Salty the sail guru onboard for one last America's Cup

Rob Salthouse (upper left) onboard Emirates Team New Zealand's AC75 with Peter Burling (lower left) and Blair Tuke (right) © Hamish Hooper / ETNZ

He's seen the launch of more than 20 America's Cup yachts, but now Team NZ sail guru Rob Salthouse is putting in the long hours for his last hurrah for the Auld Mug.

When Rob Salthouse was six, his mum found him in the backyard cutting up a bedsheet to make a sail for his dinghy.

He used it to sail through the creeks of Greenhithe on the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour.

Nearly 50 years later, Salthouse hasn’t ventured too much further down the harbour, to Emirates Team New Zealand’s base on the edge of Auckland’s cityscape.

But he’s travelled a long way in terms of technology and innovation – now entrenched in the team’s sail loft, in charge of the complex sail wardrobe of the America’s Cup defender.

In that time, “Salty” has seen the launch of an astounding 22 America’s Cup boats; across seven Cup campaigns, starting with New Zealand’s first challenge in Fremantle in 1986. And in the gaps in his CV, he’s sailed around the world four times. “It’s not like I was ever sitting idle,” he laughs.

His team-mates will tell you he’s easy-going, but incredibly hardworking; a diamond in the rough. Trusted with overseeing everything above the deck of Team NZ’s latest boat, the AC75 Te Rehutai.

But Salthouse, who turned 55 last weekend, insists that this America’s Cup is his last.

“It’s a little bit like groundhog day,” he says, sitting in a café on Wynyard Quarter, a rare break in the 16-hour work day he’s been putting in of late.

“I’ve done so many Cups now. I counted them the other day - this was launch No.22 of America’s Cup yachts. At the beginning of November, it was 35 years since I signed my first contract to sail with the New Zealand Challenge for Perth.”

If you dive into the vault of esteemed magazine Sports Illustrated, you’ll find a report on Salthouse being washed overboard off the New Zealand yacht, KZ5, in the 12-metre world championships off Fremantle – the dress rehearsal for the 1987 America’s Cup. “I’ve never been so wet or worked so hard in all my life on the bow of a boat,” Salthouse was quoted as saying. “It’s the toughest sailing I’ve done.”

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