Yachting: Pepper sails full circle

By JULIE ASH

Back on the harbour looking for puffs of wind Hamish Pepper has sailed a full circle.

This time last year Pepper and Team New Zealand were preparing for the America's Cup defence.

Now Pepper is back in the Gulf battling 21 other sailors in Yachting New Zealand's Olympic trials which are identifying who will represent New Zealand in the Laser class in Athens.

"I am keen to do another America's Cup," said Pepper.

"But at this stage I am purely been concentrating on my Laser campaign.

"There are a couple of roads ahead of me and by next week I should no which one I am going to take.

"Should I be successful in the trials then I will be working very hard on the Laser. If I miss out then I will have to have a little rethink what I want to do."

The 32-year-old tactician paid the price for Team New Zealand's start to the regatta. When they were trailing Alinghi 3-0 he was replaced by Frenchman Bertrand Pace.

The move surprised many, including Pepper, who said he was "absolutely gutted" to be told by one his best mates, Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker, that he was off the boat.

"I think it was pretty tough for Dean. I am not sure exactly where it came from, whether it was management thing or whether it was media driven.

"It was quite a strange thing to do. When I spoke to Brad [Butterworth] and Russell [Coutts] afterwards they just couldn't believe it and said when it happened they sort of thought 'oh jeez this is going to be easy now'.

"The hardest thing for me to cope with was I probably felt that a lot of the public saw me as the reason why we had lost a couple of races, whereas they probably didn't understand that Alinghi had a pretty good boat as well.

"They had some equipment that we didn't have in one race and then one of our guys missed the weather call in race three.

"It was pretty tough, especially after that third race. People probably saw me as having made a wrong decision and as a result was pulled off the boat, but I was only dealing with what information people gave me and I was trying to do my best.

"Everyone was trying to do their best."

But etched in the minds of fans more than the sailing team's performance was the way Team New Zealand's race boat NZL82 broke down at every opportunity possible.

"The boat was a shocker," Pepper said.

"The [hula] idea was really good but the closer and closer we got to the America's Cup the measurers weren't 100 per cent happy and the gap got bigger and bigger and the boat got slower and slower.

"By then it was too late to do anything about it. You couldn't take it off because that would have made it a lot slower.

"You couldn't whack a new stern on it because you didn't have time. It was a bit disappointing really I think the gap was a lot bigger than it needed to be.

"The designers were giving us numbers and they looked fantastic on paper.

"That was probably the hardest thing, we were all pretty young and what the designers said was gospel.

"We wanted to have a fast boat but we felt we could match them within the team."

He said that the gybing duels showed the team's boat handling was really good.

"We wanted to improve all aspects from the boat to the sailing team and I think we did that, but unfortunately we didn't get to show it much because in five races we broke a boom, mast and spinnaker pole, which is unacceptable."

While the whole experience would be enough to send most people running for the hills - Pepper is staying put and feels no bitterness, especially not towards Coutts and Butterworth, his former team-mates.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for those guys and what they have done for New Zealand.

"They won the America's Cup, they brought it here and they defended it.

"They left Team New Zealand obviously for another challenge but as a sportsman you have to be challenged.

"They left us with a huge opportunity as well."

Pepper said there is no where else he would rather be than out on the water.

"I just enjoy competing and the people you meet. But most importantly I am just hungry to win races.

"I get a lot of satisfaction from winning races and performing at my best.

"Olympic sailing and the America's Cup are two things I really have a passion for."

The Pepper file

Born: Auckland, May 13, 1971.

Career highlights

2000-2003: Team New Zealand tactician.

2001: Tour de France, second.

2000: World match-racing champion.

1996: Tenth in the Laser class at the Olympics.

1995: No 1 in world Laser rankings, world match-racing champion.