Dolphin delays and drama: Behind the scenes of the NZ SailGP controversy

The 10 F50 catamarans milled around the harbour, their foils mostly hidden. Occasionally, they sailed close to the fans to give them something to cheer about, even if it was only the sight of these sleek boats – capable in the right conditions of approaching 100km/h – dawdling by at the pace of a human jog. Later that day, as the chance of racing grew ever more remote, some of the teams – the athletes attired as if for combat, helmets stuffed full of communications technology, their lifejackets resembling bullet-proof vests – draped themselves in puffer jackets as the easterly’s presence grew in the weakening autumn sun. Sailors raised their hands in apologetic greeting as our boat passed near.

Still, the dolphin refused to budge, and eventually word was transmitted that the day’s racing had been cancelled. That same news soon came over the loudspeakers, and the booze that had been fuelling the party atmosphere since the race village opened four hours earlier now began to curdle it. “I’m going home for dolphin soup,” one man with a sun-and booze-reddened face said with real anger as the crowd slowly funnelled towards the waiting buses. On the trip back through Lyttelton Tunnel and into the city, many similarly ill-tempered mutterings passed among the passengers.

In some respects, all had gone to plan – at least to ­the Marine Mammal Management Plan. SailGP, now in its fourth season, had returned to Lyttelton after Auckland – originally scheduled to host the New Zealand leg of the 2024 season – pulled out late last year. It left the Canterbury port town, which held the event in season three, as the single viable option. The only complication was that March is calving season for the Hector’s dolphin, a species of which an estimated 15,000 remain, predominantly around Banks Peninsula.

Lyttelton Harbour sits within the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary, established in 1988 to protect the dolphins, officially listed as “nationally vulnerable” by the Department of Conservation.

A 1980s study found the Hector’s dolphin population was on the brink of collapse, with only a 7% chance of recovery. In 2020, the author of that study, University of Otago zoologist Liz Slooten, who has been cataloguing Hector’s dolphins around the peninsula since 1984, told RNZ that estimate had increased to 41% due to the sanctuary. The sheer speed, she told 1News, of the F50s slicing through the harbour made them dangerous to the dolphins – in spite of the intelligence of the animals.

“These boats going at 100km an hour, these aren’t something that these dolphins have ever encountered in their lives before.” She said SailGP had been repeatedly told that Lyttelton was “a really bad place to choose” for a regatta.

However, the management plan, developed by SailGP and Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke, with input from DoC, was devised to minimise the risk. If dolphins were sighted in the race area – as had happened last year when the race controller ignored a directive to pause the final despite two dolphins being spotted near the finish line – their safety would take precedence and an independent decision-maker would have the authority to delay or cancel the sailing.

At the time of the plan’s release, SailGP managing director Andrew Thompson said it was “an industry-leading example of SailGP’s commitment to the environments in which we operate”.

Yet even before Saturday’s dolphin delay, New Zealand sailing legend and SailGP chief executive Sir Russell Coutts had publicly complained the extra “red tape” represented by the more stringent management plan meant it was unlikely SailGP would ever return to Lyttel­ton.