They have a score to settle from 2012 and want to do it again: The Kiwis are planning a start in the Volvo Ocean Race! According to consistent reports by Spanish journalists Nicolas Terry and Pierre Orphanidis, Team New Zealand, which was so bitterly beaten in the America's Cup, wants to try its luck again in the Volvo Ocean Race.
After finishing second in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011/2012, the New Zealanders under skipper Chris Nicholson want to compete again as partners of Pedros Campos and Team Campos in the most famous team race around the world. Team boss Grant Dalton has now confirmed this to the New Zealand television station TV3. The victory-hungry team plans to compete under a Spanish-New Zealand double flag and is said to have a target budget of around 30 million New Zealand dollars (around 18 million euros).
Dalton was surprised by the press frenzy on his arrival in Auckland and was reserved in his first television interview. "We've sealed a partnership with people we know," said the round-the-world sailor and America's Cup veteran. "We agreed on the basic parameters and talked about how we would do it. But it's quite difficult to raise that amount of money at the moment."
Dalton explained his hopes for the team's second start in the Volvo Ocean Race objectively: "AT and the government have invested money in the stopover in Auckland, and I think it's important that this country is involved. It would be good if a boat from New Zealand was there." Whether Dalton was actually surprised by the press frenzy during his first interview in Auckland or was just acting well was not apparent. He grinned as he said: "The story got home a bit quicker than I did in this case. However that could have happened ... We're hoping that JB, the Spanish and ourselves can get the money together and get a boat in the race." Dalton also said that "this race has been in my blood since my twenties", that he "could never really let it go" and that it was "very important" to him.
Asked about Team New Zealand's current America's Cup activities, the 56-year-old six-time Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race competitor smiled and pointed out that the American defenders would first have to announce the rules for the next edition before his team could start serious negotiations with sponsors.
The Volvo Ocean Race is much closer: it starts on 4 October in Alicante and covers 38,739 nautical miles to the Swedish port of Gothenburg. And now it may soon have a new co-favourite.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
