JoIn case you didn’t know, a select multi-millionaire club from around the world – with its superyachts in tow – has come down to Waitematā Harbor in Auckland, New Zealand, to resume one of its favorite activities: watching as a group of boys ran fast boats back and forth across an invisible line. It’s a bit like NASCAR for rich people.
These multimillion-dollar owners were fortunate to receive special “essential service worker exemptions” to travel to New Zealand, after the government deemed them “essential” to spend their millions on the local economy in exchange for the opportunity to forget about social distancing, breathe coronavirus outdoors and enjoy watching their multi-million dollar yachts compete against each other for an old, shiny trophy known as the Auld Mug. Although everyday workers have had to endure drastic changes and hardships and have been denied even the most basic relief during the pandemic, billionaires continue to struggle to continue their costly hobbies of global trotting.
All of this is part of a four-year sporting event known to most New Zealanders and other sailing fans as the America’s Cup; its 36th edition began on March 10, after the opening of the weekend was postponed due to a level 3 alert coronavirus blockade in Auckland.
The reigning champion, the Emirates Team New Zealand, is backed by reclusive Italian Swiss billionaire Matteo de Nora. They will face against the challengers, the Italian team Luna Rossa, owned by the Italian billionaire Patrizio Bertelli of the Prada group.
The Italians beat Ineos Team UK, owned by British billionaire and industrialist Jim Ratcliffe, in the Prada Cup final. It was a week after sweeping the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic, a sponsored team and partly owned by Betsy DeVos’ former billionaire brother-in-law, Doug, his billionaire partner Roger Penske, and businessman John “Hap” Fauth, with four straight wins in the Prada Cup semifinals. And let’s not forget how Team NZ came about in the first place: defeating Oracle Team USA, with the support of American billionaire and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, in 2017. (The event is held every few years). If you appear here about the people behind this competition, you are absolutely right.
The America’s Cup (named after the first ship, America, win the competition), not only has the oldest international sports trophy in the world, but is known by the richest people in the world. Historically, it has attracted several generations of Vanderbilts, JP Morgan, CNN founder Ted Turner and, more recently, Bill Koch of the Koch brothers.
The goal of the game is simple: get past the finish line first. But the rules can be complex. The yachts run one-on-one on a three-kilometer-long course, sailing in the wind around the first checkpoint, then passing through the starting line to the second checkpoint and then back to the first. This process is repeated for several laps set by the race officers according to the strength of the wind. Navigating outside the established limits of the route or infringing an opponent who has the right of way incurs remote sanctions. Every win is a point for this team. The first team to score 7 points wins the Auld Cup.
From 1851 to 1980, there was not much “competition” in the America’s Cup, with the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) winning the first regatta and successfully defending all challenges for a century. That is, until they lost to Australia’s Royal Perth Yacht Club in 1983. Nearly 30 years after that loss, the NYYC returned to play their claim in this year’s race.
But Americans ’hopes of regaining the America’s Cup this year faded quickly and without ceremony. The New York American magic team was the favorite to win the Prada Cup and challenge the defenders. Commanded by Terry Hutchinson and led by New Zealander Dean Barker, former New Zealand team skipper, the Americans hoped to return and bring the Auld Mug to their former home. Instead, after two disappointing rounds and a dramatic upheaval that left catastrophic – and catastrophically expensive – damage to his ship, Patriot, the Americans continued to perform poorly, losing all races against Luna Rossa.
There was a disturbing suspense about himself Patriot it would be repaired in time for the semifinal races. It showed how the America’s Cup has become so much more than just a regatta; it is now an extensive technological shipbuilding journey that requires incredibly wealthy sponsors. American Magic spent up to $ 120 million on its campaign and the development of its racing yachts; this exceeds the budget provided by Auckland City Council to host the entire event.
The types of final race boats are determined by the defending champions, usually for their advantage and their preferred race style. This year’s competition, chosen by the New Zealand team, is based on the design of the AC75, meaning that the boats are built with a 75-foot-long, keel-free monohull and two rotating blades ( they look a bit like legs or small wings and provide elevation to the hull).
Each team is allowed to have two boats and each can cost up to $ 8 to $ 10 million to build. It should be ultralight: minus the sails and crew, the ship cannot weigh more than 6,520 kilograms, while a normal 75-foot yacht usually weighs up to ten times that amount. These are racing boats designed to fly through — and sometimes literally over — water at speeds of up to 50 knots. Designing such a boat requires immense resources. The Italians AC75 Luna Rossa, for example, took 78,000 hours (almost two years) to build with a team of 90 people, including 37 team designers. As Jeff Foss said Outside magazine: “Yeah, it’s a boat race, but calling these things ‘boats’ is like calling Elon Musk’s Hyperloop a choo-choo train.”
Interestingly, in the midst of a deadly global pandemic, as other major sporting events such as the Olympics have been postponed, the America’s Cup has remained relatively unscathed.
Part of this is due to how New Zealand acted early and decisively to stop the spread of the coronavirus. With a population of just under 5 million, New Zealand has had 2,409 cases of COVID-19 and 26 deaths in total; has remained at alert level 1 for most of the pandemic.
The three competitors of the Auld Mug, on the other hand, come from the three western nations with the highest number of coronavirus deaths: the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom If the teams were not sponsored by billionaires showing their wealth by in sport, they would not be allowed to enter the country at all.
There’s something ugly about the clear divisions that allow the rich to easily travel to a place that is perhaps the closest this land has to paradise (I was born in New Zealand, I’m biased). Most people cannot afford to escape their pandemic suffering and spend their fortunes on state-of-the-art bunkers or quarantined from their megayaks.
Apparently, this doesn’t matter to some New Zealand government officials, who seem to view the sporting event (and the money that drives it) as a cultural necessity. “The America’s Cup would not be able to move forward unless these international trade union teams are allowed entry into New Zealand,” New Zealand Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford offered as an explanation on June 2020 before granting exemptions to the multimillion-dollar teams behind competitors.
“For many Americans, it is a slap in the face to see members of the DeVos family move to New Zealand, happily masked and “in quarantine”.”
Meanwhile, a rift stemming from this policy allowed superheroes access to New Zealand waters, as long as their crews were quarantined inside the yacht for a minimum of 14 days and the owners spent a certain amount of money. minimum (up to A $ 7 million in one case) in ship repairs. . Companies began to push for their multimillionaire owners to also be able to enter New Zealand with their superyachts. But so far, none of them seem to have gotten there.
Other billionaire sponsors of the America’s Cup, such as Valve owner Gabe Newell, have even “temporarily moved” to New Zealand during the pandemic. In Newell’s case, he stopped there on vacation and decided to stay, probably to escape the restrictive US blockades and seemingly endless virus outbreaks.
It is part of a longer-term trend that has turned New Zealand into a playground for a wealthy person, especially since Silicon Valley businessman and billionaire Peter Thiel, who was granted citizenship in 2011 in “ exceptional circumstances ”after spending only 12 days in 5 years. U.S. hedge fund billionaire John Griffin is another who fled New York to New Zealand by private jet just before closing, while U.S. hedge fund billionaire Julian Robertson found more of $ 1 million in government grants to pay staff salaries at their luxury resorts. Sure, New Zealand could be closed to the world, but what prevents other billionaires from obtaining residency or citizenship in “exceptional circumstances”?
For many Americans, it is a slap in the face to see members of the DeVos family move to New Zealand, happy masked and “quarantined.” His home state, Michigan, suffered severely during the pandemic, as anti-maskers refused to cooperate with state closures (while actually trying to kidnap the governor at some point) and members of the DeVos family refused to publicly support mask and quarantine measures that have helped stifle the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
We have seen time and time again how billionaires do and break the rules, often at our expense. We have seen them greedily collect PPP loans for small businesses or leave their pandemic-affected cities to make private getaways to the islands just because they could. New Zealand took the COVID-19 pandemic seriously and was successful, although it is still the billionaires in the world who can enjoy this benefit. Because God forbid that they should run with their boats.