Sips from the Cup: Rooms with a view for GBR Challenge chief

By JULIE ASH

GBR Challenge chief executive Peter Harrison has purchased one of the best seats in the house to watch his yacht compete.

The billionaire has bought a luxury North Shore clifftop home with a bird's-eye view of the course.

He can watch the yacht racing from nearly every room in the house - including the shower.

Harrison and his wife Joy chose the house, in Campbells Bay, as their "New Zealand home," and have been living there since last month.

They "wanted to be in a key viewing position for the races."

The two-storeyed house - complete with swimming pool and tennis court - overlooks the entire cup course and practice areas.

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The Oracle team have competed in their own Eco Challenge.

Five six-man teams raced against each other and the clock over a multi-disciplined course.

The teams began with a 12km kayak along Auckland's Upper Waitemata Harbour.

Once out of the kayaks, it was a short drive to the next transition, a 15km mountain bike ride that pre-empted a 15km hike through rugged and scenic terrain to reach Muriwai Beach.

If jogging through soft sand was not enough, the finish was declared only after each team pulled a four-wheel-drive truck around a course.

The event took more than four hours.

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Predicting the weather forecast is an integral part of yacht racing and is one area that Oracle Racing seem to have covered.

Powering Oracle Racing's weather programme is a fleet comprising three 9.1m inflatable chase boats, two 7.9m inflatable chase boats and a 13.7m powerboat, the Southern Star.

All boats are powered by Yamaha NZ engines and are fully instrumented with advanced technological equipment that is used to observe and record weather sequences.

Equipment is only as good as the team driving it, and Oracle Racing's weather team has a combined sailing and meteorological experience of 150 years.

Renowned meteorologist Bob Rice, who previously worked for Team New Zealand in 1995 and last year when they won and retained the cup, heads Oracle's weather team.

With 50 years of meteorology experience, Rice manages Oracle Racing's overall weather programme and is responsible for accurately predicting Auckland's variable weather patterns and wind shifts that play a critical role in the outcome of races.

Rice has been involved in some of the world's greatest and most adventurous endeavours.

He has provided weather support for three successful ascents of Mt Everest.

He initiated the role of weather routers for racing sailboats in 1978, and has also provided full meteorological support for 27 long-distance manned balloon flights, most of which set world records and recorded historic firsts for a long list of legendary balloon pilots.

Supporting Rice is a team of sailing experts, including 470 European champion Simon Cooke, three-time mistral world champion and Olympic wind-surfing bronze medallist Aaron McIntosh, tornado Olympic gold and silver medallist Rex Sellers, and former America's Cup and Admirals Cup crew member Jim Watters.

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The first completely Italian team, Onorato Challenge, have their campaign under way.

Under the guidance of Vincenzo Onorato, the Neapolitan yacht and ship builder who has put together the challenge, the team have been hard at work for months at their home base in Portoferraio, which was officially opened this month.

Paolo Scutellaro is the team manager, Paolo Cian the skipper and Flavio Favini, the new recruit as tactician.

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Also preparing for the move Down Under is Illbruck Challenge.

Illbruck will represent Germany's first America's Cup challenge on behalf of the Duesseldorf Yacht Club.

Illbruck will not arrive in Auckland until next year - their immediate focus being on their entry in the Volvo-sponsored round-the-world race in which they are leading the eight-boat fleet after two legs.