By SUZANNE McFADDEN
They are not sailors, but two guys named Clouds and Charko could hold the key to winning the clash of the America's Cup challengers.
They watch the wind and tell two guys called Kostecki and Grael, who in turn tell two guys called Cayard and de Angelis which way to point their arrow-like boats.
Roger "Clouds" Badham and Doug Charko are the weathermen for AmericaOne and Prada respectively - and they have one of the toughest jobs in Auckland.
Predicting where the breeze will come from and how hard it will blow on the Hauraki Gulf could give a meteorologist a breakdown.
The gulf is a cauldron of devilishly confusing winds and tides. Gusts twist through the channels between the volcanic islands, warm sea breezes rise off the mainland and within minutes the wind swings around every point of the compass.
Lying smack between the tropical highs of the Pacific and cold Antarctic lows does not help.
Reading the weather correctly can win races. AmericaOne swear by it. In the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals, Paul Cayard's crew won eight out of 10 races by picking the first windshift and getting to that side of the course.
It is up to the weathermen to feed the right prediction to the sailors six minutes before the starting gun.
Canadian Charko, who has a degree in meteorology, works with one of New Zealand's top sailors, three-times world 470 champion Hamish Willcox, driving Prada's weather programme.
At 5 am, he is the first man on the Prada base. He grabs his information from the Internet, coastguard radio and three inflatable weather boats decked out with mini-masts.
"We've been burned so many times. The weather looks clearcut, and minutes later everything goes out the window," Charko said. "I guess it breaks the monotony. When Prada was sailing in Italy they didn't even need a meteorologist - a high sat off Europe all summer and it was the same weather every day."
Next door, at AmericaOne, Dr Clouds Badham is a veteran of four round-the-world races and America's Cups since 1983.
The Australian says he is never surprised by Auckland's severe weather patterns.
Badham feeds everything he knows to tactician John Kostecki, who is renowned for getting it right.
"Ninety per cent of the time, if you get the first windshift right, you win," said Kostecki. "You've got an immediate advantage over your competitor, because it's so hard to pass in these boats. We seem to have done a nice job on that so far."
If the weather team cannot make head or tail out of the conditions, it is up to Kostecki and his man up the mast, Morgan Larson, to decide.
"We look at the water, the different colours and the waves, and just get a feeling for direction," said Kostecki. "It's hard for people who are not into it to understand."
The defenders have been examining the weather of the gulf since 1995. Team New Zealand have retired American expert Bob Rice, who migrates south for the summer to work from Sir Peter Blake's private yacht Archangel.
Rice, aged 67, gave his expert advice to the New Zealanders in San Diego, where his daily accuracy was uncanny - the black boats got the first windshift right in every race.
Yachting: Non-sailors keeping weather eye on fleet
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