Solo globetrotter’s life-changing voyage

instead they have written it up in the most negative way,” said a Cup insider. “It is pretty infuriating, really.”

The report, for example, outlines that government and Auckland City agencies invested $384.4 million in the event and suffered significant deficits, -$91.6m for Auckland and -$156.1m for the government.

While it acknowledges that some of the city expenditure was for unrelated projects that were brought forward for completion in time for the Cup, it is left to a second report to underline the positive result of that.

In its own separate review, Auckland Unlimited, a branch of Auckland City that promotes economic and cultural development, reveals that $92 million of the city’s expenditure was on already-planned works. Furthermore, bringing those infrastructure projects to early completion “will result in future savings of $67 million”.

From the government side, the major factors negatively impacting the event were the closed borders due to Covid. New Zealand’s aggressive response to the Covid threat. The inescapable consequence of the hardline approach was that big income-generators – international fans, media, superyachts etc – were locked out.

The government turned a deaf ear to intense lobbying to allow the superyachts to treat their passages to Auckland as an effective form of self-isolation and quarantine; 110 superyachts were denied entry. The government also declined to sanction the Youth America’s Cup, which had attracted 19 entries from 13 countries and would have been an income-generator in its own right.

Even with these set-backs, for the four months of Auckland’s America’s Cup summer, the city and the country enjoyed glorious international exposure. While most of the northern hemisphere was in the depths of a winter of Covid restriction and lockdown, the most-viewed America’s Cup of all time broadcast images of AC75s flying across the water against the backdrop of a city basking in the sunshine with tens of thousands of fans out and about enjoying the spectacle.

According to America’s Cup Events Ltd (ACE), the global TV and live-streaming audience to 198 countries was just under 1 billion, 3.2 times the reach of the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017.

“Social media was a further area of strong growth across all the America’s Cup channels. Followers more than doubled from 491,000 to 1.09 million between the 35th and 36th America’s Cups. Social media channels … delivered 499 million impressions during the racing period and totalled 715 million impressions over the entire 36th America’s Cup campaign.”

The MBIE/Auckland City report took a very narrow view of the value of this exposure with a figure of $11 million. By contrast, a broadcast and media analysis by Nielsen came up with a Total Gross Media Value of $NZ1.4 billion. The QI adjusted figure, which compares exposure against classic forms of advertising, for AC36 (November 2020-March 2021) was $NZ354 million across all media.

The strategy behind the city and government’s determinedly grim view of the 36th America’s Cup is hard to discern.

It came after ETNZ rejected their $99 million offer for an Auckland defence regatta. The offer reportedly included event infrastructure and in-kind support, leaving only about a third as direct funds for the event.

This has left open the possibility that the next AC regatta will be hosted at an offshore venue. A number of locations, including Ireland, Spain and Saudi Arabia are in the final mix. Perhaps the negative strategy is to show the Cup as an economic lemon, so taxpayers will not care if it goes offshore. Conversely, it could

be an attempt to scare foreign bidders away in the hope of retaining the Cup for New Zealand. “Probably a bit of both,” said one seasoned Cup observer.

Despite the 2021 experience, there is ample evidence that the Cup has previously been a significant money-spinner for New Zealand. The defence regattas of 2000 and 2003 each returned around half a billion dollars of extra economic activity into the New Zealand economy, according to an official government report in 2003.

That outcome “well and truly demonstrates the value of the last two America’s Cup events to New Zealand, with major benefits for our marine, accommodation and hospitality, retail and entertainment, and transport sectors,” said Trevor Mallard, who was Minister of Sport at the time. “This level of pay-off certainly made the government’s investment of around $10 million into Team NZ and an economic leverage fund in 2003 worthwhile.”

There is every reason to believe that, with the basic infrastructure already in place and a post-Covid return to “business-as-usual”, an America’s Cup regatta in Auckland would be an economic success.

However, if the Cup remains in or returns to New Zealand, serious streamlining of the event management structure is clearly called for. Although the operational side of the regatta was acknowledged by all parties to be a success, behind the scenes overblown committees, bureaucratic red tape, and conflicting advice threatened to constipate proceedings.

ACE, which was the arm of ETNZ charged with running the event, was clearly frustrated. “In total there were 32 different regular meeting forums that ACE attended, most of which were unproductive,” according to its wrap-up review.

The smothering red tape had agency representatives interfering in matters that fell well outside their areas of expertise or responsibility. This led to one caustic piece of advice for future iterations: “It is ok to say to someone, ‘I will not be responding any further, as that matter is not your responsibility’.”

At government level, MBIE set up a “cumbersome and time-consuming” chain of communication with the relevant government agencies. To create efficiencies, ACE by-passed the structure and dealt directly with the agencies. “This was not viewed positively by MBIE, but ensured key event issues and plans could be agreed in a timely manner.”

At a city level, it was even worse. Although Auckland Unlimited was not actually responsible for delivering the event, it set up and chaired a group of nearly 40 people representing a wide group of interests, which contributed to unnecessary demands on time and resources.

“Unfortunately, due to the number of people who attended,” ACE reported, “they became very unproductive and the required outcomes were not able to be achieved.”

Auckland City Council also required no less than 15 management plans, with an additional 13 management plans associated with the Event Resource Consent, all of which required regular monitoring and reporting sessions.

Prada, which invested $150 million towards the event operations and the race village, complained about not being involved in the negotiations, meetings and decision-making process. “Unfortunately, the Event Concept – He Waka Eke Noa (we are all paddling in the same canoe) – was a very good intention, but remained in the words; Challenger of Record and ACE were rarely in the same waka,” the company reported.

Given the tortuous bureaucratic ordeal involved, Prada may have been shown a kindness in being spared a seat at many of those tables.

Story and pictures by Debra Douglas

Solo American yachtswoman Elana Connor knows first-hand how time on the water can change your life. A former foster teenager who spent many years in state care, Elana learned to sail on San Francisco Bay as an adult. Since then, she has made three solo ocean passages in three years, covering more than 10,000 nautical miles on board her 10.4m sloop Windfola, with just her rescue dog, Zia, as crew.

Hoping to complete a solo round-the-world journey, Elana made landfall in Tauranga in December 2019. But her circumnavigation was abruptly halted by Covid-19 border closures. So rather than sitting idle, Elana embarked on a figure-of-eight voyage around New Zealand, turning a setback into an opportunity to impact the lives of hundreds of Kiwi kids in foster care.

Teaming up with VOYCE – Whakarongo Mai, a charity organisation helping to advocate for children in care and the Spirit of Adventure Trust, Elana’s 3000nm route started in October 2020 from Auckland

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Matt Thompson

020 414 38419 mthompson@barfoot.co.nz