After controversy marred the event in Christchurch last weekend — when an entire day’s racing was lost because of worries about threats to dolphins in Lyttelton Harbour — SailGP chief executive Sir Russell Coutts said a return to Christchurch was unlikely.
The New Zealand leg of the sailing series would most probably go to Auckland, but Coutts said at the weekend there was also a chance for Wellington and Queenstown.
Sir Russell has a property in the Queenstown area and has helped bring yachting events to the town.
But getting an upscale yachting event to the resort was unlikely.
Wakatipu Yacht Club commodore John Stalker said logistically it might be too hard to get the event to Queenstown.
"There is enough wind and I think the lake is big enough, but it [Sail GP] is a huge operation and I’m not sure we have the set-up here to get it done," he said.
Mr Stalker said there were doubts about how the yachts would be put into the water and where to put any grandstand, which had to be close to the action. The boats were launched and brought out every day.
The boats were carted around the world in containers, so they could be easily transported to the town.
Accommodation was available and the teams would bring a real buzz to the town, he said.
He was in Christchurch last weekend and said it was a fantastic day and brought plenty of money into the town.
Christchurch had paid a $1 million licence fee to get the series to Lyttelton and the heavily indebted Queenstown Lakes District Council would find it hard to justify spending council money on a yacht race despite the money it would bring into the town.
He had not talked about any Queenstown event with Sir Russell but nothing could be ruled out when ambitious people got involved.
Queenstown Lakes deputy mayor Quinten Smith, of Wānaka, said the council has not received an approach about staging a Sail GP series leg.
He said Sir Russell had given a throwaway line about staging the event in Queenstown, but there was no doubt it would be a fantastic event.
There would, though, be big challenges to get such a race to Queenstown, which would not be easy to overcome.
"We are more than happy to have the conversation and be willing to talk about it ... we do not have any dolphins at least."
There was no business in the area that could easily provide a grandstand and hard to see a big enough piece of land near the lake shore where a grandstand could be located.
Lake Wānaka was the same as Lake Wakatipu, as it had issues about getting the crowd close enough to the boats and infrastructure to cart the boats.
Most legs of the series were held in large cities around the world which had all the infrastructure.
