Grant Dalton: The boats used in La Maddalena are "substandard"
Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team NZ, was not a happy man after the conclusion of racing, almost at sunset, on Saturday and with good reason. A horizontal split near the top of the jib and a failed lock at the top of the mast cost his team any chance of winning its race against All4One.
As Dean Barker said they got the start they wanted but because of the torn jib they couldn't build the speed they wanted. Their main job was to keep the sail together as much as possible and minimise the losses while preparing for an attack on the downwind leg.
Yet that opportunity never came because at the hoist at the leeward gate one of the locks at the top of the rig failed and they could not set the sail properly. As a result, in the second beat as well the speed of the kiwi boat was compromised.
It's no wonder then that Dalton voiced his disappointment in the short video pointing out that the Louis Vuitton Trophy format works well when the boats they use are good, such as the ones provided by his team Auckland, but not with "substandard" yachts.
Grant Dalton comments of Saturday's races. La Maddalena, 29 May 2010. Video copyright Emirates Team NZ
Labels: Emirates Team NZ, Grant Dalton
7 Comments:
Dalts has a short memory....Auckland february 2008 for the LVPS where the ETNZ boats had issues with the headstay foils on numerous occasions. Several teams lost races due to headsails pulling out of the foils. Very rich for him to call the supplied equipment substandard.
At some point someone has to buy new sails for the ML boats. The LV trophy does not make one cent of profit and never will... It is an unsustainable, expensive match racing event which will die unless it is thrown some opperating capital so new, lower maintenance boats and sails can be purchased. Absolutely ridiculous that you have an event in boats that require a small army to maintain...
Think someone will ultimately lose this regatta with gear or sail failure. Still à week of sailing to go and already the sails are dead...
You get what is promised in the LVT brochure: a cheap event. How to combine this with the 4 million euro being spend on La Maddalena alone, I have no clue. It will only work at this level if boats are kept in mint condition, with new kit when needed. Otherwise it is just a circus coming to town. In the end the AC boats are not suitable for this. Build to fall apart.
It is a circus, a cheap one. The master of ceremony is Bruno Troublé. The clowns are Bélanger, Esquier and their buddies born in 1851.
It is time someone like Dalton speaks up.
Management is what requires this event, but Coutts, Esquier, Cayard and co are sailors at best. Not managers.
I think Dalton must be fed up with the Louis Vuitton regattas but his public expression of discontent is incoherent and contradictory.
First of all this a circuit that HE created, together with Troublé. Secondly, his team is a founding member AND preferential shareholder of the WSTA which means that he surely voted in favor of racing in Maddalena with the Mascalzone "substandard" yachts.
This time there is no "bad and evil" Alinghi or ACM to blame for imposing their will, so Dalts cut the crap.
Dalton, it is not the boats which are substandard. It is the whole event, its management, and the antic people who try to run it.
Reinvent everything, get rid of Vuitton and maybe the future will be bright.
is anybody really paying any attention to this event? Seems to have zero profile as regards a feeder event / team setup exercise for the Cup m? Wouldn't it just be cheaper to keep all th team members that count on retainers and dispense with this charade until the new rules are announced ? At least that some "major players" wouldn't have to go out there and make themselves look average ?
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