Keeping weather eye on the cup

By JULIE ASH

While the Hauraki Gulf has often been described by sailors as a "minefield", Peter Reggio sees it simply as a challenge.

Reggio, an American, is the principal race officer for the Louis Vuitton challenger series, which basically means it is his job to advise the teams where they are racing and if they are racing.

"It is fun, it is exciting to be involved in this," Reggio said. "There are a lot of people who would kill to be doing what I do. The minute I forget [that], I don't deserve to be here."

The challenger series is now in the quarter-final repechage stage and racing is scheduled to start daily just after 1pm, so a typical day for Reggio begins at 5am, rounding up and analysing weather forecasts.

"We have weather capabilities that we use that are independent of all the syndicates, but I talk to the syndicates every day as well.

"The syndicates have the best possible people, so why not talk to them. They are more than willing to help.

"The more I know about what is happening out there the better the racing is for them. We are all working together."

Every morning 53-year-old Reggio meets 200 volunteers at the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club.

"We give them a weather update and the status of where we stand on certain matters in terms of any rumours or innuendos I might know about," he said.

"The director of operations, Merv Appleton, has done all the onshore work, making sure the boats are there and the people are there. My job is mainly just the on-water aspect of the event."

Reggio then takes his place on his "baby", the committee boat where he continues to analyse the weather before laying out a course and signalling the start time.

"I am getting information from the boats I have got scattered around, primarily up at the top mark, but now we have one in the middle of the course.

"I have internet capabilities on the committee boat and I am also getting information before the start from the syndicate boats as they are sailing around.

"I just have to process it and make a decision. Watching the boats tells me a lot more than instruments or wind readings.

"This place is so screwy - it is so different from last time, when we had a lot of north-east breezes. This time it is all from the west."

The job may appear stressful, but Reggio doesn't find it that way. "It's not stressful, it's fun. What's going on with the weather is insane, but there is nothing I can do about it.

"It is not like I understand the weather. It is just that I understand the information that is given to me.

"I can't look at the clouds and say what is going to happen. I haven't got a clue. But I have a lot of really good information I use.

"There is certainly a level of frustration when you think something is going to happen and it doesn't. But you have to sit back and say I can't control that.

"I like it when it gets nasty, when the wind changes all over the place and you have to make quick decisions and react to things."

The 2002/2003 event is Reggio's first as principal race officer for CORM, the Challenger of Record Management Committee. He was the deputy at the last event, but has been involved in organising sailing events around the world for the past seven years.

"I was a sailmaker for about 12 years. I have been involved in boating all my life. I have raced boats from dinghies to maxi boats. I fell into this over the years.

"Every event has its own life, but the America's Cup has its own heart beat, its own life-support system. It is just different and that is what's cool about it."

Although he has many friends on syndicate row, Reggio is not bothered who wins.

"This is a job for me, this is what I do. I honestly don't care who wins."

So is the Hauraki Gulf really that difficult to predict?

"I think Team Dennis Conner's Terry Hutchinson calls it a minefield and that is the best way to describe it. It never lets you relax."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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