Ben
Ainslie, Britain's double Olympic gold medallist, yesterday
gave a compelling demonstration of his talents which
may lead to an America's Cup berth in 2007.
Ainslie served as tactician and bowman for Dean Barker,
the Team New Zealand skipper, in the King Edward VII
Gold Cup match series in Bermuda and they eventually
outsailed Ed Baird in the deciding fifth race.
"This is a good opportunity to sail with Ben",
Barker said. "Obviously our priority at the moment
is to raise the funding in order to be a viable challenger,
but we are looking at new team members. Ben's record
says he's one of the best sailors in the world."
Ainslie is taking a rare breather from his bid for a
third Olympic medal, having won the Finn class world
championships in Cadiz two weeks ago.
"All I can say from my side is that I haven't made any
decisions about what I'll be doing after the Games yet,"
said Ainslie.
He harbours a desire to lead a British America's Cup
bid, but has already spent a year with the Seattle-based
OneWorld team in the last Cup to boost his experience.
"Obviously, if GBR Challenge ever gets it together and
someone puts some serious money behind it, that would
be great, but perhaps joining another team is an option,"
admitted Ainslie.
"Definitely the America's Cup remains a major objective.
Whether I get involved in the next one remains unknown
at this stage", he said. "Another Olympic
campaign or the Volvo Ocean Race remain options. I'm
seeing how things pan out, but the focus remains very
much on next year."
Leaders of the three top syndicates from this year's
America's Cup were put on the spot at Wednesday's press
conference at the Swedish Match Tour's Investors Guaranty
Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup.
Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker was asked about
the rumor that the Kiwis might be joining forces with
the fledgling Mascalzone Latino challenge.
"Earlier this year we were merging with Oracle, apparently
there are also 25 boats in the Volvo (Ocean) Race and
I'm sure there are some other good stories out there,"
said Barker.
In yet another America's Cup world exclusive, Sailing
Anarchy said he has learned that Team New Zealand and
Mascalzone Latino are in merger discussions this week
in Italy at the Elba home of Mascalzone's padrone Vincenzo
Onorato.
"But do you challenge through a New Zealand club
or Italian? Or some other country?", asked the
Website. "More importantly, where would Mascalzone
Zealando defend if they did manage to win ?"
News
from Team New Zealand (08/20/03)
(source
: NZ
Herald)
Team New Zealand have packed up from the familiar
black shed on syndicate row and can now be found just
150 metres along the road in the building that was
the One World base for the Louis Vuitton Cup.
"Our lease on the land we occupied on Halsey
Street has expired and we have moved our base from
the familiar black shed on syndicate row", explained
Grant Dalton. "In many ways, the move is symbolic
of the start of a new era and a strong challenge for
America's Cup 2007.
This time last year, two months before the
start of the challenger series, syndicate row was
abuzz. Security was at an all-time high as teams tried
to protect their design secrets. Now a simple push
is all that is needed to open the gate and walk into
Team New Zealand's new compound.
But it is not all doom and gloom - a stroll into the
new boat shed provides a flashback to happier times.
There sit 1995 America's Cup winner NZL 32 and NZL
60, which was used to defend the Cup in 2000. They
are the concrete evidence that New Zealand is capable
of winning yachting's greatest prize.
NZL 81 and NZL 82 will be moved along the road soon,
after an independent study was about to be conducted
into why NZL81 and NZL82 failed.
"We need to find out what went wrong with them, whether
it was engineering, the way they were built, the materials
or all of the above", Dalton said. "When we know
the answer - and we know there is an answer because
the other boats didn't break - then we need to fix
whatever it is."
Dalton said the study, which would take until December
to complete, would be conducted by labs and outside
computer modelling experts.
Once it had been established what was wrong with the
boats, they would be repaired and Dalton hoped to
have them back out on the Hauraki Gulf by February.
Syndicates will not start constructing their new boats
for the 2007 cup for some time, which means 2003-generation
boats will be used in the regattas in the meantime.
"We will go sailing for a short period in February
after the boats are structurally sorted and checked,"
Dalton said. "Then we will go to our first regatta
in Newport, Rhode Island, at the end of June. We will
probably take the same boat on to Europe and maybe
do two regattas."
Inside the new base are the offices of Dalton, design
guru Tom Schnackenberg and skipper Dean Barker - a
trio some syndicates would give their right arms just
to have.
Since the new Team New Zealand was born in April,
Dalton said it had advanced "truckloads". Already
signed are 37 people in the areas of sailing, design,
sails, rigs and administration.
"In every case there is part of the old in there but
it has been refreshed as well," said Dalton, who is
reluctant to discuss any of the other signings just
yet.
"My worries are to make sure the sailing team continues
to be strengthened. At this point I am not confident
it is as strong as it needs to be. I am becoming pretty
confident with the design team - I think that is looking
pretty cool and it is new."
He said just 12 more signatures were needed to secure
the team's key people.
So Dalton, business manager Ross Blackman and sponsorship
manager Tony Thomas will head overseas next month
to try to find the estimated $150 million needed to
mount a challenge.
"Some companies that were part of the event last time
but were not on the boat, we have the opportunity
to go to them, to go to the parent off shore," Dalton
said. "But old sponsors are our key because they understand
the game. We hope that we get a significant number
of them on board.
"But it has been hard to develop deep and meaningful
conversations with a sponsor with the same team or
no team because that's the first question they ask
- what's different? Now we can start showing them."
Team
NZ lose out in bid for Kostecki (08/09/03)
(source
: NZ
Herald)
Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton
said yesterday that he understood veteran American sailor
John Kostecki had signed with Chris Dickson's Oracle
BMW Racing.
"It is unfortunate from our point of view, but it is
not the end of the world," Dalton said. "He would have
been a good one to have, but there are other people
and we are already pursuing other options."
Kostecki would be have been a tremendous asset to Team
New Zealand, particularly in the back of the boat.
"I don't know what it came down to, but you would have
to imagine money was part of it" said Dalton, ". "However,
it might have come to the fact he is from San Francisco
and so is Oracle."
Dalton said he assumed New Zealander Ross Halcrow would
follow his long-time friend Kostecki to Oracle.
Team New Zealand now had 37 people signed (in the areas
of sailing, design, sails, rigs and administration)
but Dalton said it was too early to comment on any of
the signings.
Team
NZ set to miss out on John Kostecki (07/31/03)
(source
: Sports
Illustrated)
Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said Thursday
he is no longer confident of signing American yachtsman
John Kostecki to a key role in a 2007 America's Cup
campaign.
Dalton held contract talks in New Zealand and the United
States with Kostecki, whose successes include an Olympic
silver medal, victory in the Volvo Round the World Race,
a world soling championship and two America's Cup campaigns
with American syndicates.
He had been initially hopeful of making Kostecki one
of the leading members of New Zealand's sailing team.
But Dalton said Thursday he had little hope of topping
bids for the American's services from other, big-budget
campaigns.
Kostecki is being pursued by Oracle, the San Francisco
syndicate of software magnate Larry Ellison, and that
Team New Zealand was unlikely to be able to match their
offer, Dalton said.
"I'm not confident of finalizing the deal with John,"
he told the Associated Press from Auckland. "Everyone
has options and John has obviously got a few. I'd say
it's a 50-50 thing at the moment. Good guys like John
are under offer from all over the place and he's probably
got a variety of options to consider."
Kevin
Shoebridge joins Team NZ (07/30/03)
(source
: NZoom)
Ocean racer Kevin Shoebridge has been named as
Team New Zealand's operations manager. His job will
be to co-ordinate the departments within the organisation.
Shoebridge was part of the 1987 and 1995 New Zealand
campaigns, but left after the 2000 defence to skipper
Tyco in the 2001/02 Volvo Ocean Race. He then sailed
for OneWorld in the last 2002/03 America's Cup.
