By SUZANNE MCFADDEN
New Zealand sailor Ross Field has scored a huge coup, snaring the world's media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, to finance his round-the-world race campaign.
Field's syndicate will be called News Corp, the name of Murdoch's news and entertainment empire.
Murdoch's son, Lachlan, now No 3 in the News Corporation management chain,
is likely to sail on the boat in some legs of the Volvo Ocean Race, which starts in September next year.
He will also sail on the campaign's trial boat in this year's Sydney-Hobart race starting on Boxing Day.
"The Volvo Ocean Race represents the pinnacle of competition yachting," Lachlan Murdoch said when the syndicate was announced in New York yesterday. "I have complete confidence in Field's ability to assemble a first-rate team and world-class yacht for the race."
It is the first time News Corporation, worth $US40 billion, has been involved in a major yachting regatta, even though the Murdoch family are sailing buffs.
But they have bankrolled plenty of other serious sports events, including the Tri-Nations and Super 12 in rugby, and the ill-fated Super League in rugby league.
Murdoch's BSkyB owns the rights to televise the British premier soccer league, and he has stakes in the world's wealthiest soccer club, Manchester United.
He also owns American baseball team the LA Dodgers, and has a broadcast deal with the American NFL.
Field, who has sailed in four round-the-world races, will stay on land to run the campaign.
Englishman Jez Fanstone, who sailed on Silk Cut in the 1997-98 race, will be skipper of the new boat, to be built in Auckland at the Cookson yard this summer. It will be drawn up by New Zealander Bruce Farr, father of the new round-the-world race design.
Lachlan Murdoch already owns a Farr boat, which he has sailed in the Sydney-Hobart race.
The 12-man crew on News Corp will be made up of New Zealanders, Australians and Britons, but they have yet to say which nation's flag will fly from the transom of their boat.
New Zealander Steve Cotton will share the watch captain's duties with Englishman Neal McDonald.
The crew are now in Auckland working on preparing their trial boat, an old Whitbread 60 built for Grant Dalton's Merit Cup campaign for the last round-the-world race.
They have taken over one of the America's Cup bases in the Viaduct Basin, which will be their home this summer.
Field is in Sweden at a briefing for the Volvo Ocean Race.
