Yachting: French banana boat on skids

By Suzanne McFadden

The final fleet of America's Cup challengers looks to have been cut by one, after the ill-fated French yellow boat was packed up in Auckland yesterday.

It now seems certain that Le Defi Sud, the lesser-known of two French syndicates, won't be at the startline of the Louis Vuitton Cup series in six weeks.

That will cut the challengers line-up to 12 - and the Russians are still uncertain starters.

The yellow boat, which has been swamped by controversy since it arrived in Auckland late last year, was disassembled on the Swiss base in the cup village yesterday and packed on to a truck.

Today it will be driven to a Mt Wellington boat builders' yard to be cleaned up before its future is detemined.

While there was no official line on what has happened, rumours were thick around the waterfront yesterday - it appears a French bank has foreclosed on the boat.

The yellow boat, built for the 1995 cup, has been offered for sale to other challengers as a trialhorse.

If there are no buyers, it will probably be shipped out of New Zealand.

Dyer Jones, head of the America's Cup Challenger Association, said he had heard nothing from Le Defi Sud, despite efforts to contact the syndicate and the Yacht Club de Cannes.

"We have heard the rumours, know the boat's keel has been taken off and the boat is on a truck," he said.

"Otherwise we have heard nothing official."

FRA40 has had a troubled life.

She was built by a French syndicate that never made the startline in San Diego four years ago.

Le Defi Sud became her owners, but chartered her to the Swiss Fast2000 syndicate for trialling in Auckland last summer.

The "banana boat" - as she became known - then got stuck in a legal wrangle, with writs posted on her hull, after the Swiss fell behind in payments for their cup base.

Since then, FRA40 has been allowed to stay on the Swiss base - Fast2000 don't arrive in Auckland for another fortnight.

Le Defi Sud have never been considered a strong contender for the Louis Vuitton Cup - in fact, most believe that they would never have crossed the finishline of the first race.

It seemed that the French would sail over the startline, turn around, and collect their $US250,000 performance bond - an expensive exercise to recover their funds.

The Russians, meanwhile, are still confident of getting to Auckland.

Yesterday they were making inquiries on getting permission to land a monster freight plane, carrying their boat RUS62, at Auckland Airport before the September 18 measurement dead-line.