Richard Gladwell: Sail World Editor on Wynyard Quarter hosting the Auckland leg of the SailGP

Auckland's leg of SailGP will bring the boats to the spectators.  

The event will hold its first ever leg in Auckland in January.  

Auckland was supposed to hold an event last year, but that was cancelled after land use issues with Wynyard Quarter.  

Sail World Editor Richard Gladwell says Wynyard Point will probably be the main spectator base with necessary infrastructure already in place.  

He told Ryan Bridge the boats may even come a little too close. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, let's turn our attention into sale GP because it's
coming to Auckland. The schedule for racing next year has
been announced. The season will start and do Bay before
heading to Auckland. It follows the news at the league
withdrew from a hosting agreement that would have seen it
take place in christ Church again. Richard Gladwell is the
Sale World New Zealand editor and he's with me now. Richard,

(00:20):
good morning to you, tell you good, thank you, great
news for Aucklanders. Anything to do with the dolphins.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh well, thanks everything to do with the dolphins, and
you know Russell Coosters wasn't prepared to go down there
again after the last time. I think they just can't
losing in a whole day because someone sees the dolphins
swing around the course. So yeah, it's all to do
with that. But I think also there was also an
agreement in there in place that Auckland would have two

(00:52):
sale GP events in four years and christ Church would
have had two. So christ Church have had the two,
So hope for the orkand are about to get there too, right.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Do you think the council is paying anything for this?
Is there any backhanders that go on with CELGP.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh no, there's I mean NBA are upfront about it.
You go onto their website, they've listed down for a
gatson they say the five point four million dollar events.
So I assume that the Auckland Council isn't paying anything. However,
they will be paying, you know, in kind from a

(01:28):
lot of things. And they after that announcement, they've come
out and said that they're looking at when You're Point,
which is the venue that caused all the cafuffle last time.
So hopefully everyone's got their ducks in a row of that.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
That's right. So where will we watch it from? Can
we watch it because that was the problem last time.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, yeah, there's plenty of I mean I haven't been
a Winyard Point lately, but when I was last year,
they still had it, you know, getting those gases out
of the ground and really those from the sled fuel
tanks and substance tanks. So people will be down there
on Winyard Point. There's plenty of advantage places around west

(02:10):
Haven and that sort of thing. You can also probably
watch it a bit of it from the shore from
North Cape Point. Yes that's surrounded. But the other thing
to remember too, is sort of mean. There's a lot
of facilities down there that were done for America's Cups
that are you know, they're open and used, but they're
they certainly don't get heavy use. So I think it'll

(02:32):
be a great vantage point down there.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So you're confident that that we've got enough infrastructure there
already to actually host this event and to host it
on time, because I mean it's coming. It's around the corner,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, yeah, all they've got all the saying all accounts
will have to do is they've just got to essentially
put that winyard point down and tarmac in the same
way that they've done it around you know, Team New
Zealand and further back towards the city. So once they've
got that area, they're a hard stand team just comes
in and puts all their support basis and that sort

(03:05):
of thing. And they're a big feature of sal GP
as what they call the Adrenaline Lounge. So that's a
real VIP hospitality area and that goes right hard on
the water's edge. Then they have the boats finishing you know,
off that, so they're so close that you can know
virtually touch them. In fact, on the last two or

(03:25):
three Salgpens events. Having that finish line so close to
a seawall has caused a few kurefuffles. To say the least, it.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Sounds like the place I'm going to be down at
the Adrenaline Lounge. Thank you very much for the time
this morning, appreciate it. Exciting is that the sale GP
is coming to tomaky Makoto. That's really glad well with
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