A former Team New Zealand director is putting the pressure on the next Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron boss to get the America's Cup back home.
It comes after three established members of the squadron resigned in protest of the defence being staged in Barcelona, and the timing couldn't be better.
The club has lost a piece of its legacy. Sir Michael Fay, who funded the early days of New Zealand's America's Cup, has resigned, five months on from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's controversial call to stage the America's Cup defence offshore.
James Farmer, who was a Team New Zealand director for nearly a decade, is standing by the esteemed trio of Sir Michael, Andrew Johns and Alan Sefton, who penned an open letter of resignation to Commodore Aaron Young - in protest of selling the hosting rights to Barcelona.
"The cup should have stayed here," Sir Michael said. "It had to stay here; they had no right to go anywhere else."
But they did. A decision Grant Dalton and Team New Zealand is said to have weighed in on, opting for the highest bidder, Barcelona.
"Barcelona were being offered preemptive rights for the next event after this one coming and so the reality is, if that stays in place the Cup will never come back to NZ," Farmer said.
With three now former members and potentially more to follow, Farmer hopes the Squadron will be feeling the pressure to preserve another legacy built by Sir Peter Blake.
"His vision was to create the viaduct as the home for the America's Cup and where it was defended and he achieved that," Farmer said.
The club's AGM will take place next week. A new commodore will be named, but whatever changes are made, the Cup defence won't be coming back to New Zealand.
"Well then, they really need to remove the sign outside that says 'Royal Yacht Squadron home of the America's Cup', because it is no longer the home of the America's Cup," Farmer said.
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