Coutts tells of lock-out from base

By HELEN TUNNAH

Key Team New Zealand sailors were locked out of their base after the last America's Cup as efforts to shore up a new management structure foundered, former skipper Russell Coutts said yesterday.

He, Brad Butterworth and Tom Schnackenberg tried for years to get an agreement to take over the management of Team New Zealand from Sir Peter Blake, but failed, he said.

Just two weeks before his new syndicate, Alinghi, begin their bid to take the trophy from Team New Zealand, Coutts yesterday spoke about leaving the team he skippered to two America's Cup wins.

Coutts and Butterworth have been pilloried for quitting Team New Zealand and signing lucrative deals to sail for Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

Coutts emphatically denied rumours that he and Butterworth had been negotiating with Bertarelli before the cup defence was over. "Absolutely not, no way. Our first preference was to continue with Team New Zealand."

Auckland lawyer and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron member Jim Farmer, who tried to help the pair set up the new management structure, supported them yesterday.

"There is no doubt that in the two years I was involved in this thing we got absolutely nowhere," he said.

Yesterday, Coutts issued a lengthy statement outlining his memories of what happened. "By clearing the air, we hope we can now return to a focus on the sport and to the action on the water."

The strained relationships between factions within Team New Zealand were reported in the days before they defended the America's Cup three years ago and in the weeks afterwards.

There were well-known differences between Coutts and some trustees, but also between senior sailors led by Coutts and Butterworth, and Sir Peter and his close friend Alan Sefton, a Team New Zealand executive director.

Yesterday, Coutts did not criticise Sir Peter, who was murdered by pirates in Brazil in 2001.

His statement outlines what he said were deliberate efforts, led by Team New Zealand trust chairman Richard Green, to obstruct his and Butterworth's attempts to be part of the new management team.

He said they were never able to see the financial records of the old trust. As well, it was demanded that the new structure:

* Accept liability for unspecified debts incurred by the trust.

* Accept potential tax liability if the charitable trust of the old structure changed as was being mooted.

* Pay $2 million to the former trust so it could make payments to charities to retain its tax status.

* Not pursue new sponsors for 12 months.

* Not alter the terms for new talks with the "family of five" sponsors.

Coutts said that by the end of March 2000, the Team New Zealand crew no longer had contracts and he and Butterworth were powerless to stop defections.

Repeated requests for urgent meetings to finalise a management deal were ignored, he said.

"It was symbolic of the attitude prevailing at the time that locks to the base were changed abruptly so that sailors, who had been with Team New Zealand for more than a decade, including Brad, found themselves humiliatingly locked out."

When a meeting was finally held, the proposed conditions were not acceptable, he said.

Mr Green could not be contacted last night.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

Racing schedule, results and standings