And lo, with those eight words, the great yachting commentator Peter Montgomery did set forth an extensive period of great celebration in the land of the long white cloud.
Team New Zealand, who won the America’s Cup for the first time aboard mighty Black Magic in San Diego in 1995, became the first team to successfully defend world sport’s oldest trophy outside the United States five years later.
They swept challengers Prada 5-0 aboard NZL-60 in the 30th America’s Cup regatta in the Hauraki Gulf in February-March 2000.
It has to be considered the absolute peak of America’s Cup, at least for fans in this part of the world.
EVERYONE got behind Team New Zealand. We all learned what "tack" and "jibe" meant, we bit our nails when the black boat chose to "luff up", we got to know every inflection in Montgomery’s and Peter Lester’s voices, we dusted off the red socks for good luck and we knew more about Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth and Tom Schnackenberg (that moustache!) than we knew about an underwhelming All Blacks team.
After our nautical heroes laid waste to Prada in the 2000 final, they took the America’s Cup on tour again and crowds came out in force around New Zealand to see the Auld Mug and the sailors.
In Dunedin, the crowd for a parade down George St was estimated at 30,000. Shop windows were adorned with balloons and red socks, and bales of ticker-tape were thrown. The biggest cheer in the Octagon was reserved for Coutts, who cut his yachting teeth in Otago Harbour, and pupils from his alma mater, Otago Boys’, performed a haka on the steps of St Paul’s cathedral.
Absolutely magnificent. What could possibly go wrong from here?
Um, try everything.
In 2013, there was tragi-comedy in San Francisco when the Kiwis, helmed by Dean Barker, shot to an 8-1 lead over new holders Oracle, only to crumble to a 9-8 loss in the biggest choke in New Zealand sporting history.
Order was restored when Team New Zealand reclaimed the Cup by beating the Americans in Bermuda in 2017, and defending it against Luna Rossa in Auckland in 2021.
Things got a bit weird again when syndicate boss Grant Dalton got the hump with the government and accepted a deal to host the 2024 regatta in Barcelona. Yes, a New Zealand sports team having a "home game" in Spain. Huh.
Team New Zealand, in their fancy AC75, a foiling monohull labelled Taihoro, beat Britannia 7-2 in the finals in October. But did anybody watch?
As of writing, it was not clear where or when the next America’s Cup will be held. It seems highly unlikely public interest will ever return to the levels of the year 2000.
