Off course: PM keeps eye on big race

Split screen television allowed Prime Minister Helen Clark to keep up with two pressing matters of state at once yesterday. She watched the America's Cup yachting race on one channel and Australian Prime Minister John Howard talking about a possible war on Iraq on the other. "I've been listening to his voice and watching the visuals on the race." The race, she said, was commanding most of her attention. Interviewed before Alinghi dashed New Zealand hopes of a victory in race two, Helen Clark said she had high hopes that the tragedy of Saturday would be reversed. She had missed the opening race because of an engagement in Wanganui. It was not until she went to see local Labour MP Jill Pettis that she found Team New Zealand had broken its boom. "It was a tragedy," she said. "They've certainly got a good fast boat. The boat in the right conditions is obviously very good."

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A group of North Shore teenagers were partying hard on Friday night when a neighbour complained in the early hours about the noise. "I've got a race in the morning," said Peter Evans, a member of the Team New Zealand afterguard.

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Viaduct Harbour bars were filled to overflowing for the first races of the America's Cup, but organisers of the on-land entertainment may have forgotten why people were actually there. Just as the warning gun sounded for the first race of the cup, the afternoon's band began to run through its lengthy set in Market Square, and nothing else could be heard at several of the bars. Despite the pleas of some desperate yachting fans, who had arrived early to watch the television coverage on some of the bars' big screens, the band carried on playing, drowning out the words of Peter Montgomery and the commentary team.

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A Rolls-Royce owner has trumped the Loyal campaign in style. The Roller was spotted in Mission Bay on the morning of the first America's Cup race looking sharp in its silver-fern livery. But instead of "Loyal" the word was "Staunch".

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By the numbers ...

0: Number of vacancies on a water taxi yesterday.

2-0: The score, to Alinghi.

6: The estimated weight in tonnes of the water that swamped NZL82 on Saturday.

12: The number of vessels that broke down while watching the cup race on Saturday.

15: The number of television cameras needed to cover the race.

18.5: The number of nautical miles of the course.

32.5: The height in metres of Team New Zealand's mast.

134: The number of ounces of silver in the cup.

350: Number of ice creams sold at a single ice-cream stand at the Viaduct Harbour yesterday.

500: Number of gourmet hot dogs sold at a single small food stand yesterday.

1450: The maximum weight allowed in kilograms of the crew on a cup boat.

685,000: The number of people who watched the disastrous first race on Saturday on TV One.