Tag Archives: yacht racing

America’s Cup: Billionaires and Espionage

America’s Cup: Billionaires and Espionage

“Yacht racing has been compared to tearing up $10 bills while standing in the shower. In the case of America’s Cup racing, make that $1,000 bills.” Time Magazine delves into the high rolling depths of…

ABC: Auckland Billionaire’s Club

ABC: Auckland Billionaire’s Club

Warren St. John backgrounds the moguls and money questing for the America’s Cup, pondering at the ‘pet projects’ of sporting tycoons like Larry Ellison: “they have hired the best sailors money can buy, sometimes moving them…

Surfing on the Web

Surfing on the Web

Sailor Graham Dalton (older bro of Grant) has set up an educational website where children can watch his yacht “Hexagon” circumnavigate the globe as part of the Around Alone race yacht race beginning 15th September. Hexagon was…

Advance New Zealand Unfair

Advance New Zealand Unfair

Lead paragraph to Australian Yachting editorial: “What is it with New Zealanders? Not only do they bash us at rugby (both literally and metaphorically) and regularly make off with the Melbourne Cup, they also have the hide,…

Commanding Performance

Commanding Performance

Grant Dalton and his crew hold second place in the Volvo Ocean Race, as the event “reaches its spiritual home”, Auckland. “The World’s premier yachting capital”. according to the Volvo Ocean race website.

History of the Cup

History of the Cup

A rundown on the history of the world’s oldest sporting trophy, currently held by Team NZ.

Magic Lives On

Magic Lives On

Six years ago the Black Magic team completed their historic 5-0 sweep of the America’s Cup.

The Win

The Win

New Zealand racing legend Grant Dalton brought giant Club Med in to Marseilles 62 days after leaving Barcelona – winning The Race by over 900 miles and clocking the fastest circumnavigation ever.

Kiwi Leads Brits

Kiwi Leads Brits

“Most of Kiwi Andrew Longmore’s working life has been devoted to the pursuit of sailing’s Holy Grail. No one has helmed more miles in an America’s Cup boat than Barnes, in racing, testing and development over…

Dalton Speaks

Dalton Speaks

“Home, however briefly, is beckoning. We should be through the Cook Strait, which separates the North and South Islands of my home country, New Zealand, in four days and that means we will, as far as I…

Fast Sail

Fast Sail

Grant Dalton’s big cat Club Med stripped 33 hours off the trans-Indian Ocean record, sighting Australia seven days, fourteen hours after passing the Cape of Good Hope.

Splitting the Difference

Splitting the Difference

Grant Dalton’s playing canny in the Race, “splitting the difference between east and west,” lying comfortably in second place.

Again?

Again?

Talk of a pre-America’s cup Team New Zealand-Prada rematch.    

Edge of Safety

Edge of Safety

Entrants in “the Race” must pass through Cook Strait – the Southern-most point of safety in the opinion of race organisers.

Conner Cautious

Conner Cautious

Dennis Conner will be in Auckland contesting the Cup in 2003, but he sure isn’t feeling complacent: “There’s so much depth of talent in New Zealand…They’ll still be difficult to beat, ” he told the NY…

Fast Cat Dalton Borne on the Scud of the Sea

Fast Cat Dalton Borne on the Scud of the Sea

The New York Times scuds along at 31 knots on board the world’s quickest ocean-going sailboat. For Club Med, skippered by Kiwi Grant Dalton pushing the boundaries of speed is plain-sailing: “You never get sick…

Catch Up Columbus: World Speed Record a Holiday in the Sun for Grant ‘Pure Speed’ Dalton

Catch Up Columbus: World Speed Record a Holiday in the Sun for Grant ‘Pure Speed’ Dalton

Dalton, captaining the maxi-catamaran Club Med has smashed the trans-atlantic 24-hour sailing record. Retracing Columbus’s historic East-West Atlantic Crossing, they broke the elusive 600 mile barrier for the first time, travelling at an incredible average speed of…

The Race No Holiday for Club Med

The Race No Holiday for Club Med

New Zealander Grant Dalton, a winner of the Whitbread Round the World Race, is to skipper 110ft catamaran Club Med in ‘The Race’, a non-stop dash around the world starting from Barcelona on the last day…

If You Can’t Beat ’em, Buy ’em: It’s the American Way

If You Can’t Beat ’em, Buy ’em: It’s the American Way

“Let’s face it, American’s hate to lose at anything, from tiddlewinks on up, and we had come to view the America’s Cup as our personal possession. But then New Zealand hung us by the mizzenmast … …

They’re Playing Monopoly

They’re Playing Monopoly

There’s always been a strong connection between sailing and skiing, but listen to what FIS officials have to say about their situation: “The domination of the sport by the Austrians has become an increasing concern.”  At this…

The America’s Cup is New Zealand’s Cup

The America’s Cup is New Zealand’s Cup

Exclaimed a jubilant Peter Montgomery when New Zealand won in 1995 – and doesn’t the world know it now. The humid Hauraki Gulf breeze not only filled the sails of Team New Zealand to…

America’s Cup: New Zealand Style

America’s Cup: New Zealand Style

“Is this Monte Carlo, Rio de Janeiro, Cannes or Santa Catalina, the playground of California’s rich and famous?” Auckland, New Zealand’s “City of Sails”, must have been tourism’s best-kept secret destination – the Pacific’s own Riviera –…

That Auld Mug? Why Should Anyone Care?

That Auld Mug? Why Should Anyone Care?

“No wonder the Kiwis hate us. This week, Team New Zealand became the first syndicate to successfully defend the America’s Cup in its 149-year history, and the Australian media barely bothered to acknowledge it.” The trans-Tasman perspective.

Week of Glory for New Zealand

Week of Glory for New Zealand

“Little New Zealand” has done it again. A country of less than 3.8 million people has once again proved how talented it is at sports.

Special Reserve Drinks from the Cup of Victory

Special Reserve Drinks from the Cup of Victory

Week in the Life: Dean Barker, Yachtsman.

Ciao for Now New Zealand

Ciao for Now New Zealand

Beaten by Black Magic, Prada promises they’ll be back for America’s Cup rerun. Minutes after New Zealand’s Black Magic sailed past the finishing line to clinch the America’s Cup with a 5-0 whitewash …

The Little Nation that Could

The Little Nation that Could

Enough said (really!)  

Black Magic Casts its Spell; All New Zealand Celebrates

Black Magic Casts its Spell; All New Zealand Celebrates

Skipper Russell Coutts always put the emphasis on ‘team’ in Team New Zealand, and today, he gave an understudy the glorious job of winning the America’s Cup …  

Cool Hand on Deck

Cool Hand on Deck

“Sir Peter Blake, head of Team New Zealand, is that rare thing: an international celebrity who has remained popular in a homeland where cutting “tall poppies” down to size is a national pastime …”  

Yacht to Watch this Animation

Yacht to Watch this Animation

You won’t get the sea-breeze or the sea spray, but an internet animator from New Zealand can almost get you to the America’s Cup.

Break Up the Kiwis: Rout of Prada Complete

Break Up the Kiwis: Rout of Prada Complete

“Will it be another 130 years before anyone can wrest the cup from the Kiwis?” The extensive New York Times coverage of the America’s Cup.