Government Keen To Bring Americas Cup Yachting To New Zealand Motorways

JOINT PRESS RELEASE BY MINISTERS OF SPORT, TOURISM AND VROOM VROOM I LIKE ROADS

The New Zealand Government will enter discussions with Team Emirates New Zealand about hosting the next Americas Cup, to be held on New Zealand’s roads of national significance.

Bringing the Americas Cup home is a unique opportunity to showcase to the world both our nation’s sporting prowess and some of New Zealand’s finest attractions, including the Auckland Northern Motorway, the Waikato Expressway, the Transmission Gully bypass, and the Tauranga Eastern Link.

Obvious there will be technological challenges to be met. But Emirates Team New Zealand has a storied history of cutting-edge innovation culminating in the foiling monohulls used today.

Having successfully lifted their boats out of the water, the next step will be adding wheels and conducting races on a reliable all-weather surface. New Zealand’s best and brightest motorways provide such a surface. Upon them, the world’s greatest sailing teams will have a truly level playing field.

And, thanks to the future-focussed multi-laning of our roads of national significance, double the number of teams will be able to race against each other at once. There can be few more majestic sights than four monohulls nose to nose as they race over the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Negotiations with Team Emirates New Zealand will also include the rapid phasing-in of fossil-fuel-powered engines for the next Americas Cup regatta.