Yachting: Microscopic margin in NZ win

By Suzanne McFadden

Team New Zealand won the America's Cup dress rehearsal yesterday by one metre - the tiniest margin possible in a yacht race.

But skipper Russell Coutts' frown was twice as long.

He was not impressed with the attitude of some of his crew as they scrambled to win the final 2-1 from Italian challengers Prada in the Hauraki Gulf.

It was a bizarre day from the outset. The two crews waited on the water for five hours before they began the first race - after a week of too much wind in the Road to the America's Cup regatta, there was suddenly not enough.

Each syndicate won a race comfortably, but the decider was like a scene pulled from a comedy show.

In the first leg, Team New Zealand (who were not even sailing the Black Boat) broke a halyard and lost their headsail. Within a minute, the same fate befell the Italians, proving these boats really were identical.

The New Zealanders then edged away and looked to have won the race, but with 300m to go, their spinnaker exploded. While the Kiwis tried to retrieve the remnants of the sail and hoist a new one, Prada sneaked up on the inside.

The two boats went nose-to-nose to the line, with Team New Zealand's spinnaker crossing just one metre ahead of the Italians'.

Prada skipper Francesco de Angelis had to catch a plane to San Francisco for his next regatta, so the series ended there.

Coutts was not brimming with excitement over the victory. He would not make excuses he said, although the New Zealanders had come in cold after the challengers had raced for four days, and they had not been tuning their matchracing skills this summer.

Yesterday they simply were not up to their usual high standard.

"It would be a gross over-exaggeration to say we were a well-oiled unit today.

I'm disappointed that we weren't better than that," he said.

"There was an attitude among some of the crew that I wasn't happy with. Seventy per cent of them were pretty good - the other 30 per cent we need to work with."

Race one was easily the defenders' best race, with the Team New Zealand afterguard picking the right side of the course as the place to be. Prada dogged them for two legs, but eventually lost by 32s.

The New Zealanders were out-sailed in race two. Prada were able to get ahead while the Kiwis dodged a straying spectator craft which motored across their path.

Prada picked up a nice little wind shift over on the right and won by 1m 37s.

De Angelis admitted their crew had made up a huge amount of sea since this time last year, when they were crushed 5-1 by Team New Zealand in the same event.

Their two summers in Auckland have been well spent.

But afterwards he spoke on behalf of the black and white boats used in the regatta, saying they wanted to retire. After nine years of faithful service to New Zealand Cup campaigns, they deserve no less.

The boats only just held together through the week, although bits were often snapping off them.

The dress rehearsal for the real thing, starting in October, was both a success and a nightmare. What it highlighted most was something there will be no control over - the unpredictability of Auckland's weather.

For the event organisers, flustered by the breezes, it also showed that they should stick to their guns when it comes to the rules, after America True tried to sail Kiwis who did not qualify as Americans in their crew.

The traffic controllers on the water did not get much practice - few spectators braved the conditions at the weekend. Nevertheless, one boat drove right through the course, ignoring all warnings.