Auckland berths dry up ahead of America’s Cup challenge
The race is on to find somewhere in Auckland to tie up a boat ahead of the Cup challengers’ arrivalsThe cost of a marina berth in New Zealand’s America’s Cup host city has doubled over the last year as the number of options available to boat owners start to dry up.
The New Zealand Herald reported the cost of a berth in Auckland, which will host the defending Cup champions and their challengers in enclosed waters around Waitemata Harbour, has soared to around $NZ400,000 ($A375,000).
The paper warned that things are only likely to get worse for boat owners in the city as the 2021 America’s Cup circus settles into the specially developed harbourside real estate built to house the competing teams.
"The demand is outweighing the supply. Some of the prices in Bayswater have doubled in the last year," Auckland Marina broker Ken Davern told the Herald.
"I know there's quite a few people who have been chucked out of the Viaduct [where the America’s Cup competitors will be hosted], or Hobson West [Marina] who have had to find new homes for their boats,” Davern said. “Rents have gone up so high they can't stay there.”
The best-of-13 America’s Cup races will be held in nearby Hauraki Gulf in March, 2021 between defending champions Team New Zealand and the winner of the Prada Cup, which will thin the challengers down to a single boat that will take on the Kiwis in the 36th running of the event.
Team New Zealand has already teased a scaled-down version of the 75-foot foiling monohull that teams will have to master for the race. The US followed shortly after with their test version, sailed out of New York Yacht Club.
Boat owners are feeling extra pressure from the Auckland council, which has floated proposals to develop the Hobsonville Marina west of the city by selling a portion of the 4.8-hectare site to housing developers. An early design shows the developers plan to also lock off areas of the marina for residential parking.
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