Yachting: Five challenger deposits roll in

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Five challengers have taken the first big leap towards the next America's Cup and handed over $US150,000 for their spot on the startline in two years.

But another potential starter, the Swiss Watch Out campaign, has leapt overboard.

The Swiss syndicate - no relation to Russell Coutts' Geneva challenge - dissolved after failing to reach the $US30 million budget target they set themselves.

But it is not all gloom down at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, home of the Auld Mug.

So far the squadron has received entry fees from five strong syndicates - Prada, the Swiss Challenge, Seattle's OneWorld, the German Illbruck Challenge and the New York Yacht Club-Dennis Conner effort.

Squadron commodore Peter Taylor is predicting nine challengers on the startline for the Louis Vuitton Cup in October 2002.

There has been no sign yet of a cheque from Team Oracle, the San Francisco-based team led by Chris Dickson and software mogul Larry Ellison, even though the campaign is up and running, and already sailing out of Auckland.

An entry is definitely expected from the Swedish Victory Challenge, who have sufficient finance in place. And talk continues of teams from Britain, France and a second Italian campaign.

Taylor said he was disappointed that Watch Out had pulled the pin.

"But that disappointment has been offset by encouraging news from Europe and other potential challengers," he said.

The squadron is still waiting to bank the cheque from Coutts' Swiss Challenge. A decision should be made next week on whether the entry is legitimate.

An arbitration panel will decide if the syndicate meets the cup protocol, which states that a challenging yacht club must hold an annual regatta on an arm of the sea.

The German campaign must also have its entry thoroughly checked, as the Dusseldorf Yacht Club is not based on the shores of a sea. However, it runs the historic North Sea Regatta every year.

Watch Out had not paid their entry fee to the squadron, but they had booked a base in the Cup Village.

Watch Out's demise is not all bad news for Team New Zealand. It means their original Black Magic, NZL32, can now go to the America's Cup birthday party.

Watch Out, a syndicate to have been sponsored by watchmakers, had signed up to lease the 1995 cup winner as their training boat.

Now that they have been excused from the lease, Team NZ can send NZL32 to the 150th jubilee celebrations in Cowes, in England, next August.

The boat could still help out a foreign camp: Team NZ head Tom Schnackenberg said other syndicates were interest in chartering it.

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