Editorial: Showdown seemed inevitable

Four months ago, before the America's Cup challenger racing began, a Team New Zealand man talking off the record was emphatic: "It'll be Coutts." No hint of doubt. No second-thought of the mighty US dollars of Oracle or OneWorld, or of the reigning pretender, Prada. Just one, inevitable outcome.

And so it has come to pass. Alinghi's comprehensive victory over Oracle sets up the dream/nightmare scenario for New Zealand in the 2003 Cup defence. The "loyal" survivors who stayed aboard the black boat will compete against the peerless defectors now flying the flag of Switzerland. In the past week there has been an odd dichotomy in the public's feelings about the challenger finalists: a gut hope that Chris Dickson's Oracle could upset Russell Coutts before he had the chance to take away "our" Cup, tempered with a deep and unspoken realisation that the only America's Cup match worthy of a place in history would be Team New Zealand against Alinghi.

Plainly the challenger series has been poorly conceived this time. The wind restrictions which ruled out racing on numerous passable days rightly opened the event to ridicule. They ruined too many spectators' opportunities of seeing world-class match racing in October, November and December. The scheduled breaks in the regatta were badly timed and too long. Visitors to Auckland over the peak Christmas-New Year period saw nothing other than masts and syndicate bases. Should Team New Zealand prevail next month, the organisation of the challenger racing needs wholesale revision for the next regatta. Adding to a less-than-ideal curtain-raiser for the big event were ludicrous secrecy and poor media relations during hearings of the arbitration panel which determined complaints pivotal to the integrity of the America's Cup.

Now, thankfully, the preamble is out of the way. All eyes turn to the New Zealanders charged with stopping this Swiss phenomenon. Should they, and we, be worried? Peculiarly, both camps are quietly confident. The Swiss because they have talent to burn and have forged a culture of winning and tactical ruthlessness to become a cohesive, inspired crew. Team New Zealand, on the other hand, have had years competing against themselves. They have had the benefit of NZL60, the 2000 boat which saw off Prada 5-0 and was light-years ahead of the design orthodoxy of its day. Although Coutts and Brad Butterworth knew the secrets of that boat and must have advanced their Swiss vessel accordingly, they have not Team New Zealand's advantage of using it on the water, even to the point of testing a "hula" appendage on the 2000 conqueror. Team New Zealand, now sporting that second skin on its hulls, have been able to enhance or discard all their options early in the piece and, once demonstrably ahead of the old boat's capabilities, develop new techniques with the new generation. They have also retained the brilliance of Tom Schnackenberg leading the thinking between Cup defences. Man for man, the sailors might be relatively even. Alinghi might even be superior. But there are some who are so confident of Team New Zealand's design and technical pedigree that they predict the relative strengths of the crews will not be critical to this defence; the new boat, whether NZL81 or 82 will simply sail away from the Swiss.

With the withdrawal of the sadly misguided BlackHeart campaign targeting New Zealanders sailing for other syndicates, the focus can shift now to the technical and sailing capabilities of two teams of sportsmen. Fate has determined that they should face each other in the final. Now, what does she have in mind for the final day, a haka or a yodel?

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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