By HELEN TUNNAH
Syndicate head Tom Schnackdhenberg said an internal review of the failings of Team New Zealand's America's Cup boat will not be made public.
He said the team was an ongoing concern, so the findings of any review needed to be kept confidential from rivals.
But yesterday Schnackenberg discounted a
series of rumours which have circulated around the Viaduct Harbour about the fragility of the black boats since their 5-0 rout by Alinghi in the cup.
Team New Zealand's boat, NZL82, failed to finish two of the races because of major gear failures, which included a boom breaking after the boat had taken on several tonnes of water, and a snapped mast. In the fifth and final loss the crew also battled a broken spinnaker pole.
"I can say a few things because there's been a lot of rumours going around," Schnackenberg said.
"The common thread is we were very gung-ho in the design of the yacht, in its rigs and appendages and the way we put the whole package together."
He said Team New Zealand felt it would be up against a very formidable challenge so had pushed the design process hard.
There had been no problems with workmanship on the boat, either within the team or with any of the contractors and boatbuilder used.
Schnackenberg also said there had been no problems with NZL82 before the start of the America's Cup, despite talk of a pre-regatta collision with sister boat NZL81.
"Nothing happened to '82 that you didn't actually see. There were no collisions between the boats, no rudder bearings leaking or strange things happening that were undisclosed.
"What happened was what you saw. We pushed the boat harder than we had in our own in-house racing because of the adrenalin of racing for the cup.
"We came short a couple of times."
He said a review would address organisational as well as design issues.
"We're undergoing a lot of critical analysis of little things that we could have done better.
"We'll aim to get all the lessons that there are to be got out of the previous campaign."
