Newsroom.co.nz. By Suzanne McFadden.
For the first time in the syndicate's history, Emirates Team New Zealand will build their own America's Cup yachts.
The Cup defenders have decided to build the hulls of their two AC75 foiling monohulls in-house for the 2021 Cup regatta on the Hauraki Gulf, after more than two decades of having their race yachts constructed at Auckland boatyards, Newsroom can reveal.
Team NZ's chief operating officer, Kevin Shoebridge, says the decision to have their own building facility was about “having control over what we do”.
“We push things to the limit. We're often late. We want to try different stuff,” he says. “We just believe that having in-house control over the build will give us the ability to do a really nice job. And it will also give us the manpower that if we want to do something quickly, we don't have to wait for a commercial yard to fit us in. We can change the plan overnight and just do it. It's hard doing that in a commercial yard.”
Team NZ are in the process of finding a yard on Auckland's North Shore to build their boats.
In 1995, the victorious Black Magic sisters were built at McMullin and Wing in Mt Wellington. Between 2000 and 2013, all eight of Team NZ's boats came out of the Cookson Boats yard in Glenfield.
Last year's winning AC50, Aotearoa New Zealand, was borne out of the huge Southern Spars facility in Avondale. It was the first time the world-renowned spar-makers had constructed a boat – a job that took more than 30,000 man hours.
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