August 12, 2025 • 10 mins
The America's Cup protocol has changed drastically ahead of the 38th instalment in Naples in 2027.
These changes include the establishment of the Americas Cup Partnership, reducing the crew from 8-5 people one of which must be a woman as well as seeing the return of guest racers, batteries replacing manual power and the introduction of a cost cap.
Sailing analyst Chris Steele caught up with D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss the changes and what it means going forward for sailing's biggest race.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be to the Boats we Go. It's all about
sailing and the America's Cup Protocol is outward. Joined by
sailor and sailing commentator mister Chris Steele. Good day, Chris.
Big news today around the America's Cup the protocol. So
many changes, so many tweaks, so many adjustments, big for
(00:34):
the sport, massive for the America's Cup. Just how much
does this loom over the competition, over the regatta?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I mean, obviously today's a big day, and I
guess the forecast of what the event's going to look like,
who's going to be involved and all that sort of thing.
So yeah, turning plenty of heads today in the sailing world,
and yeah, I guess everyone can kind of get to
planning what their program is going to look like for
the next couple of years.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
The big decisions, the big changes, they're everywhere, aren't they.
I suppose what to you stands up as being the
main change in the protocol, And I mean one, two, three, four,
how many of them?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, there's a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I mean there's a lot to dissect and The interesting
thing will just be trying to figure out how many
how many teams this is going to impact, and who's
going to actually turn up to the start line. I mean,
there'll be teams that benefit from the changes, and there'll
be other teams that don't. So that'll be the interesting
thing for me is how many teams we're actually going
to see on the start line.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You know when they get totally.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, they've got a cap put on it, you've got
to use the old holes. They've got added a female competitor.
They've opened up another spot for a royal or an
influencer to come on. They've got rid of the cyclause
it's all battery pound and they're looking at it. We're
putting together this group that looks after the America's Cup
both on the water and off the water. That's pretty
(01:56):
big that that control has been given to an independent,
if you will.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I guess what they're trying to do is trying
to share the workload so that they can I guess
folks just on only on the development of the boat
and their own program. I mean, in the in the past,
the responsibility is kind of fallen in the in the
lap of the defender, so to speaking, and actually trying
to make sure that the racing is kind of you know,
run and conducted in a certain way almost becomes a
(02:23):
bit of a burden, you know, so they try and
outsource that. But I guess, you know, having having an
independent I guess organization just in charge of that, I
think will allow the teams to focus solely on their
own on their own programs and yeah, just just focus
on the racing.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
More transparency, do you think of it's out of the
hands of an individual team.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, I mean, like, like you said, there's there's a
lot of different changes that to dissect, and I mean
where do you start.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Like you've got the influencer.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Type role, which I guess is just trying to promote
the sports sort of thing. And then you've got obviously
a female person on the boat. Where do you move
you know, the dynamics and the team to to best
you know, accommodate that. Like you know, my guess is
you probably a high chance you'll have a female driver
on one side of the boat. So you know, that
would change a lot of the current makeups of the
(03:12):
teams at the moment that have two kind of set
and sowned sort of skippers, So I mean some of
the partnerships there that the teams have, you know, solely
built their sailing team around over the last couple of
campaigns might get a shake up in that regard as well.
And obviously then you start going to the equipment side
of things. Yeah, I mean, this is this is kind
of where the teams need, like the information that they've
(03:35):
been waiting for so that they can really launch sort
of right into the swing of things.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
So it's a pretty pivotal day and the Cup cycle
for this next edition.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'm fascinated by the cost cap roughly one hundred and
forty seven million New Zealand dollars are the same hull
for the last edition. Teams can acquire an existing hole
or a bit a new one, but has to be the same.
Very important. How important, because this is a billionaire's playground,
is the fact that now they've got a limit on
that going to grow the Cup?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Do you believe that's a good question because I think
the cost cap sort of probably suits the lower budget
teams the most, and you'd have to probably assume with
the current big hitters that are in there at the moment.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
That the Kiwis are one of the lower budget teams.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So effectively, you're kind of going to end up in
a similar sort of position as I guess the Formula
One model, where you know, all of a sudden, now
because you've got a cost cap in place, it might invite,
you know, some lower budget teams to come in, whether
that's as a new team or the existing teams. But
what it means is you're just going to have to
be very selective with how you spend your money. And
(04:41):
I think you know, if you look at the last
edition in the America's Cup, one of the very intriguing
kind of things was you had the presence of any
US involved, you know, the Mercedes kind of Formula One
team there, and then also with Red Bull with a
LINGI there was there was another presence sort of there.
So all of those involvements were to keep the cost
down for the Formula One teams. You know, it was
(05:01):
as much to benefit the Formula One teams as it
was the American's Cup team. So you know, there's I
guess if you look at that kind of forecasted model,
now how these America's Cup team is going to try
and develop softwares and technology and other sports, so that
it doesn't spend into that cost cap that they've got
for the Cup.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Two non nationals allowed to sail, allowed to be on board,
and it's not got anything to do with who they
represented last time around. So that's been tweaked too. So
you look at that and think, well, Peter Berling is
free to climb on the boat. Is it important to
have non nationals? There's only five crew members plus an extra.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Now, I mean it's a very tricky there's a lot
of different pros and cons when you look at that
particular alement of the America's Cup. I mean, in the
last couple of years it's gone back down the sort
of direction of being all about the sort of nations,
which we've kind of seen to quite a heavy extent,
but sort of if you go back to sort of
(06:00):
the two thousand America's Cup or two thousand and seven,
the last sort of edition of the version five monohulls,
there really wasn't any nationality rule whatsoever, so to speak.
So it was a little bit more of a commercial
kind of event, so to speak, and you had quite
a large participation rate at that sort of stage, so
I think, yeah, I mean, like you said, you mentioned
(06:20):
Pete being eligible to sail on one of the boats.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Now, that is huge news.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I haven't read the wording of that part of it,
so to speak yet, but he would obviously be an
extremely strong addition to any team whether he was on
the boat or not. But if he's able to be
on the boat now as well, then yeah, that's definitely
going to be a pretty pretty big talking point and
it'll make that Lunrosit team extremely strong.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Chris Steele joining us and Chris the Devil's in the detail.
You haven't read that yet, No, I don't know how
many fish hooks are in that particular cause through there
the fact that there's one woman on board. How big?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, I mean, that's I think if you look at
the trend of where the sport's sort of been going
the last couple of years across multiple sort of of
the higher end sailing circuits, particularly America's Cup and sell DP,
there's been a big push to involve more females on
the boat, and clearly that's what they've they've sort of
looked at with the current rules for this next American's
(07:22):
Cup as well. Again, if you look at the changes
that they're made. Having batteries on the boat and non
cyclists and all those sorts of things. My gut feeling
is that will make the boats less physical in terms
of the output that you need to control a lot
of the functions on the boat.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
And so that's a positive thing for the females. You know,
if you've got.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Batteries, if you've got batteries for powering those functions, then
you know, you could have females driving the boat, or
you could have females you know, pushing buttons and controlling
sales and or technically making decisions around the racetrack.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You know, you name it.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
There's they can kind of be involved in an area,
whereas in the past, when there was so much physical
output needed to perform those functions on the boat, it
made the spots very limited for people outside of you know,
the workhorses on the boat, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
So I'd say those two.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Kind of go hand in hand, and again it will
just add a completely different element to the makeup of
the teams, like where are you're best going to be,
you know, trying to use the rules to your advantage
in that regard like that says there's only one female
in the boat. But you know, there's nothing saying you
couldn't have more, so to speak, So it'll be interesting
(08:29):
to see the direction that people go down with that
as well.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And Chris confirmation it will be held every two years. Wow,
this is quite a big reaction to what sale GP
have been up to. Is it not? Not right across
the board, but in general, they're whipping it up, they're
making it regular. You know when it's coming, they're really
opening the doors one hundred and seventy four years of history.
(08:54):
They're making some big calls here. But every two years
is that sustainable?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I think if you look at the fact that they're
trying to cut the costs down, make it sustainable in
that regard. You know, if you're putting a budget cap
on it of I would say one hundred and fifty
million or whatever, you know that is honestly, it's probably
maybe half of what some of those top end teams
(09:20):
were spending over a four year.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Cycle, so or not quite but close enough too.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So Yeah, if you're cutting the budget significantly, then every
two years might be possible. Again, that's something that's going
to appeal more to, you know, commercial contacts that are
coming into the game, like Biggert, sponsors are going to
want to be involved if it's a regular thing.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think you've seen that already with the model and SALEGP.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You know the way that sport in general is going
now I'm not just with sailing, but again, you know,
the easiest comparison is looking at Formula one is like
regular races, you know, every you know, once a month
or once every couple of weeks sort of thing, and
that keeps people engaged because not just not just in sport,
but if you look at all social media and all
(10:05):
those sorts of things, everything's getting short or you know,
the attention span of people who is getting shorter and shorter,
so videos all that type of thing, the clips are
coming down and becoming more frequent. So I think, you know,
I think that's the model that's sort of happening in
sport nowadays as well, and that's the thing that probably
makes the most sense that they've looked at, and that's
one of the reasons why they're changing direction in that regard.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
And on Matt Chris Steele, we think if your time,
your expertise, look forward to catching up again soon. Big
day for saving Big day for America's Cup.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You go well yeah, cheers Arsy. Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
For more from sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be to the Boats we Go. It's all about
sailing and the America's Cup Protocol is outward. Joined by
sailor and sailing commentator mister Chris Steele. Good day, Chris.
Big news today around the America's Cup the protocol. So
many changes, so many tweaks, so many adjustments, big for
(00:34):
the sport, massive for the America's Cup. Just how much
does this loom over the competition, over the regatta?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I mean, obviously today's a big day, and I
guess the forecast of what the event's going to look like,
who's going to be involved and all that sort of thing.
So yeah, turning plenty of heads today in the sailing world,
and yeah, I guess everyone can kind of get to
planning what their program is going to look like for
the next couple of years.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
The big decisions, the big changes, they're everywhere, aren't they.
I suppose what to you stands up as being the
main change in the protocol, And I mean one, two, three, four,
how many of them?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, there's a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I mean there's a lot to dissect and The interesting
thing will just be trying to figure out how many
how many teams this is going to impact, and who's
going to actually turn up to the start line. I mean,
there'll be teams that benefit from the changes, and there'll
be other teams that don't. So that'll be the interesting
thing for me is how many teams we're actually going
to see on the start line.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You know when they get totally.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, they've got a cap put on it, you've got
to use the old holes. They've got added a female competitor.
They've opened up another spot for a royal or an
influencer to come on. They've got rid of the cyclause
it's all battery pound and they're looking at it. We're
putting together this group that looks after the America's Cup
both on the water and off the water. That's pretty
(01:56):
big that that control has been given to an independent,
if you will.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I guess what they're trying to do is trying
to share the workload so that they can I guess
folks just on only on the development of the boat
and their own program. I mean, in the in the past,
the responsibility is kind of fallen in the in the
lap of the defender, so to speaking, and actually trying
to make sure that the racing is kind of you know,
run and conducted in a certain way almost becomes a
(02:23):
bit of a burden, you know, so they try and
outsource that. But I guess, you know, having having an
independent I guess organization just in charge of that, I
think will allow the teams to focus solely on their
own on their own programs and yeah, just just focus
on the racing.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
More transparency, do you think of it's out of the
hands of an individual team.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, I mean, like, like you said, there's there's a
lot of different changes that to dissect, and I mean
where do you start.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Like you've got the influencer.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Type role, which I guess is just trying to promote
the sports sort of thing. And then you've got obviously
a female person on the boat. Where do you move
you know, the dynamics and the team to to best
you know, accommodate that. Like you know, my guess is
you probably a high chance you'll have a female driver
on one side of the boat. So you know, that
would change a lot of the current makeups of the
(03:12):
teams at the moment that have two kind of set
and sowned sort of skippers, So I mean some of
the partnerships there that the teams have, you know, solely
built their sailing team around over the last couple of
campaigns might get a shake up in that regard as well.
And obviously then you start going to the equipment side
of things. Yeah, I mean, this is this is kind
of where the teams need, like the information that they've
(03:35):
been waiting for so that they can really launch sort
of right into the swing of things.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
So it's a pretty pivotal day and the Cup cycle
for this next edition.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I'm fascinated by the cost cap roughly one hundred and
forty seven million New Zealand dollars are the same hull
for the last edition. Teams can acquire an existing hole
or a bit a new one, but has to be the same.
Very important. How important, because this is a billionaire's playground,
is the fact that now they've got a limit on
that going to grow the Cup?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Do you believe that's a good question because I think
the cost cap sort of probably suits the lower budget
teams the most, and you'd have to probably assume with
the current big hitters that are in there at the moment.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
That the Kiwis are one of the lower budget teams.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So effectively, you're kind of going to end up in
a similar sort of position as I guess the Formula
One model, where you know, all of a sudden, now
because you've got a cost cap in place, it might invite,
you know, some lower budget teams to come in, whether
that's as a new team or the existing teams. But
what it means is you're just going to have to
be very selective with how you spend your money. And
(04:41):
I think you know, if you look at the last
edition in the America's Cup, one of the very intriguing
kind of things was you had the presence of any
US involved, you know, the Mercedes kind of Formula One
team there, and then also with Red Bull with a
LINGI there was there was another presence sort of there.
So all of those involvements were to keep the cost
down for the Formula One teams. You know, it was
(05:01):
as much to benefit the Formula One teams as it
was the American's Cup team. So you know, there's I
guess if you look at that kind of forecasted model,
now how these America's Cup team is going to try
and develop softwares and technology and other sports, so that
it doesn't spend into that cost cap that they've got
for the Cup.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Two non nationals allowed to sail, allowed to be on board,
and it's not got anything to do with who they
represented last time around. So that's been tweaked too. So
you look at that and think, well, Peter Berling is
free to climb on the boat. Is it important to
have non nationals? There's only five crew members plus an extra.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Now, I mean it's a very tricky there's a lot
of different pros and cons when you look at that
particular alement of the America's Cup. I mean, in the
last couple of years it's gone back down the sort
of direction of being all about the sort of nations,
which we've kind of seen to quite a heavy extent,
but sort of if you go back to sort of
(06:00):
the two thousand America's Cup or two thousand and seven,
the last sort of edition of the version five monohulls,
there really wasn't any nationality rule whatsoever, so to speak.
So it was a little bit more of a commercial
kind of event, so to speak, and you had quite
a large participation rate at that sort of stage, so
I think, yeah, I mean, like you said, you mentioned
(06:20):
Pete being eligible to sail on one of the boats.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Now, that is huge news.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
I haven't read the wording of that part of it,
so to speak yet, but he would obviously be an
extremely strong addition to any team whether he was on
the boat or not. But if he's able to be
on the boat now as well, then yeah, that's definitely
going to be a pretty pretty big talking point and
it'll make that Lunrosit team extremely strong.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Chris Steele joining us and Chris the Devil's in the detail.
You haven't read that yet, No, I don't know how
many fish hooks are in that particular cause through there
the fact that there's one woman on board. How big?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, I mean, that's I think if you look at
the trend of where the sport's sort of been going
the last couple of years across multiple sort of of
the higher end sailing circuits, particularly America's Cup and sell DP,
there's been a big push to involve more females on
the boat, and clearly that's what they've they've sort of
looked at with the current rules for this next American's
(07:22):
Cup as well. Again, if you look at the changes
that they're made. Having batteries on the boat and non
cyclists and all those sorts of things. My gut feeling
is that will make the boats less physical in terms
of the output that you need to control a lot
of the functions on the boat.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
And so that's a positive thing for the females. You know,
if you've got.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Batteries, if you've got batteries for powering those functions, then
you know, you could have females driving the boat, or
you could have females you know, pushing buttons and controlling
sales and or technically making decisions around the racetrack.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You know, you name it.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
There's they can kind of be involved in an area,
whereas in the past, when there was so much physical
output needed to perform those functions on the boat, it
made the spots very limited for people outside of you know,
the workhorses on the boat, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
So I'd say those two.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Kind of go hand in hand, and again it will
just add a completely different element to the makeup of
the teams, like where are you're best going to be,
you know, trying to use the rules to your advantage
in that regard like that says there's only one female
in the boat. But you know, there's nothing saying you
couldn't have more, so to speak, So it'll be interesting
(08:29):
to see the direction that people go down with that
as well.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And Chris confirmation it will be held every two years. Wow,
this is quite a big reaction to what sale GP
have been up to. Is it not? Not right across
the board, but in general, they're whipping it up, they're
making it regular. You know when it's coming, they're really
opening the doors one hundred and seventy four years of history.
(08:54):
They're making some big calls here. But every two years
is that sustainable?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I think if you look at the fact that they're
trying to cut the costs down, make it sustainable in
that regard. You know, if you're putting a budget cap
on it of I would say one hundred and fifty
million or whatever, you know that is honestly, it's probably
maybe half of what some of those top end teams
(09:20):
were spending over a four year.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Cycle, so or not quite but close enough too.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So Yeah, if you're cutting the budget significantly, then every
two years might be possible. Again, that's something that's going
to appeal more to, you know, commercial contacts that are
coming into the game, like Biggert, sponsors are going to
want to be involved if it's a regular thing.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think you've seen that already with the model and SALEGP.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You know the way that sport in general is going
now I'm not just with sailing, but again, you know,
the easiest comparison is looking at Formula one is like
regular races, you know, every you know, once a month
or once every couple of weeks sort of thing, and
that keeps people engaged because not just not just in sport,
but if you look at all social media and all
(10:05):
those sorts of things, everything's getting short or you know,
the attention span of people who is getting shorter and shorter,
so videos all that type of thing, the clips are
coming down and becoming more frequent. So I think, you know,
I think that's the model that's sort of happening in
sport nowadays as well, and that's the thing that probably
makes the most sense that they've looked at, and that's
one of the reasons why they're changing direction in that regard.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
And on Matt Chris Steele, we think if your time,
your expertise, look forward to catching up again soon. Big
day for saving Big day for America's Cup.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You go well yeah, cheers Arsy. Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
For more from sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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