America's Cup group BlackHeart says making life uncomfortable for sailors who have defected from Team New Zealand (TNZ) is a by-product -- not the focus -- of their campaign.
The group, which sprung to prominence at the weekend, has been formed by a group of mainly Auckland business and sports people.
Spokesman
Dave Walden said the group was concerned that with the Louis Vuitton challenger series starting in just two weeks, New Zealanders would get behind syndicates which featured former TNZ sailors.
That included syndicates such as Switzerland's Alinghi, which has the services of former TNZ skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth for competition which begins on October 1.
"Making life uncomfortable for those guys is a possible side element of what we're doing," Walden told Radio Sport.
"What we're about is galvanising support for Team New Zealand.
"We are a pretty fair-minded country. New Zealanders' sense of fair play is being preyed upon by the people who defected from Team New Zealand.
"As this campaign develops, if it makes a few people feel uncomfortable on the way through, then so be it.
"They have had it too easy, there has been a lot of positive PR spin. Nobody has actually applied a little bit of pressure to them. By galvanising support for Team New Zealand, we're going to do that.
"We want to make it clear that there is only one team that deserves New Zealanders' loyalty and it's not the Swiss or the Americans."
- NZPA
