‘When the boat was dropped, it was like a bomb going off’

In the high-stakes world of the America’s Cup, anything can happen. Just ask Dougal Allan, (left) who transitioned from professional endurance athlete to becoming a Cyclor for Team New Zealand in their history-making victory. 

During the campaign, he witnessed the dramatic moment when the Team New Zealand boat, suspended by a crane, fell due to a power surge. It could’ve been the end of their campaign—but he describes how the team rallied, and rebuilt the boat in just 48 hours.

In part two of our two-part blog, Dougal opens up about that crisis and how the team responded when they were beaten by Britannia, plus the supplements that fuelled his performance, including CurraNZ.

Dougal, tell us about the incident when someone dropped the boat from a crane?

There was a power cut that created a surge that led to the crane failing. It sounded like a bomb had gone off. I was sitting in the kitchen, eating, because that was what I generally did and my first thought was ‘I think our campaign is over, we’ve just broken our boat’.

The COO, Kevin Shoebridge, assembled everyone and told us he knew things wouldn’t always go to plan, and that this was a test for us, ‘let’s see if we can cope’. It was cool to see their attitude in the face of what seemed near-certain disaster, that it was a challenge we’ve all been waiting for.

So they stood around and made a plan. The whole exterior was absolutely shattered, but incredibly, structurally, the boat was fine. They still had the sensors running on the boat, which were designed to measure impact forces during sailing. It turns out the impact on the foil actually fell within normal sailing ranges.

The boat builders set about stripping out the broken composite and relaying it all again with fresh resin. The boat shed crew didn’t sleep for two days.

That was a turning point - they worked around the clock and we were back on the water within 48 hours.

Team New Zealand lost two races to Britannia in the final best-of-seven races, going from 4-0 to 4-2. Can you give a fly-on-the-wall account of the post-race debriefs?

It was tactical errors that lost us those races and the sailors were genuinely grumpy with themselves. They could clearly see how they had lost the races and knew exactly what they needed to do differently, which was empowering to see and gave everyone confidence.

Again, similar to how the team handled the ‘crane catastrophe’, all the debrief chat was about “this is what we’ve wanted, let’s have a good hard look at our systems and ourselves – this is the challenge we’ve been waiting for so let’s get to work”.

Specifically, the pre-race starts are where races are won or lost and no-one expected Britannia to pull off the kind of manoeuvres they produced against Luna Rossa. With a boat that size and shape, in light winds, and executing tight 360-degree turns – it was unexpected and very impressive, but it gave us advance foresight and our sailors would be on the simulator drilling different scenarios every day, preparing for every conceivable situation. So, when Britannia tried it on us, we had an answer, and when we didn’t, the sailors were acutely aware of what was needed.

What was in the Cyclors’ supplement regime’ for the days that mattered?

There was only a select range of batch-tested supplements and Healthspan Elite’s All Blacks CurraNZ was part of that. We also had batch-tested protein and creatine powders, plus beetroot powder. Some started using that but you needed quite a lot to make up a dose and it didn’t really take off. The beauty of CurraNZ is it’s so easy to take around racing and training.

I am not wired to ‘make it up’ as I go – I know and trust the product, having used it diligently for about seven years now, and have a strict routine around using my CurraNZ. I took 2 on maintenance days and 4 on race days, always before each race. 

Our strength and conditioning coach, Kim Simperingham, who also consults to the All Blacks, was actively promoting Healthspan Elite’s CurraNZ product to the crew for performance, which tells you a lot. 

He was on high alert around supplements and we were regularly drug tested. Anything in that gym that wasn’t batch tested, or fully legit, had no place in the building.

You’re back in New Zealand with your family. What’s occupying your time now? 

The post-America’s Cup comedown has been slightly more tricky because this time I have no control over whether there will be another opportunity for another bid.

For me, I have no plan, I’d call myself a retired athlete. I’m coaching but still getting out on the bike, running and going to the gym.

I’m in a bike team for the Coast 2 Coast in February, I thought why not, I love that community. I have no real plan but learning a lot about myself right now, doing what I’ve always done and enjoying it, without being paid to train.

From the feedback I’m getting I’d say the door is ajar to do another America’s Cup. But it’s a time game now, so I have to just wait and see.

You’re 39 now Dougal, how do you see your chances of making another Defence?

I’ve thought a lot about that. One of my natural tendencies is to doubt myself, my default is ‘nah, I’m not good enough’ kind of thing.

I came into this team thinking these guys are amazing and as it turned out I made the cut for the boat the whole way through.

If I could maintain my ability on a bike for the next three years, I’d have a very good chance of making the team. And, in actual fact, I’ve only been in the Cycloring game for 2 years and endurance is an amazing thing – it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that maybe I could actually get better. 

Any predictions on when the next America’s Cup may be?

I don’t know, but my guess would be 2027, partly because this will be the third chapter of this AC75 configuration and for Team New Zealand, they proved they are still ahead of everyone. But with every month and year that goes by, technology and teams catch up and from New Zealand’s perspective, as the Defender, they’ll want that next event to be relatively soon while they have that sense of being a step ahead. 

Do you think it will ever come back to New Zealand to host?

Grant Dalton has said himself a few times very open to trying to make the event happen again in New Zealand but there’s a lot to work through, but there’s absolutely no doubt he’s considering whether it could be a viable option.

Disclaimer: CurraNZ has no affiliation/partnership/sponsorship or connection to the America’s Cup.