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XXXIIe America's Cup
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Dean
Barker ready for Alinghi (01/19/03)
(source
:
Foxsports)
|
With Sunday's confirmation Alinghi will race Team
New Zealand for the America's Cup next month, attention
has begun to focus on the battle within the battle.
While the 31st America's Cup starting Feb. 15 will match
Switzerland against New Zealand, it will also pit New
Zealand skipper Dean Barker against Alinghi's Russell
Coutts - the pupil against his mentor.
Barker and Coutts were teammates at Team New Zealand
through its successful 2000 Cup defense, Coutts as skipper
and Barker as his understudy. Barker, in intense in-house
racing, prepared Coutts for that Cup final.
Coutts, in the fifth and final race, handed the helm
to Barker, allowing Barker to steer New Zealand to its
clinching win over Italy's Prada.
"It doesn't change anything for us," Barker said of
the matchup against his former teammate. "We've still
got to go out and win five races".
"Alinghi is certainly a yardstick. Everyone measures
themselves against Russell Coutts and his team of guys.
We'd love to beat them and we would love to keep the
Cup in New Zealand. We're going to do everything we
can." |
| |
Team
NZ to fend off poaching raids (01/17/03)
(source
:
NZ
Herald)
|
Team New Zealand already have confidential plans
under way to fend off poaching raids from foreign syndicates
after the America's Cup ends.
The move follows the bitter split in the team three
years ago when key crew, including Russell Coutts and
Brad Butterworth, signed lucrative overseas deals just
weeks after defending the cup.
Chief executive Ross Blackman was yesterday reluctant
to discuss any details about contracts, or how he would
keep the team intact if they won the cup again next
month.
However, he confirmed that management would not sit
by and watch their talent disappear.
"The strength of Team New Zealand has always come from
continuity, in both our funding and obviously the 'team'
concept. "Most definitely the management of Team New
Zealand will be doing everything they possibly can to
ensure that continuity is in place for next time."
Mr Blackman yesterday declined to comment on when team
members' contracts expired or if the team were talking
to sponsors about ensuring funding was in place to offer
contracts. |
| |
Relief
in Auckland as BlackHeart sinks (01/16/03)
(sources
: Sport.telegraph
&
NZ
Herald)
|
"We think BlackHeart has made its point and
it's time to move on," the group's leader, David Walden,
said. He concedes the threats damaged his campaign.
"It's been suggested we should go away and, yes, we
will withdraw from the media circus", he said."
We will pull our heads in, but we will not go away."
BlackHeart were founded by advertising executive David
Walden and were formed after overseas cup challengers
recruited former Team New Zealand designers, sailors
and technicians. The Seattle OneWorld syndicate and
Alinghi were prime targets.
BlackHeart's prime weapons were advertising hoardings
near syndicate row at Auckland's Viaduct Basin. When
OneWorld was penalised one point over allegations that
TNZ's design secrets had been passed to Seattle, the
BlackHeart poster declared: "OneWorld. One Point. What
Point?"
More than a third of TNZ's victorious 2000 squad were
lured overseas, yet the campaign against them became
almost solely focused on Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth,
the skipper/tactician combination in both TNZ's victories
in 1995 and 2000.
Revelations early this month that police were investigating
threats of violence and vandalism against Alinghi changed
the feeling in Auckland.
BlackHeart, who distanced themselves from the threats
and co-operated with police during the inquiry, have
sensed the tide is running against them. Police said
the letters copied phrases used in BlackHeart newsletters.
"Despite all attempts to distance ourselves from these
alleged threats, mud sticks and BlackHeart's core purpose
of building a home-ground advantage for Team New Zealand
has been hijacked," Walden said.
While many top New Zealand sportspeople and entertainers
expressed support for BlackHeart, its activities went
largely unnoticed in this city of one million people.
TNZ boss Tom Schnackenberg said BlackHeart were a distraction.
A New Zealand Herald editorial condemned the campaign
as 'patriotism taken too far'.
Louis Vuitton spokesman Marcus Hutchinson says BlackHeart
only had a negative impact on the America's Cup, and
did not reflect the mood of the New Zealand public.
Swiss syndicate Alinghi did not want to discuss BlackHeart.
Alinghi spokesman Bernard Schopfer said: "We didn't
comment before and we don't want to comment now".
Speaking on Newstalk ZB after winning their third consecutive
race against Oracle yesterday, Coutts said: "What they
do or didn't do is irrelevant to me."
Walden said Wednesday the website would continue to
publish "facts that we think are important" but BlackHeart
would not "be drawn into the spin from the challenger's
well-oiled public relations machines."
"BlackHeart will from today adopt a low profile, keep
a watching brief and ask all our supporters to remain
staunch and true to Team New Zealand." |
| |
Trash
a threat to Team NZ's 'hula' (01/15/03)
(source
: FoxSports)
|
A piece of seaweed lodged between New Zealand's
double hulls could force the disqualification of the
Kiwi yacht from next month's America's Cup match, a
Cup official said Tuesday.
Ken McAlpine, the Australian expert and Cup's chief
measurer who has ruled on the legality of Cup yachts
for almost two decades, said any object jammed between
New Zealand's false and real hulls could affect the
boat's compliance with Cup rules.
McAlpine's measurement committee has been asked seven
questions, posed by an unidentified syndicate, about
the legality of the double hull, dubbed the "Hula,"
that Team New Zealand unveiled at a special "keel reveal"
day on Jan. 7.
The committee has ruled the double hull is legal as
long as it does not touch the actual hull at any time
and at any point other than its permitted point of attachment.
Opponents who question the legality of the close-fitting
attachment, which is classified along with the keel
and rudder as an "appendage," argue the measurers cannot
be sure contact does not occur.
The measurement committee have been asked to suggest
an electronic or mechanical monitoring system which
would clearly determine whether contact had occurred
McAlpine said in certain circumstances a piece of debris
lodged between the hull and the appendage might affect
the legality of the New Zealand yacht.
If a yacht does not comply with Cup rules and the terms
of its measurement certificate it can be disqualified.
"There was a call on the interpretation of this issue
on Saturday," McAlpine said. "If there was something
intentionally lodged (between the hulls) it would certainly
contravene (the rules). If there was something that
became lodged, it may or may not contravene."
"It would depend on the circumstances ... a plastic
bag, a bit of weed, it would depend on the circumstances."
While the deliberate lodgment of an item between the
false and actual hull would seem to clearly breach Cup
rules, McAlpine's suggestion that an accidental lodgment
of debris "may" break the rules could be a bombshell
to Team New Zealand.
It could mean that if the measurers found a piece of
seaweed, a plastic bag or another foreign item accidentally
lodged in the narrow gap between the Hula and the hull,
they could find a rules breach had occurred.
"It's not so much a question of being accidental," he
said. "It's more a question of what's lodged there.
"If someone had jammed a piece of seaweed then it clearly
contravenes the rule. If the seaweed accidentally got
there on the tow out (to the racecourse) or during the
race and it could be proven, then it would probably
be accidental and would not contravene the rule."
While the measurement committee has been asked to answer
several questions on the performance and legality of
the Hula, no protests have been lodged against Team
New Zealand.
Challenger finalists Oracle and Alinghi have said they
have no intention to protest the design, although both
have asked the measurers to answer questions on its
use.
McAlpine would not say what systems the measurement
committee was using to ensure contact between the Hula
and the hull did not occur. "It is confidential information
between the measurers and Team New Zealand as to how
we have got to that stage."
Oracle navigator Ian Burns said his syndicate is not
convinced of the false hull's effectiveness.
"We have researched a number of areas including that
area of the rule and as we have said all along it's
one thing to build it but you have to make it go faster,"
Burns said. "It's quite questionable as far as we are
concerned. |
| |
Team
NZ say Blackheart a "distraction" (01/12/03)
(source
: Sunday
Star Times on Stuff.co.nz)
|
The America's Cup defenders have spoken for the
first time against the high profile supporters' campaign
and say its intentions may be good but the result isn't.
"It bothers me that they may be more a distraction for
us," says Team New Zealand designer Mike Drummond. "It
will not be a distraction for Alinghi."
Syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg agreed, saying he was
"a little bit" concerned by the campaign and "our preference
would be that they wouldn't be doing it. Everybody's
free to do their own thing but it creates extra emotion,"
said Schnackenberg.
Drummond, who with co- principal designer Clay Oliver
unveiled Team New Zealand's radical new hula hull last
week, said the BlackHeart campaign initially provided
some amusement for the syndicate.
But he said far from diverting the attention of its
New Zealand opponents in the Alinghi team, "they just
see it as a joke. It won't affect their sailing in the
slightest and it doesn't matter what the feel-good factor
is for us, we still have to beat them on the water."
The BlackHeart campaign was launched in September by
advertising executive David Walden with celebrity support
from squash legend Dame Susan Devoy, former All Blacks
Va'aiga Tuigamala, Stu Wilson, Waka Nathan and New Zealand
First leader Winston Peters.
Walden said the group was pro-New Zealand and passionate
about the cup remaining here.
"If that upsets some other New Zealanders who have put
money before their country then I say good because they
have chosen to be our competitors," he said at the time.
Walden claimed it was not a smear campaign against Alinghi
sailors, former Team New Zealand members Russell Coutts
and Brad Butterworth. But last weekend BlackHeart newsletters
were linked to a hate campaign against the Alinghi sailors
which has included threats against their families. The
founders and main supporters of BlackHeart have distanced
themselves from the threats.
Walden said yesterday he was puzzled by Team New Zealand's
comments.
"We've been an unofficial supporter and our whole objective
is to support them", he said. "If Team New Zealand
asked BlackHeart to go away then BlackHeart would go
away."
Walden said BlackHeart's 3000 members set out to create
a hometown advantage for the America's Cup Challenge.
They wanted to say the things syndicate management could
not say and generate support in New Zealand and particularly
Auckland.
Walden said he had no idea some crew members may have
found the campaign a distraction and might ask the team
if it wanted BlackHeart stopped.
"If Team New Zealand says to me you are not being helpful
. . . Christ I've got better things to do, I could go
off and have some fun like the rest of the country."
|
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No
protests over Kiwi "clip-on" (01/08/03)
(source
: NZ
Herald)
|
Rival America's Cup syndicates Alinghi and Oracle
had questioned whether the clip-on was within the rules
and had until 3pm yesterday to lodge protests with the
international jury or the America's Cup Arbitration
Panel.
Chairman of the international jury and chief umpire
Bryan Willis confirmed yesterday that no protests had
been received but the Swiss syndicate put to the jury
a series of questions about the false hull, which circumvents
stringent restrictions on hull shape because it is classified
as an appendage rather than part of the hull.
"It will be the responsibility of Team New Zealand to
prove it doesn't touch the hull," said Alinghi design
co-ordinator Grant Simmer. It is understood that Alinghi
have questioned whether the jury can rely on a "simple
assurance" from a competitor that such an appendage
does not touch the hull during a race.
Team New Zealand rejected their rivals' criticisms,
saying they would not have been issued certificates
for yachts NZL81 and NZL82 unless the measurers were
convinced of the false hull's legality.
"The measurers laid down stipulations that the appendage
not touch the hull while the boats are racing and we
have made sure that they don't touch when the boats
are sailing at any time," New Zealand design team head
Tom Schnackenberg said.
"The requirements were quite stringent and we have had
the gaps big enough and designed the boats full enough
so they don't touch. "It was our obligation to prove
to the measurers that it doesn't touch the hull and
we have proved that."
Further issues can be raised after the challenger finals,
starting on Saturday, and before the best-of-nine race
America's Cup match which starts on February 15. |
|
