At the close of the late entry deadline, The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand confirmed there had been an additional 8 Notices of Challenge received.
According to the supporting entry documents, only one of these entries is capable of immediate acceptance while the remaining seven notices of challenge carry conditions.
Some of the entries are likely to be invalid, something which will be determined through a vetting process which will begin immediately.
Conditions of some of the challenges will require changes to the Protocol – if conditional on there being an America’s Cup World Series event in that specific challenger’s country – which is therefore dependant on agreement with the Challenger of Record before each new challenger’s participation can be confirmed.
Among those believed to be on the list are: two more Italian teams, a Dutch challenge fronted by Simeon Tienpont, a second US team out of the Chicago YC and also Chinese and Norwegian challengers.
The process of assessing the entries and conditions of the eight new challengers will begin immediately.
Emirates Team New Zealand is acutely conscious of the need to advise Auckland Council and the Government on the base infrastructure footprint requirement which has an impact on overall costs.
The Government and Council have been advised that a maximum of five challengers can be accommodated on Wynyard Point with three double bases and two singles.
Should less than three of the late challenges be accepted, the Government and Council will then have the option of not proceeding with the Hobson Wharf extension which would result in considerable cost savings.
The official announcements of the new accepted challengers will be made at a later date after the completion of the conditional entries process and in accordance with each team’s preference on the timings of their respective public announcements.
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