Downsizing the Cup board

A combination of factors were behind Keith Turner's recent decision to step down as chairman of the five-person board of Team New Zealand.

But the Te Puna resident remains adamant that he's passionate about the America's Cup, and is under no illusions about his home country's technological involvement.


Photo: File.

'New Zealand punches above its weight in this space, and we have extraordinary capability to innovate,” says Keith. 'We lead technology.

'New Zealand was really the origin of both Team New Zealand as well as Oracle's defence. The boats and the appendages were made in Warkworth, and an awful lot of the carbon fibre technology comes from New Zealand.

'So in a way, the San Francisco competition was a New Zealand challenge against a New Zealand kit sailed by an American team. In fact there was quite a number of New Zealanders in that team as well.

'You have to say New Zealanders are right at the top of the world stage in terms of America's Cup technology and team skill.

Keith cites a combination of factors lead to him stepping down from the chairman's positon, including the ever-adjusting nature of the America's Cup competition and Team New Zealand's changing circumstances.

Describing himself as a ‘reasonably busy' person, Keith was on the board of six different companies until he resigned as deputy chairman of Auckland International Airport in October. He's also chairman of Fisher and Paykel, and on the board of Chorus.

In Australia he's on the boards of Spark Infrastructure Australia, South Australia Power Networks and Victoria Power Networks.

'All of those consume a fair amount of time,” he admits.

He took on the Team New Zealand role in April 2014 on the understanding that it wouldn't too arduous, but over the last six months it has become a lot more time consuming.

'And a lot of that time needs to be discharged in Auckland where I'm in contact with the CEO and other board members,” he explains.

'Trying to get to Auckland after doing these other six boards was adding quite a lot of burden. I guess the idea of retiring from Meridian to have a little more time went out the window.”

Team New Zealand is also at a point where the nature of the competition for the America's Cup has changed.

The boats have been downsized from 62' to 48' to try and lower the cost of the challenge.

'The America's Cup event authority also want to make a lot of the boat standard, common design,” says Keith.

'Things like the wing and the hulls would be common components, so the amount of innovation or the scope for innovation by each team was narrowed down to certain elements and sailing.”

The loss of the qualifier event in Auckland and the now expected loss of government funding is another factor. The government gave Emirates Team New Zealand $36 million for the San Francisco campaign.

'With the prospect of no government money, we have to revisit whether the team needs a board of five in the context of a much lower budget and a smaller boat,” he says.

The America's Cup competition is now angled towards the performance of the team and certain aspects of design and control.

The intention behind reducing the costs by making the boats smaller is to be able to increase the number of teams that can enter the event and compete for it.

'It is attempting to shift the Americas cup into a sustainable position where it's not so expensive that only a few teams can compete,” says Keith.

'That is the intention, and unfortunately the way things have played out hasn't been at all straight forward.

'The America's Cup event authority has made unilateral decisions and there's been changes in protocol and rules. That has led to a situation where it has been very, very, challenging for Team New Zealand to sustain its momentum and to fund itself.”

The New Zealand Government put in $5 million back in 2013 to keep the team together, but the team has existed on private funding ever since.

'I chose to step down as chair in order to bring about the change to the governance that may be appropriate for Team New Zealand in the future,” says Keith.

'I know the team has put out a statement that they are reviewing governance and will make decision in due course.

'I think that shows this is an appropriate time to do so.”

You may also like....

0 comments

Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.