“It is very easy to belong to this city, to be accepted,” says Grant Dalton (65 years old), a nuclear figure of the next Copa del América-Barcelona 2024, CEO of the competition and also of the defending team of the title, the Emirates Team New Zealand. Interview with a born competitor (at the helm, and when he can, at the wheel of a car) who yearns for the third Cup followed by him and leave an enduring legacy here.
From the outside it seems that there is time left to organize everything. From the inside, do you feel that they are against the clock?
Sometimes we say that the only thing you can’t buy in the America’s Cup is time. We know when we started, in the last regatta of the last edition, and when we finished, in the final regatta of the next edition. What you do in between is what determines whether you will win or lose. It is very different from other competitions. I think we are on time, without delays, but you can’t lose a second. What gives me peace of mind and confidence is the relationship we have with the institutions and with the port. It is a very fluid deal when it comes to connecting, making decisions, solving problems if there are any, having a meeting with the right person instead of having six… And that is not usual in other places.
Can you give an example?
The port offered us January 1, 2024 as the date to deliver the team bases and start practicing. Before reaching a final agreement with the city, we already knew that it had to be months before, in April or May of this year and with the teams arriving in July. And so it was agreed.
You have been, are and will be a sailor. Does the office make you feel like you are in a fishbowl or is it your turn?
No, I don’t feel like it’s a cage in that sense because I’m not alone, I lead the team. I’m very aware of the crew. There is a ten hour difference with New Zealand. She spoke to them at around four in the morning. And I live the day here. As soon as they come, I’m going to be in the water all the time. I can’t compete anymore because the team is very good and I’m old enough…
He gave a speech at the 70th anniversary gala of the Godó de tennis… and you are not a tennis man. As was?
Look, it’s very easy to belong to this city, to be accepted. You need a lot of time to understand politics, but the passion of the institutions is incredible. The truth is that I don’t remember very well what I said in the speech. I had prepared some words on some paper, but there was no lectern and I didn’t know where to put the notes (laughs) and they ended up in my pocket. I improvised. I don’t know of another tournament, tennis or any other sport, linked to a club and a family that turns 70. And with the Godó de Vela, which reaches 50, the same thing happens. I know that Carlos Godó promoted both competitions and that he was passionate about both sports.
You’ve reached the age when many people retire, but it seems like you’re busier than ever.
Interesting… I have a friend, Mike Quilter, who knew Peter Blake (the legendary navigator of tragic death) very well, and he’s a little older than me, very wise. We traveled four times around the world together. He once told me: “There is an age around 40 that you have to decide what you do with your life.” Whether it is about taking the children to school or staying on board. I made that decision and there are people who have suffered for it.
When you make a decision, do you jump into the pool immediately or meditate on it?
Ah, this is good… Some will say that I don’t consult things. I would still have to ask those around me. Regarding Team New Zealand, for example, it is the crew that makes most of the decisions. Sometimes I take them because I direct. But as an entrepreneur once told me, a guy who was always relaxed and sailing… the secret to success was hiring people much better than you and he saw to it that the philosophy of the company was fulfilled.
Makes sense.
When you’re younger, you think you have to be the best at everything, but when you get over that idea, you understand that you win by surrounding yourself with the best.
Let’s see, sailing is not a popular sport, but when you watch regattas and understand a little, it’s a sensational spectacle. He gives you the willies. What does it feel like when you are on board?
Your first appreciation is important, this will never be a sport for the masses and that is why we want to promote an outreach program here in Barcelona, ​​Catalonia, Spain. Although it is not mainstream, we want people to get involved as a volunteer, as a spectator. And it’s true, it depends on how you look at it, you don’t understand why one ship goes in one direction and the other in another. We need it to be understood with apps, graphics, screens…
And the goosebumps?
It’s hard to explain, but you have to call on young people to get on board. We have to try to charm them. We want to continue the legacy of the ’92 Olympic flame, which is still burning more than 30 years later.
You have traveled seven times around the world. Sometimes, at night, when sailing, the sky is white with stars. As the Blade Runner character says, he must have seen things we can’t even imagine…
Here in the northern hemisphere you go hunting for the northern lights and we in the south have the northern ones, very spectacular. But I already warn you that I am not in love with nature. The romanticism of sailing around the world is there, but I don’t fit that profile, Peter Blake was a very good sailor and also a romantic. He knew all the species of birds. I don’t know one. I am motivated by competitiveness: if the landscape is beautiful, fine, but what I want is to win.
Speaking of little birds, one has told us that he has gasoline on his head, that he is crazy about motor sports…
Yes, an absolute madman, I love getting behind the wheel of a racing car, buggies, racing cars… but if you ask me if I feel the same as on a boat, well no, because I’m not such a good driver (laughs).
Jimmy Spithill, double champion of the America’s Cup, also appears on these pages, pointing out the waves of Barcelona as a key element in this edition with boats with foils or fins, which float on the water.
Indeed, by definition, boats with foils are designed for flat water and here there will be waves. What will happen? That the designers of the boats have a challenge and will have to find solutions. Spithill is right, because a new dimension opens up for competitors, designers. In this sense, there will be a before and after Barcelona 2024.
Has the appearance of the SailGP circuit contributed anything to improve the America’s Cup competition?
For my team, New Zealand, it has gone very well in that tournament, because it has brought them closer together. In the end, the team for both competitions are almost the same: Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Josh Junior, Andy Maloney, Louis Sinclair… And you see that sailing in SailGP has helped them bring out all their talent. For the rest of the circumstances, I think it has had no consequences in the Copa del América. It has no seniority and Larry (Ellison, Oracle mogul, the driving force) is putting in $150 million every year. The day the tap closes, the competition will last for a week. It’s okay to do what you want with his money. But from there to challenge the supremacy of the America’s Cup… forget it.
Magazine recently spoke with the best sailors of the moment and they all expressed their joy at the opportunities that have arisen in a few months. In Barcelona there will be the first women’s competition. Was it about time or was it the right time?
I think it’s a mistake to give quotas in both Volvo and SailGP, but better than nothing. We have thought of female-only crews. And if we talk about young people, they don’t have to be all boys. We have, for example, Liv Mackay, a sensational sailor.
In 2013… you managed the team that won 8-1 and lost 9-8. How does one get up from the canvas after a blow like that?
That was not ideal (laughs). He made me stronger and made us reinvent ourselves, to be more modern, analytical in everything and calling young people. Look, what people don’t understand about the 2013 San Francisco edition and that comeback is not that we lost 9-8 after leading 8-1. It is that we should have lost 9-0. It happened that we, at the beginning, did incredibly well and they navigated very badly. But in reality, they were much faster.