Yachting: Designer could turn tide for team

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Ingenious yacht designer Mike Drummond has turned down three big-money offers from poaching America's Cup syndicates to stay with Team New Zealand.

Drummond, described as one of the key factors in New Zealand's success, yesterday became the first crewman officially to join new leaders Tom Schnackenberg and Dean Barker in the troubled defence.

The feeling is that Drummond's decision could tilt seesawing crew towards remaining loyal.

The key designer and navigator has worked with five New Zealand campaigns over 13 years.

But his talents were sought by three rival cup teams from "a variety of continents."

"Yes, they were for big money," the 37-year-old said. "But I've turned them all down now - it's history."

He made a handshake agreement with Schnackenberg and the new trustees late yesterday afternoon.

"When I arrived, Tom bounded across the road and said 'congratulations, you're the first!'" Drummond said.

Loyalty played a part in his reasons for staying.

"I've spent a fair bit of my life trying to get the cup here. I wasn't quite ready to take it away from New Zealand," he said. "And it's a great team - there's huge potential for the future with new blood running through it."

In the last America's Cup, Drummond dreamed up the original concept for the millennium rig on NZL60 and played a major role in the design of the appendages and structures.

He ran Team New Zealand's on-the-water testing programme and was navigator in two of the five cup races.

Schnackenberg last night applauded Drummond for turning down the lucrative foreign offers.

"His contribution in 1995 and 2000 was probably three times as big as anyone outside Team New Zealand realised," Schnackenberg said.

"He's definitely one of the key factors of our success. So it's a huge strategic move to have him inside our team again, rather than out."

It seems certain that American Clay Oliver will also sway towards staying with Team New Zealand, after being a principal designer in the last campaign.

Oliver had at least six other approaches, including four from the United States, but delayed his decision until Team New Zealand got back on their feet.

"My decisions about America's Cup teams are largely based on the depth of the team's character - do they have the right chemistry?" he said. "In spite of the recent attrition, Team New Zealand has that depth of character."

The other key member of the 2000 design team, veteran Laurie Davidson, is still in an Auckland hospital after knee surgery.

Schnackenberg said he would wait until Davidson had recovered before he discussed future plans.

Drummond is confident the core of the sailing team would stay, and Schnackenberg said the odds were improving by the day. All the team would have offers by the end of this week.

"The rumours running around are looking better than a couple of weeks ago," Schnackenberg said. "But we're not going to hurry the guys. Let's face it, we have taken a long time to get to this stage."