Cup hopes at half mast

By HELEN TUNNAH and JULIE ASH

Team New Zealand, battered, beaten and bruised, will take to the water today to try to salvage some pride from a disastrous America's Cup campaign.

As the shore crew worked into the night to replace the Black Boat's mast, the country had already started an inquest into how Team New Zealand could find itself facing a whitewash in a boat that has now failed to complete the course twice in four races.

"How can you design a boat that can't even cope with our own conditions," moaned fan Andrew Deerness of Devonport as NZL82 limped into the Viaduct Harbour in front of a muted and shocked crowd.

The question reverberated around the country as people watched television images of the crippled boat wallowing in choppy seas.

An anonymous crewman, summing up the feelings of the nation, vented his frustrations as the mast broke 57 minutes into the race.

"This f****** boat," he could be heard saying.

Yachting New Zealand's high performance manager, Peter Lester, said Alinghi's 4-0 lead came down to "preparation, preparation, preparation".

"Alinghi's been out practising in those conditions.

"The feature has to be how reliable and how well prepared Alinghi are."

Alinghi grinder Christian Karcher said his team's wins had nothing to do with luck.

"This was all about a lack of training, preparation and time on the water. Their boat spent too much time in the shed being fine-tuned ashore.

"Last autumn we wore woollen hats and went out sailing for 12 hours a day."

Alinghi have also won the battle of the starts, crossing the line first and picking the right winds.

Yesterday they were 20m, or four seconds, ahead on the better side of the course in the first race after 10 days of lay-offs because of bad weather.

But 57 minutes into the race, with Alinghi 100m ahead, disaster struck.

On the Black Boat, afterguard crewman Adam Beashel warned skipper Dean Barker about the huge weight of water pouring over the side.

"Bad wave. We've got a flood of water. Bad wave," he said.

Sailing the upwind third leg in heavy seas left over from two days of gales, NZL82 buried its bow into two successive 2m waves in winds of around 17 knots.

Then, with an audible groan, the $900,000 carbon-fibre mast broke.

Three crewmen trying to salvage the sails were flung into the choppy seas as their team-mates shouted, "Be careful here guys, look after yourselves".

Then came the order to rip down the flapping sails: "We're going to knife this mainsail off, knife it off."

The disastrous day, capping even the first race when the Black Boat was forced to retire with its boom broken and sails blown out, means Alinghi is one win away from taking the America's Cup back to Europe for the first time in 152 years.

If Team New Zealand did not have enough bad portents, today is Russell Coutts' 41st birthday.

A more relaxed Coutts, now one win away from having sailed unbeaten through three America's Cup regattas, described the weather as "perfect".

"It was a beautiful breeze, and it was just unfortunate that Team New Zealand broke down."

Having agreed on Thursday to sail on yesterday's rest day if conditions were suitable, there was no way Team New Zealand could change their mind.

Principal race officer Harold Bennett said both teams knew what yesterday's conditions were like.

"It wasn't excessive. It was a very good sailing day."

The boats must race again today in conditions forecast to be similar to yesterday - winds of 15 knots and above, and lumpy seas.

Dean Barker said after the race that the team had never expected to be racing in conditions like those of yesterday, when the winds varied between 16 and 26 knots.

"It's always hard with new boats, knowing how hard to push them. We don't have a massive budget to be able to repair things.

"It is tough when you're always worried about what if something does break."

Team New Zealand chief Tom Schnackenberg watched television cover of the race with mounting concern.

"I thought, 'Oh my golly, something's going to give', and something did".

He said his crew were annoyed and disappointed, but would "just have to put this behind them".

"They had raced pretty well up to that point and they will be ... saying, 'OK, let's just forget this and go out and race tomorrow'."

Team NZ designer Clay Oliver said shore crew would work through the night on the rigging and a "little bit of damage" to the hull.

Last night, crowds at the Viaduct watched the lights burning at Team NZ's headquarters as a dozen shore crew crawled over NZL82 to install the spare mast and get it ready for sailing today.

What they couldn't help also noticing were the towering masts of the two Alinghi boats next door, casting huge shadows in the floodlights.

Continuous coverage of today's America's Cup race will begin on nzherald.co.nz at 12.30pm.

Race 4: Pictures of the dismasting | Commentary

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