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Cup watcher's guide

8 Oct, 2002 10:41 PM6 mins to read

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By ENA HUTCHINSON

Things to do and what they cost

The best place to soak up some America's Cup excitement is at the Viaduct Basin - also known as the America's Cup Village - in downtown Auckland.

Formerly a run-down fishing port, the harbour was dredged and expanded for the 1999-2000 defence of the America's Cup.

Luxury

Team New Zealand and the 9 challenger teams have their bases along the western edge of the Basin. (Click on the map link below for details.)

The best time to catch the action along Syndicate Row is in the mornings between 8.30 and 11. Grab a spot out on Te Wero Island (just over the old rolling lift bridge) or along the Viaduct Basin.

It usually takes each team an hour or so to get their boats ready. Like prima donnas, the yachts emerge from their sheds, skirts billowing as they are lowered gently into the water.

The crews move purposefully. Up the masts to check last-minute details, retrieve the skirts, lump sail bags aboard, hop into support tenders, hook up the tows - a flash of sleek, high-tech hulls, colour co-ordinated crews and they're gone.

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Later in the day, between 4pm and 6pm, the routine starts again when boats finish on the gulf and trickle back into the harbour.

Once you've watched the boats go out it's time for coffee, right? Which is pretty much what the shore crews think, too. You're likely to find them meeting at the Portside Brasserie on Halsey St.

The decor is nothing flash but this is the working side of the Viaduct - and rather a relief after the seamless sophistication across the other side. There are usually a couple of tables of crews, a smattering of foreign languages and some blokey bantering directed at guys from other teams as they walk through the door.

When it comes to lunchtime, Headquarters Restaurant (HQ for short) in nearby Beaumont St is a popular spot for syndicate working lunches. But if there's only time to grab a panini, then smart new Kreem Cafe further down the street at Orams Marine Village is the place.

Twice a week on the other side of the basin, Ace (the America's Cup Exchange), a support network for syndicate members' partners and families, is in full swing. It's at the Viaduct Grill on Wednesday mornings and at Esquire's Cafe on Saturdays.

"When the partners and families arrive in Auckland they have no idea where to go or what to do," says Pam Smith, one of the Kiwi members of the group.

The crews work up to seven days a week so their families hardly see them. Ace brings the families together, puts them in touch with any services they need and plans group outings and activities.

More marina berths have been built to cater for superyachts but, apart from Katana, owned by Larry Ellison of Oracle BMW Racing, few have arrived. Like all superyachts, Katana is super clean.

And keeping those superyachts spotless provides one of the more unusual spectacles of the cup.. Wander down any marina and you'll find the young male crews in earnest housemaid mode, displaying an amazing passion for cleanliness as they polish, wash and sweep.

Over at the Swedish Victory base is a classic black wooden motor yacht. Chartered by the New York Yacht Club as the committee boat for the 1983 defenders' trials and the cup, Black Knight has a special place in cup history - she was the finishing boat when the Australians won.

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"It was a good committee boat," recalls Dyer Jones, regatta director of Challenger Of Record Management. "Very low profile, though. We used to say that if the woodworms stopped holding hands, we'd be in trouble." Now fully restored, Black Knight was owned by Jan Stenbeck, head of the Swedish challenge, who died suddenly on August 19.

If sailing on a cup boat is one of your fantasies, NZL40 and NZL41 are ready. Both were built for the 1995 America's Cup challenger series in San Diego and they now sail from the eastern end of Viaduct Harbour every day.

NZL41, skippered by Peter Gilmour for the Japanese Nippon syndicate, sailed in the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, but NZL 40, built by Yacht Club d'Antibes from France, was not finished in time to race.

The yellow water taxis are another enduring image of the last cup. Their passengers get the facts and figures, close-up views of the bases and superyachts and hot gossip. "Our clients say it is the scuttlebutt and lowdown they enjoy the most," says David Farrell of Yellow Water Taxis.

This time five 18-seater inflatables will work the village circuit, while two 11.5m, fully enclosed, 30-seat, high-speed water taxis will whiz passengers out to watch the racing at a speedy 30 knots.

Also at the water taxi terminal at the eastern end of Viaduct Harbour, Ocean Rafting offers a more adventurous adrenalin rush in its open, 14-seat inflatables, which will dash you around the harbour, out to the race course or around the inner gulf islands.

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For those who don't feel like putting to sea, you can get a good feeling for what's happening on the water at the Swiss Alinghi base's Interactive Plaza.

Slick, educational and free, the plaza transports you into a world of grind for your life challenges, heaving foredecks and a match-racing simulator to test your boat-handling skills in the minutes leading up to the starting gun.

On the eastern Viaduct, the large Telecom Shed is set to rise. Opening in early October, it will also be loaded with interactive experiences and act as the connection point between the public and Team New Zealand.

For Telecom it will give the chance to help consumers to look into the future of telecommunications technology.

For Team New Zealand it will tell the story of its successful challenge and defence of the America's Cup, plus the history of the NZ challenges since 1987. Entry will be free.