Sailing for the other side

By NICK PERRY

Everything is bigger here. There's lots and lots of traffic. There's a proper science centre and new kinds of food to try. But there's not much wind.

Those are 7-year-old Taylor Mitchell's observations of life in the United States. New Zealander Taylor is part of a new community that has sprung up in Seattle surrounding the challenge for the 2003 America's Cup sailing trophy.

Taylor, whose dad Ian is a boat designer, has decided she likes it here just fine. So much so she wouldn't mind staying another year. She is one of 59 children whose parents were recruited from New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Japan to take part in the $75 million OneWorld challenge, financed by cellphone billionaire Craig McCaw.

A lifelong lover of the sea, McCaw follows other wealthy backers such as Ted Turner and Bill Koch in trying to win the 150-year-old Cup, the pinnacle of competitive sailing. Experts consider McCaw a serious contender who could become the first person to win the Cup on the first attempt.

He has set up his campaign headquarters in Kirkland, bringing his far-flung crew members with him. McCaw has gone as far as hiring Australian Sean Brealey to teach their children over the summer months, keeping them in sync with the Down Under school year.

Many of the children will move to Auckland as training intensifies after October. Before summer break, the kids were enrolled in regular Eastside schools and teaching their new peers about exotic animals such as kiwi, wombats and kangaroos.

Now they are learning with Brealey at the OneWorld school, run from loaned classrooms at Bellevue Christian Three Points Elementary in Bellevue.

Brealey has 30 students, age between 3 and 11. A recent assembly showed the school's cultural flavour. After a wavering rendition of London's Burning on wind recorders, the children sang Pokarekare Ana, followed by a slip-slap song that could have originated only in Australia: "When the sun is up we stop and think; we put on the sunscreen and then the zinc."

Think of all the children back home, Brealey told the class. Some of them never get to travel.

The singing is followed by morning tea for the parents. They bring plates of food, including such delicacies as pikelets with jam and whipped cream.



In the Puget Sound area, sailing is a marginal spectator sport at best, overshadowed by the popularity of teams such as the Mariners and Huskies. But OneWorld is trying to raise that profile, especially among children.

Like most of her classmates at John Muir Elementary in Kirkland, 9-year-old Alona Chernish had never heard of the Cup. But a visit from some of the sailors - who have spoken to 1500 students to date - sparked instant interest.

"They said that the America's Cup involves sailing and that it is a very dangerous sport," Alona says. "They said there are only two boats in one race, and some of the boats can get pretty big."

Alona was one of 10 students to win a colouring competition and a trip from Shilshole Marina with some of the best sailors in the world. She had never sailed before and admitted to feeling nervous before leaving. "It was really cool. It must be hard work for them to be sailing in all those races."

Like their children, the sailors and designers are coming to grips with cultural nuances. "There are different ways of skinning the cat," Kiwi sailor Andrew "Meat" Taylor says. He complains good-naturedly about too many meetings and too much top-down management. San Francisco team member Kimo Worthington says,"The biggest difference is that Americans overdo, overcomplicate and overwork,"sentiments New Zealanders seem to agree with.

What seems to frustrate the American crew is the way Kiwis come across as too blunt, even simplistic, and how they seem to take a little too much time off.

"Of course there are going to be growing pains whenever you take 85 different personalities and put them together," OneWorld CEO Gary Wright says. "But that is superseded by their professionalism."

One sailor who is not worrying about a change of venue is Craig Monk. Nobody recognises the man with huge biceps as an Olympic medal-winner and two-time Cup winner when he walks through downtown Kirkland or goes to the local gym.

Back in Auckland it's a different story. "Every second or third person wants to talk," Monk says. "It can take hours to get anywhere."

All the crew seem to share a love of the outdoors. One group climbs Mt Si most weeks, and several are planning a guided assault on Mt Rainier. The Kiwis and Aussies also play touch rugby regularly.

Many of the sailors believe that Puget Sound residents, with their love of all things sporting, will quickly adopt the sailors when elimination races begin in October next year in the Hauraki Gulf.

The crew expects OneWorld to do well. Backed by the Seattle Yacht Club, where McCaw has been a member for more than 25 years, OneWorld is a serious contender.

But McCaw did not decide to enter the competition until April last year, when the previous regatta reached its conclusion. Wright recalls taking a phone call from McCaw in Europe. "There was a moment when he decided it would be a good opportunity, that maybe the stars were aligned, to put together a great team and have some fun," Wright says.

Within weeks of the final Cup races - when many winning sailors were feeling frustrated at management rifts in Team New Zealand - Wright had signed innovative Kiwi boat designer Laurie Davidson. In a sport which relies on technological advantages, landing Davidson was a coup.

Soon after, a half-dozen sailors from the winning team had signed on. Then there was another key catch - experienced Australian skipper Peter Gilmour.

One of the world's top matchracers, Gilmour is a Cup veteran. He gained huge respect last regatta from the Japanese crew he skippered with the Nippon challenge.

After Gilmour, Seattlites Brian Ledbetter and brothers Charlie and Jonathon McKee signed up. All three local sailors have won Olympic medals.

Wright expects the toughest competition will come from the San Francisco Oracle challenge, backed by software mogul Larry Ellison, the Italian Prada syndicate, a Swiss challenge backed by pharmaceutical billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, and the defending New Zealanders.

With a budget of between $75 and $80 million, the OneWorld effort is financially modest compared to many of the challengers. In the last Cup, the runner-up Italians spent $120 million, a record figure that could be eclipsed this time.

But OneWorld has been forced to revise its finances following the high-tech stock crash. There have been no cutbacks, Wright says, but rather a strict adherence to budget caps.

This month Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen chipped in $10 million toward the challenge through a sponsorship deal with his TechTV cable television company.

That could set up a classic, emotional confrontation between Allen and Ellison, builders of rival software empires.

The OneWorld challenge has a total staff of 85, marketing director Bob Ratliffe says. There are about 35 sailors, a design team of between 15 and 20, about 10 administration staff and a team of boatbuilders.

Most of the boatbuilders have been arriving from New Zealand during recent weeks, and construction on the two 22m carbon-fibre challenge boats is to begin within weeks.

Cup rules require that the sailors be resident in the country of challenge and that the boats also be built there, hence the camp in Kirkland. But this summer many of the sailors have been travelling to regattas around Europe to hone their skills. Puget Sound just doesn't seem to have the strong winds or level of competitive racing required.

Starting this October, the sailors will set up camp in Auckland and begin training in the Hauraki Gulf. They will practise aboard two boats that competed in the last America's Cup regatta.

The team hopes to have both its new boats delivered to Auckland by next April, giving them only a few months before the elimination series - the Louis Vuitton Cup - starts in October next year.

But one man who will be keeping out of the limelight is McCaw. He has been conspicuously absent from all attention surrounding the Cup. Even when OneWorld officially launched its challenge at the Seattle Yacht Club last year, McCaw did not show up, leaving the announcement instead to Gilmour.

Since then, McCaw has granted just one media interview, an e-mail dialogue with New York Times writer Herb McCormick in January.

"I've followed the America's Cup since I was young," McCaw told McCormick. "I love the history and I've found its evolution fascinating. I do not wish to see the Cup degenerate into an entrepreneur's ego contest with the biggest war chest determining victory. There are far better, more conscionable uses for the resources."

Wright says McCaw keeps in the background of all his projects. "He is extremely low-key and focused. He doesn't have any ego whatsoever."

McCaw is trying to emphasise the environmental message of OneWorld. He has set up a syndicate foundation to try to improve the world's ocean environments. It is a message many of the kids involved in the Cup pick up on, Brealey says.

But whether 7-year-old Taylor is helping to save the world or not, there are some things that she's getting homesick for.

"I miss my friends and my mum's dog and cat."

Messing about in boats


In many ways Kirkland is similar to Auckland's North Shore. Sprawled along the waterfront of Lake Washington, Kirkland is about 30km drive from downtown Seattle. Although it has its own city council, it is considered part of the larger Seattle metropolitan area.

Kirkland has boomed in recent years, fuelled by growth in the high-tech and communication industries. It is home to 45,000 people, who earn about 50 per cent more than the average person in Seattle. Microsoft's main campus, home to 20,000 workers, is just 10km away.

Latest census figures show that Kirkland is young, with 9000 of its residents aged between 25 and 34. It is less ethnically diverse than Seattle, although the Asian and Hispanic populations have doubled over the past 10 years, to 3500 and 1800 respectively.

Most of the Kiwi sailors are clustered in apartments around Carillon Pt, an area with great views of the lake and within walking distance of downtown Kirkland.

Including Kirkland and other surrounding urban areas, Seattle has a population of about 1.7 million. Like Aucklanders, Seattlites love getting out on the water and sailing.

Seattle's biggest marina, Shilshole, rivals in size just about any in the world. Seattle's latest phone book features three icons of the area on the front cover: the Space Needle, Mt Rainier, and a yacht.

Most yachts sail up and down Puget Sound, which connects to the Strait of Juan de Fuca north of Seattle, which in turn connects to the Pacific Ocean. But, unlike Auckland, the winds are mild year-round in Seattle.

The National Weather Service reports that during July, Seattle's airport, SeaTac, had an average windspeed of 8.8 km/h, with a top two-minute gust of 35 km/h.

The sort of typical Auckland summer day that would draw hundreds of boats on to the Hauraki Gulf would likely leave Puget Sound almost empty. Seattlites would consider it was just too windy.

Feature: America's Cup