Kostecki talks set to continue (06/23/03)
 (source : Stuff.co.nz)

Veteran sailor John Kostecki has returned home to the United States after meeting Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton and skipper Dean Barker.

Kostecki and fellow Illbruck sailor Ross Halcrow have both been in talks with Dalton and Barker in Auckland. It is understood neither Kostecki nor Halcrow, who sailed with Team New Zealand in 1995 and with the New Zealand Challenge in 1992, have signed contracts with the New Zealand America's Cup syndicate.

However, both are expected to return to Auckland for further talks later this month.
 

 Michael Illbruck denies Kostecki rumours (06/13/03)
 (source : Yacht.de)
"John Kostecki is still a firm component of the team", clarified Michael Illbruck after Grant Dalton quotes about a meeting with the United States Olympian and world sailing champion.

German businessman explained that the talks and meetings are "natural discussions between the teams".

"The Team Pinta Racing and in particular me are completely informed when such discussions run and with the contents. everyting is normal ", he added.

According to Michael Illbruck, the team progresses and is "fully in the schedule and already well."
 

 Grant Dalton confirms Kostecki rumour (06/10/03)
 (source : NZ Herald)
"I have been in talks with John (Kostecki)," Team New Zealand head Grant Dalton said, adding he met Kostecki in the United States last month.

The American is now expected in Auckland this month for a second meeting with Dalton and skipper Dean Barker.

"We are planning further talks with him later this month, when he will meet Dean and me", Dalton explained.

An Olympic silver medallist, two-time America's Cup tactician (on Young America in 1995 and on America One in 2000), 10-time world champion in a range of one-design classes and Whitbread veteran, Kostecki would be a huge boost for Team New Zealand.

His most recent success was in the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean race, in which he skipped German entry Illbruck to first place.

His leadership and sailing skills would strengthen Team New Zealand's inexperienced afterguard, which was heavily criticised after the 5-0 loss to Swiss syndicate Alinghi.

But Dalton said he and Barker had met several sailors and designers in the past month and hoped to announce key appointments in the next three to four weeks.
 

 John Kostecki to sail Black boats? (06/09/03)
 (source : Scuttlebutt)
"We are giving ourselves until this spring, likely May, to make it happen", John Kostecki said last month. "If not, we're going to stop raising money".

Now, we're in June and Sailingscuttlebutt said : "The widely circulated rumor that John Kostecki has joined Team New Zealand is apparently true".

A second end for the German Challenge ?
 

 John Kostecki is still trying to raise money (05/06/03)
 (source : Sailing World)
(The following quotes are excerpts from an interview with John Kostecki posted on the Sailing World website).

What are your impressions of what went down in Auckland?

Well, a long ways back, way before it all started in October, I picked Team Alinghi outright. Actually, now that you mention it, I'm glad you brought this up because it reminds me that I have a few outstanding bets to collect.

You were involved with Michael Illbruck's German challenge, which backed out well before Louis Vuitton Cup. What's the status with that team?

We're still trying to raise money enough money to make the Pinta Challenge happen. We are giving ourselves until this spring, likely May, to make it happen. If not, we're going to stop raising money.

Wouldn't Alinghi's protocol for the 2007 match, and having the event in Europe help a German effort shore up sponsorship?

It'll definitely help, and the things they're proposing are all good. The nationality requirement change had to happen. It's really going to save a lot of money for any team. Before, you would spend millions of dollars on accommodations in a country that you weren't even using most of the time, and paying taxes in that country, too.

Their changes definitely bring the event into modern times. The fleet racing and the change of schedule are excellent: the more racing the better, and if you're able to race and spread it out over several years, it will keep it fresh and provide better value for sponsors.

The Alinghi compound was more "open" to the public than others in the past; is this something you think we'll see more of next time?

We tried to have something like that at AmericaOne, but at the end of the day, we didn't have enough time and money to have it developed. I think Alinghi did it properly and I hope teams in the future will be more open like that. To get the public more involved, similar to Formula 1 and NASCAR racing where you can go to the pit and check everything out, is important.

If the Pinta Challenge does happen, where do you see yourself on the boat?

It depends on other people involved. Obviously, I'd love to be on the boat and sailing—in charge of the whole sailing program, one way or another. During the Volvo we did some things well and we did some things poorly.

I've learned a lot from that experience; the most important is to get good people that are team players, which makes managing them easier or non-existent. Ultimately you spend more time sailing and developing rather than managing people.
 

 BMW takes positive stock from Cup involvement (03/13/03)
 (source : BMW)
The performance of the Oracle BMW Racing team is put in a favourable light when the clear victory of the Alinghi Challenge in the America’s Cup final is taken into account.

"It is nice to be able to claim that we were defeated by the ultimate champion", said Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, Senior Vice President BMW Group Marketing. "I would like to congratulate Alinghi, the Swiss team were worthy winners."

Oracle BMW Racing came second to the Swiss Alinghi team in the series of qualifying races for the America’s Cup and really demanded everything of their opponents in an exciting final.

"We started as a cup debutant and left seven top class opponents in our wake", Kalbfell added. "Team Oracle BMW Racing has more than fulfilled the expectations placed upon it."

BMW regards its sailing commitment as a complete success. According to Kalbfell the exceptional cooperation of the German-American partners in particular had a very positive influence.

"In just the same way as Formula 1 and golf, this sport combines emotion and challenge with a competitive event, as has been demonstrated by the impressive television images", he continued. "High performance sailing is vigourous, dynamic, technology-oriented and searches for new challenges – just like the BMW brand".

"The investment in professional sailing has paid off and will subsequently strengthen our brand. At the moment we are reviewing the national and international options for additional sailing activities."

A good news for Mickaël Illbrück and John Kostecki ?
 
  Illbrück want to win the next America's Cup (06/10/02)
  (source : yacht.de)
The victorious voyage that had lasted almost nine months was barely over and the winner's toughest rivals had not yet reached dry land when Michael Illbruck was already hatching new plans.

"Kiel is great, Kiel is fantastic. Next year we will launch our boat for the America's Cup here and set up base in Kiel," he said in reference to the northern German port city. The head of the German syndicate whose boat illbruck Challenge on Sunday won the prestigious nine-stage Volvo Ocean Race stood happily on board his green-and-white yacht, which was berthed at the port's Blücher Bridge.

Illbruck was surrounded by his triumphant crew, while a stone's throw away tens of thousands of fans crushed together, hoping to soak up some of the sailors' elation at having finished a long but rewarding journey.

On Monday morning, following a night of revelry that cannot have made waking up the next day particularly easy, the house of Illbruck announced part two of its vision for the future. The new message was much more spectacular than the intentions expressed the previous day: "We want to win the America's Cup. Germany has a valid claim on the America's Cup," said the entrepreneur, sounding as though he meant it.

Illbruck has tasted success and he intends to put his pithily expressed plans into action in the near future. In Kiel, Illbruck presented star sailor Peter Erzberger as the latest addition to his team. Because the work on dry land and especially the quest for funding will now require particular effort, the Swiss sailor's main task will be to help him market the project for 2006.

Illbruck has calculated a budget of no less than euro 90 million ($85 million) for his next big goal, and the first part of this sum "must be secured by 2003" from sponsors, he said.

"My company won't be financing everything anymore. Someone else has to step in now," he said. Illbruck expects the first-ever victory by a German yacht in the Volvo Ocean Race, as well as the unexpectedly high level of public interest in Germany, to generate the kind of support that will enable his syndicate to participate in sailing's most prestigious event, having been prevented from doing so this year by a lack of funds.

Partnerships are essential to this kind of endeavor, and one partner -- though it is not a financial sponsor -- has already been found. "We want to advance side by side," Dierk Thomsen, the president of the German Sailing Federation said. He expects the grassroots members of the federation, in other words Germany's many amateur sailors, to support Illbruck's ambitious project -- in the non-financial sense, of course. The racing team from Leverkusen, which up to now has sailed under the flag of the Düsseldorf Yacht Club, has already earned kudos with German sailing fans.

By winning four stages of the high seas marathon, the illbruck Challenge completely dominated the race -- a feat that has earned the syndicate considerable respect beyond Germany's borders, too. The team's closest pursuer at the Volvo Ocean Race, the Swedish yacht Assa Abloy, was well beaten over the last stretch from Gothenburg in Sweden to Kiel, arriving home two hours behind Norway's djuice and, of course, the illbruck Challenge.

"I know, we had a magnificent race. We'll have worried quite a few people in the sailing world," skipper John Kostecki said. The American, a multi-talented sailor who has won numerous awards in his sport and who had a major say in the Volvo campaign, was reluctant to either confirm or deny the likelihood of a continued collaboration with Illbruck.

"Michael and I have become friends, so anything is possible," Kostecki said. So the future is wide open. Negotiations centering on money and expectations will be held, he said.

Illbruck, who -- in accordance with a tradition cherished among sailors -- will now rename his illbruck Challenge the Pinta Challenge, wants to keep the core of the crew unchanged. "I'm mega-proud of the boys," he said. And anyway, now they have a new goal. "Winning the America's Cup with Illbruck would fulfill my biggest dream," said the Munich entrepreneur.