres/nautical Brokers. Conrad facilitated the sale of Thierry’s 18m catamaran, no mile with the two MAN diesels simple assignment in a world changed by Covid. ticking over at 1200rpm. “That is The Deo Juvante team comprises: not all down to hull form,” says Owner: Thierry Verstraete Loomes. Naval Architect: LOMOcean Marine, Auckland “A designers’ job is to make sure Builder: Circa Marine all the components work together Interior Design: Kurt Wallaeys, Belgium for the best possible result. We SeaKite System: Yves Parlier, Beyond the Sea, France use large diameter, slow revving propellors with engines that are

Thierry’s 18m custom catamaran was sold in Tahiti by 36° Brokers.

economical. We have optimised the hull, propeller size, custom highaspect ratio blade geometry, the whole drivetrain all the way to the gearbox. Hull, propeller-speed, engines all add up to a very efficient unit.”

Add the Seakite in typical trade wind conditions (20 knots at 120°) and, with the engines still at 1200rpm, the fuel consumption almost halves to 1.21 litres/nautical mile.

Turn the engines off altogether and in similar conditions, the boat will achieve speeds in excess of 7 knots under kite alone, according to Loomes’ calculations.

Parlier explains that the Seakite comprises an inflatable frame, like a kitesurfer wing, which is deployed from a short mast on the foredeck. It can soar to heights of 100m and once trimmed to the conditions can be set on auto mode to tend itself. Its operating range is from 10 knots to 40 knots. To retrieve the kite, simply depower it by flying it directly overhead and winch it down.

Loomes is a kite enthusiast and is frequently out kite surfing around the beaches of Auckland. “A kite is a sail on a string,” he says. “It is a beautiful, elegant solution in which all the forces are balanced and aligned. You can power a kite up or down. You can fly it at higher altitudes to reach more breeze and you can do it all without the expense and infrastructure of a permanent mast and stays. Pack it away and you have a nice clean motoryacht with clear decks, no windage, no aerial draft issues with bridges and so on.”

Kites can be flown in a ‘static’ or ‘dynamic’ mode. In static mode it is set at an optimum angle to the wind, like a sail, and held there by the computer-controlled trim system. In dynamic mode, the kite can be made to fly figure-of-eight circuits, dramatically increasing the apparent wind by a factor of five to six times, turbo-charging its power; this is a phenomenon increasingly used by wind energy companies. It is a highly versatile and manageable source of free power.

The Deo Juvante project, born of enforced lockdown ennui, has galvanised an infectious energy in the team of specialists involved. With Thierry’s passion and enthusiasm at its core, there is an ongoing search for more.

Now there is talk of introducing a retractable canard into the hull design to improve the kite’s reaching and upwind performance. And,

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