Three times America's Cup winner exits Kiwi SailGP team in transfer war
by Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz 27 Oct 09:23 UTC
Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup - Andy Maloney, starboard trimmer on ‘Taihoro' - October 12, 2024 © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup
The Brazil SailGP team has signed New Zealand's SailGP and triple America's Cup winner, Andy Maloney, as flight controller for the upcoming season.
Maloney, a past winner of the Finn Gold Cup, who narrowly missed selection as the NZ representative in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta, will join INEOS Britannia Pilot/Trimmer Leigh McMillan and former SailGP Denmark grinder Richard Mason, who takes the role of strategist. The new team includes Brazilian nationals Martine Grael as driver and Mateus Isaac and Marco Grael as grinders. Martine Grael is a double Olympic Gold medalist in the Womens Skiff event.
Without being more specific, according to a story published on the SailGP website, Maloney's departure from the Peter Burling and Blair Tuke led Blackfoils SailGP team will have a "domino effect" on the New Zealand team.
The site says his departure "marked one of the highest profile athlete transfers in the off-season so far and will have a domino effect on New Zealand, which is yet to confirm its replacement flight controller."
Maloney has been part of the New Zealand team since its inception three years ago in Season 2.
The expansion of the SailGP League from nine to 12 teams in Season 5 has already led to several "transfers," as investors purchase franchises for existing and new teams for upwards of USD$40million, plus sailing operations expenses.
Only two existing teams are believed not to be privately owned, but disclosure of the financial details and ownership are up to the teams/League to disclose if they wish, and several have chosen not to do so.
Back in July 2024, SailGP CEO Russell Coutts revealed that league-owned teams Canada, France and Spain were issued formal notice that one would be dropped from the League should they fail to secure third-party ownership or full commercial backing by the start of the 2024/2025 Season in November.
Since then, Canada has secured private ownership, Spain has won the Season 4 Championship title, and France is taking delivery of a new F50 in Auckland, and key decisions are being under taken what SailGP euphemistically calls a "potential new ownership group". The League appears to have quickly gotten over its stated intention to have only 11 teams, and SailGP fleet has expanded to 12 teams for Season 5.
New teams from Brazil and Italy, led respectively by double Olympic Gold medalist Martine Grael and two-time America's Cup champion Jimmy Spithill, are joining the League for Season 5.
SailGP has purchased Emirates Team NZ's America's Cup-winning AC50 from Bermuda, which is being converted to the one-design F50 used in SailGP. Construction of a new F50 for the French team is being fast-tracked, increasing the F50 fleet to 12 boats and teams.
SailGP League set to expand.
The SailGP League's announced intention to increase the number of events will add to the pressure on existing SailGP and America's Cup teams to retain sailors.
Without putting a date on it, SailGP announced their aspiration to increase the number of events to 18-20 per season so the League could "compete alongside the top 20 sports properties". As a benchmark, Formula 1 GP has 24 events across 21 countries in the current season.
SailGP say they have more venues wanting events, than events which are currently available. In Season 5 one extra event will be added expanding from 13 to 14 events, across five continents.
Taking a lead from Formula 1, and its Circuit of the Americas, SailGP intend to run some regattas just a week apart, with the first being the Los Angeles SailGP on March 15-16 and San Francisco on March 22-23, in Season 5.
With 18 events, it is hard to see how sailors can serve two masters and whether the America's Cup programs can accommodate that level of sailor commitment to SailGP. In Season 4 several AC teams managed to accommodate their sailing team requirements alongside the 13 events in the SailGP calendar.
That situation is likely to become more pressured with the likelihood that the America's Cup will also expand its program to incorporate AC40 competition and AC75 racing outside the America's Cup itself.
The flipside of the creation of more extensive America's Cup and SailGP circuits is that the America's Cup teams may be forced into running testing and racing teams - which in turn creates more opportunity from sailors exiting the pathway programs to cross over into an AC test team. Pending the start of an AC40 circuit, SailGP offers America's Cup teams the best racing practice in foiling raceboats.
The big upside of the two AC and SailGP circuits is that headhunting amongst a relatively limited pool of top professional sailors will create more opportunities for youth and women competitors.
Both groups have been in the simulator and AC40 training ahead of the Youth and Women's America's Cups, augmenting development and feeder programs already running in SailGP. For them, the headhunting and expansion of the SailGP and America's Cup can only be a positive development.
Several Cup sailors recruited
According to SailGP.com, Brazil CEO Alan Adler travelled to Barcelona during the 2024 America's Cup on a headhunting expedition seeking to contract "'experienced' athletes."
Maloney told SailGP.com there was "'interest' from his side 'straight away', but initially the conversations 'weren't super serious'. However, Adler persisted, telling Maloney 'more about the team and the group of athletes' he wanted to put together."
"There was some 'back and forth' as the Blackfoils team 'did what they could' to convince Maloney to stay, but his decision was set."
Maloney is the third sailor poached from INEOS Britannia and Emirates Team New Zealand - the two teams that contested the recent America's Cup in Barcelona.
Just before the start of the 37th AC Match began, it was announced that INEOS Britannia's Head Of Sailing, Giles Scott, a double Olympic Gold medalist and skipper/helmsman on Emirates GB SailGP team, would be joining the Canada SailGP team, replacing existing skipper Phil Robertson.
Leigh McMillan, Pilot/Trimmer on INEOS Britannia, has also been nabbed by the Brazilian SailGP team.
Arnaud Psarofaghis and Bryan Mettraux from Alinghi Red Bull Racing have also signed up with the Swiss SailGP team, which has a new owner. The move of the two Swiss sailors into more permanent SailGP roles can only improve the chances of Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the 38th America's Cup. Kiwi grinder Stewart Dodson was announced earlier this month as "transferring" from the Spanish team, the current SailGP Finals champion, across to the Swiss team, who won the wooden spoon in Season 4.
America's Cup teams are the obvious source for top-level professional sailors with foiling experience in wingsailed yachts capable of exceeding 50kts. At present, the Cup is in a hiatus following the completion of the 37th America's Cup and without any announcement on the Protocol, dates, and Preliminary Events ahead of the 38th Match.
With recent hirings into SailGP, the nationality rules seem to becoming more flexible. That will inevitably cause a rise in professional sailor contract rates - which in the America's Cup between 2000 and 2017 saw top grinders paid over USD$30,000 per month plus accommodation. Despite labelling the poaching as part of the "transfer season", there has been no comment from the League as to whether recruiting a sailor from another SailGP team, incurs payment of a transfer fee - as happens in other professional sports.
Some measure of control over escalating salary costs was brought to bear when Emirates Team New Zealand brought in a strict Nationality Rule, for the 2021 Cup, which inhibited the sailor's ability to playing one AC team off against another, as by dint of their passport they were only eligible for one team. Reduced crew numbers on the AC75s, along with a continuance of the ban on two-boat testing reduced the opportunities for sailors of fortune.
However, with no salary cap restrictions and the SailGP League seeming to encourage hefty increases in franchise investments and sailor payments, it remains to be seen if the League could effectively spike the effectiveness of a future America's Cup Protocol to introduce an intended cost cap for AC38.
Initially, League franchises were valued before the start of Season 1 at USD$5million; during Season 4 they escalated to USD$40million and maybe USD$60 million, with talk of USD$80 million being the new price point for a team franchise going into Season 5.
The latest moves are unlikely to the the last.