Top
rower Rob Waddell joins TNZ
(02/13/01) (source :
NZ
Herald)
Top rower Rob Waddell, Olympic gold
medallist in Sydney in the single scull, joins Team
New Zealand to get the grinder's job. In their last
America's Cup campaign, Team NZ took on top multisport
athlete Jonathan Macbeth.
Skipper Dean Barker had 40 applicants for the grinder's
job. The list was culled to 5 - none with sailing
experience. Rob Waddell had to beat another rower,
a national judoka, a body-builder and a national strongman
titleholder.
At 115kg, Waddell is the heaviest sailor at Team.
And at 2m tall, he has to duck to get through doorways
at their base.
Team
New Zealand Sponsorship (02/02/01) (source : NZ
Herald)
The Five members of the so-called
family of five America's Cup sponsors are back on
board for Team New Zealand's defence of the trophy
in 2003. Telecom, Lion Nathan (Steinlager), TV One,
Lotto and Toyota, which have once more signed up to
align themselves with the glamour that goes with the
world-famous yachting series.
Sponsorship costs are believed to be as high as $85
million to fund Team NZ's 2003 campaign - up about
80 per cent. .
It is understood that Team NZ asked each family member
for around $7 million. But a source confirmed that
Five would not be paying much more than they had last
time - a figure pegged at around $5 million - leaving
a question mark as to who might be picking up the
sponsorship slack.
T eam NZ general manager Ross Blackman confirmed that
it was in talks with other corporates, which will
make up the so-called "second family of five" - sponsors
which will support events surrounding the racing.
Air NZ and Fuji Xerox are among the firms being wooed.
Contracts have not been drawn up between the sponsoring
parties yet, but the "family" will be able to milk
their involvement with the challenge immediately.
Four members of the so-called family
of five America's Cup sponsors are back on board for
Team New Zealand's defence of the trophy in 2003.
Lion Nathan, Lotto, Telecom and Toyota are likely
to announce their commitment within the next week.
However, as foreshadowed last year, Television New
Zealand's involvement with the family of five is now
at an end. TVNZ - which provided extensive coverage
of the 1999 cup defence but contributed no cash &endash;
is relinquishing its place enabling Team New Zealand
to replace it with a much-needed cash sponsor. Reliable
estimates put the revised cost of Team New Zealand's
2003 campaign at between $80 million and 85 million.
Two or three major companies are understood to be
vying for the vacant spot. TVNZ will continue to provide
local coverage of the America's Cup, while the ESPN
network will broadcast the event internationally.
Sources told The Independent the rights-based ESPN
deal will bring in more money than the other sponsorship
deals. In another major sponsorship deal, travel and
financial services company American Express has been
confirmed as naming rights sponsor of the Viaduct
&endash; to be renamed the American Express Harbour.
American Express will promote the America's Cup globally
and contribute cash - understood to be between $7
million and $8 million.
Team New Zealand's America's Cup
yachts will return to the public eye for the first
time since defending yachting's Auld Mug last year
at the Auckland Anniversary Regatta next Monday.
Subject to weather conditions on the day, the team's
two yachts NZL57 and the America's Cup winning NZL60
will demonstrate a pre-start and a short course match
race in the confined area of the inner Auckland Harbour
between Orakei Wharf and North Head. Suitable wind
conditions would allow the black boats to sail in
the area of the Harbour overlooked by Devonport's
North Head and Tamaki Drive on the southern shore.
Team New Zealand plan to leave their base by 9.30am
which should allow them to be under sail in the designated
area by 10.15am.
TNZ
looks for an opponent to race (12/10/00) (source : QuokkaForum
From the Sunday Star Times 10/12/00)
The dusters are out, the skirts
are on and the prospect of squaring off against an
America’s Cup challenger looms for Team New Zealand.
On Tuesday, NZL60 and NZL57 will hit the waters off
Auckland for the first time since the kiwis defended
the cup 5-0 against Italy’s Prada earlier this year.
It’s back to business for skipper Dean Barker and
his teammates and the shroud of secrecy, which covers
all the syndicates’ development work, is back as well.
Team NZ chief executive Ross Blackman confirmed that
the keels of the cup winning NZL60 and NZL57 were
covered by skirts. “The skirts will stay on all the
way through,” Blackman said. “We will be making changes
and we do make them quite often. If our competition
don’t know what we are doing, it just helps us stay
one step ahead of them.”
The pre-Christmas phase of the on-the-water programme
is essentially a massive dust-off. Blackman said Team
New Zealand wanted to ensure everything was A1 before
the intensive training and development testing began
in the new year. “We are just making sure the boats
are back together and that all the systems are working,”
Blackman said. “We are dusting everything off and
dusting ourselves off. We want to know the shore system
is working and the team is back so that we hit the
ground running in January. We have figured if there
are any glitches in the systems let’s find them out
before Christmas and not waste time in the new year.”
The summer training programme will be a mixture of
honing crew work and boat testing. And it could include
a sparring session with a challenger. Blackman confirmed
he had held discussions but wasn’t saying how many,
or which, challengers had been contacted. A challenger
trialling against the defence syndicate is an extremely
delicate issue. There was a furore late last year
when Nippon skipper Peter Gilmour broke an informal
agreement among the six Louis Vuitton semifinalists
that no one would help Team NZ by working up against
them.
Stars and Stripes head Dennis Conner and America One
skipper Paul Cayard condemned Gilmour with Conner
suggesting it was all “win, win, win for Team New
Zealand”. With no Road To The America’s Cup series,
Blackman indicated Team NZ was keen to engage a challenger.
“My guess is that it will happen,” he said. “We would
like to and the indications are that there is a good
chance there will be some sailing this summer.”
Blackman said the chances of challenger-defender trialling
were a lot higher as the syndicates would be using
boats from the last regatta, not the new ones for
the next America’s Cup. Blackman said time on the
water was important in the team’s learning process.
“Everyone has ideas on how things can be improved
and how the boats can be crewed more efficiently in
terms of how manoeuvres can be done more quickly or
how the boat can come out of a manoeuvre with more
speed,” he said. “All of those ideas are tested and
trialled.”
Several challengers have been sailing on the Hauraki
Gulf for a number of weeks but Blackman was unfazed
that Team NZ had been beaten out of the dock. He said
the emphasis had been on planning rather than racing.
“It is the planning at the beginning of a campaign
which leads to a win at the end,” he said. Meanwhile
Blackman said the syndicate was well advanced in terms
of finalising negotiations with its “family” of five
major sponsors. “Things are progressing well,” he
said. “There is a good chance there will be a pre-Christmas
announcement.”
News
from the Team NZ (11/27/00) (source :
NZ Herald)
1. Team New Zealand's sailors have
started work for the next America's Cup. Last week,
the crew sailed against each other in a mock matchracing
grand prix on the Waitemata Harbour.
2. The new-look crew now numbers 31, with four top
dinghy sailors the latest recruits. New Zealand's
Olympic 49er crew Dan Slater and Nathan Handley have
signed up for the middle of the boat, and Finn sailors
Joe Spooner and Ian Baker are the new grinders. .
3. Bertrand Pace, the world's No 1 matchracing skipper,
walked into Team NZ's black shed for the first time
and started his new job. "I've had to wait three
months for this, but I am so happy now I'm here. I
cannot wait to steer the black boat", the French
skipper said with a grin.
His decision to leave the French challenge to become
back-up helmsman for Dean Barker and coach for the
Team NZ sailors prompted a mixed response in France.
"I think 99 per cent of the people are very happy
for me - they can understand what a big acknowledgement
it is for a French sailor", he said. "Everyone
except the French syndicate is happy. When we finished
the last America's Cup in February, there was a lot
of criticism about everybody in Le Defi. It was difficult
to have a proper analysis. Let's say I am happy to
leave France".
Pace has no preconceived ideas about whether he will
sail on the Team NZ race boat alongside Barker, the
world matchracing champion, in the 2003 America's
Cup. "I did not come here to be either on or off
the boat. I'm here to help Dean and the team to have
a successful defence", he said. "My first job
is to be an outside person coming in with a different
perspective on things".
4. Takapuna-based Phonak NZ provided waterproof earpieces
free for the defenders last Cup and plans to do the
same next time around (but not for Oracle Racing !).
The system can track a moving sound and suppress it,
vastly improving the quality of sound for the hearing-impaired,
who have trouble with background noise. Earpieces
can be fitted to all crew, but those at the bow, farthest
from the skipper, and the crewman looking after the
sails down in the "sewer" benefit the most. America's
Cup rules prohibit the yachts from carrying gear that
can pick up signals sent from off the boat. Although
the system works only one way - allowing the skipper
to communicate with the crew but not the other way
around - it helped Team NZ by cutting down the confusion
caused by the need to yell above the background noise.
Black
Magic tank testing (11/08/00) (source : Sail24.com)
Team New Zealand boss Tom Schnackenberg
is reported to be pleased with the performance of
their initial design concepts after the first session
of tank testing at the Wolfson Unit in Southampton,
UK.
He was quick to add that, although there were some
interesting performance indicators, their Cup boat
would not be built until 2002 so there would be many
more changes to the design before then. He added that
his team would narrow down their options and begin
to finalise their design as the build time approached.
By returning to the Wolfson, Schnackenberg, recently
inducted into Sailing’s Hall of Fame, is following
the same path that led to victory in 1995 and 2000.
This time however, he is without the designer of the
previous two boats, Laurie Davidson, because Davidson
has signed with Craig McCaw’s Seattle-based OneWorld
Challenge.
Bertrand Pacé, 38, won the Swedish
Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour last week when Dean
Barker of New Zealand, his main competitor, was eliminated
during the first round by Chris Dickson, also of New
Zealand. Pacé was not in Bermuda to race the Gold
Cup as he was on holiday in France, resting and preparing
the next step of his career—moving to New Zealand
to prepare with Team New Zealand for the 2003 America's
Cup.
"Training in Auckland will begin in December," says
Pacé. "It's very exciting to know that I will sail
the boats that won the last America's Cup—it's going
to be a great moment." After a short break, training
will resume from January to April. Pacé's schedule
also includes racing on the 2001 match-race circuit,
and perhaps leading an entry in the next Admiral's
Cup.
"The latter is just a project at the moment, there's
nothing organized yet," he says. Yet, now that he
is done wrestling with Barker for first place on the
match-race circuit, Pacé will soon battle the young
skillful helmsman in Auckland. "It's a good omen,"
he says. "The motivation will be higher when we train
against each other. We will work in order to increase
each other's level."
However, leaving France for New Zealand is not that
easy. "I really see it as a big human and technical
challenge," he says. "I'm leaving my country, and
the French Défi, but I know I will be working with
the best team in the world for the next Cup. It will
be enriching because as part of the team I will be
totally involved in the boat and project development."
Pacé is especially excited about the opportunity to
work with Tom Schnackenberg, TNZ's project manager,
one of the best in the business. "It's emotionally
very strong for me to know that I will be working
with such a man," says Pacé. "It gives me even more
motivation."
Pacé may not be the only French sailor within the
New Zealand syndicate. Of the 32 members that will
compose the sailing team, Team New Zealand is still
looking for four or five sailors to add to the squad.
Some of them may be French sailors that sailed with
the BTT Défi last year alongside Pacé.
TNZ
expected to sail in Auckland (10/21/00) (source : NZ
Herald)
Trying to save a dollar (?), TNZ
are rebuilding the Viaduct base themselves (But it
helps to have trained carpenters among the crew like
bowmen Joey Allen and Jared Henderson, and trimmer
James Dagg).
Defence head Tom Schnackenberg and some of the design
team have completed the first tank-testing session
in England, trying out the first set of hull models.
In the same time, Dean Barker and Cameron Appleton
head to Bermuda to contest the regatta against the
former Team NZ skipper Russell Coutts and other America's
Cup skippers (not Bertrand Pacé "because
he does not like the boats", with "his short
stature, he finds it difficult to see where he is
going").
Straight after the regatta, the defenders crew will
all meet back in Auckland, with Pace getting his first
taste of being a Kiwi. The 2000 black boats will begin
serious testing on the Hauraki Gulf after Christmas.
