Yachting: Abracadabra crew work magic

By Suzanne McFadden

John Kolius wouldn't have been surprised if he had found his Hawaiian America's Cup crew had mutinied when he arrived in Auckland.

The Abracadabra camp had worked round the clock - three shifts a day - for a fortnight to get their new boat USA54 seaworthy.

It's a good enough reason to question what you're doing here.

The new Abracadabra 2000 is now in the water, but battling to be race ready for the start of round robin one of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series in 11 days' time.

Skipper Kolius has just arrived in Auckland, after staying on in the United States in the continuing search for more money.

"When I got here I was surprised that morale was so good," he said.

"It's been tough - 40 guys working three shifts, 24 hours a day. For the first two weeks, the lights never went off at the base.

"We've really had to put the hammer down."

How did they get into this situation?

Kolius says they built their first boat USA50, then spent too much time tinkering with it instead of concentrating on finishing USA54 - the boat which will race in the first round robin.

When their ship came in to transport the boats from Hawaii to New Zealand, Abracadabra No 2 was still some way off being completed.

"In a perfect world we would have left it in Hawaii for another three weeks.

"But when a free ship says it's time to go, you can't argue," he said.

"We interrupted the project and just had to pick it up at the other end.

"I guess we've missed a couple of weeks' sailing the boat here because of it.

"But hey, it's not a perfect world."

For now, USA50, the boat which trialled off the south-west coast of Oahu, will stay in the shed in the cup village. The two boats won't go out sailing together for a while yet.

The two Abracadabras have been designed for different conditions.

USA54 was always planned to race first in what are expected to be stronger winds than the fleet will get at the business end of the draw.

The hunt for cash is on going for Kolius, who has been on a fundraising rollercoaster through this campaign.

"It's still a pain - it will always be a pain," he said. "It makes sailing look pretty darn easy.

"I'm up at 4.30 am every day spending two or three hours on the phone trying to get more money."

But it's part of the deal.

"You raise as much money as you can, then adjust your expenses accordingly.

"This is a research programme - and they are a constant money drain."

Kolius so far has no regrets about building two boats, instead of pouring the money into one.

"I feel like we have more than one arrow in our quiver. But I guess time will tell if I made the right call."