Rivals do it in different style

By Peter Calder

Millions of working hours, thousands of sea miles are astern now. Ahead is only the boat racing.

But what starts today on the water is more than a contest of yacht against yacht. Watching the team preparations, particularly in the past week, has underlined that the rivals are about to begin a match of national character.

Prada's theme song, named like their boat Luna Rossa or Red Moon, echoes around the challenger's base. But Team New Zealand want no theme tune.

The syndicate head, Sir Peter Blake, suggests that superstition plays a part in the decision. The New Zealanders had music in 1987 and 1992 when they unsuccessfully challenged for the Cup, and not in 1995 when they won it.

Yet the attitudes to music may be a key to deeper temperamental differences between the teams.

The flamboyance of the Italians was plain to see during the challenger series. Their unabashed delight at coming back from the brink to snatch the Louis Vuitton Cup from the grasp of AmericaOne made for memorable images.

The Kiwis, by contrast, have had nothing to celebrate - yet.

As the two New Zealand boats were towed into the team base shortly before 1 pm yesterday, a couple of dozen spectators looked on. A few began to clap.

The sailors on board, their eyes on something more distant than the dockside, barely acknowledged the smattering of applause.

The black boats were quickly pulled up and washed.

Meanwhile, the Italians were still at sea. "They're out sailing," a team spokeswoman said casually. "It's a beautiful day and they're having a good time out there."

The ball last Saturday night was the last time the New Zealand team were allowed out at night.

That single-mindedness kept them away from a Monday night barbecue Auckland mayor Christine Fletcher gave at her Mt Eden home, and a function on Wednesday at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Prada had sailors at both events, but not the ball.

But Team New Zealand had semaphored their last-week isolation policy well in advance and skipper Russell Coutts was in no mood to defend it at yesterday's final press conference.

When an Italian journalist asked about it he was waved away: "That's a ridiculous question," said Coutts. "Move on."

Financially, too, the campaigns have been strikingly different. Team New Zealand's $50 million budget is a combination of five major sponsorships and myriad other arrangements - as the logo-spattered boats attest.

Prada, spare of livery, is spending at least $110 million from the pocket of one man, Patrizio Bertelli, and by all accounts there is more where that came from.

Prada has three chefs laying on the tastes of home, three meals a day. Meanwhile the New Zealand sailors pack their own sandwiches and wash their own cereal bowls after the breakfast they share each morning.

The sailors know well how high are the hopes they carry today. But Sir Peter Blake is hoping spectators will not worry if they keep to themselves from here on in.

"The guys have to have their space," he says. "Sure they'll want to wave to the crowd - sort of. But if they don't wave that much, people musn't get too worried."