Well, unfortunately, the result last night says it all (I thought I was going to take a break from blogging indefinitely today but now I did tonight + I have broken the record for most blogs in a year at 41, incredible) especially the red card given to All Black second five-eighth Sonny Bill Williams (He was the 1st All Black to be sent off since Colin Meads against Scotland 50 years ago) for a shoulder charge to the head on Lions winger Anthony Watson:
Beauden Barrett 21
British & Irish Lions 24
And the 2nd one is taken from Beverly Hills/El Scorcho: Pops 70th birthday today (Happy 4th of July in America):
We went to Cafe 141 to have breakfast there to have the master on Pops 70th birthday (It's Independence Day in the USA so we had a dinner (Such as cheeseburgers & hot dogs with salads) & dessert on Sunday), done that so I went with my pet dog Buck for a walk, then read & wrote some emails & had a single sandwich for lunch because Pops was going to a funeral, went for a walk again with Buck once Pops got back & had a smoothie because I was thirsty so I had a totally awesome day with Pops (And we're going to Caroline's for a birthday dinner tonight).
And the 3rd one is taken from Higher Ground/Suck My Kiss: Another wonderful night at Caroline's & British GP preview:
Well...Me, Pops & Sherry went to Caroline's on Wednesday night because I had something light such as the chicken nachos & I had Eaton mess for dessert (I had pasta for lunch & had one again this time with chili beans yesterday for lunch while dinner was tomato soup with pizza) & I saw a waitress named Tessa who looks like my biological aunty Cathey Middelplaats's daughter (And the sister of Nico & Luca), Paige Williams (Well she is only 23 because she was born on the 5th of April in 1994).
And finally we are halfway through the 2017 Formula 1 season as the F1 circus heads to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone (Although they are in doubt of hosting the event in 2019) which will host the 10th round of the championship (And we are halfway through the season) because it is not only Lewis Hamilton's home race or should I say homecoming because he had won the last 3 races over the past 3 years in front of his adoring home fans but he is 20 points behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel (Germany) in the championship so here is the circuit guide anyway:
And the 2nd one is taken from Beverly Hills/El Scorcho: Pops 70th birthday today (Happy 4th of July in America):
We went to Cafe 141 to have breakfast there to have the master on Pops 70th birthday (It's Independence Day in the USA so we had a dinner (Such as cheeseburgers & hot dogs with salads) & dessert on Sunday), done that so I went with my pet dog Buck for a walk, then read & wrote some emails & had a single sandwich for lunch because Pops was going to a funeral, went for a walk again with Buck once Pops got back & had a smoothie because I was thirsty so I had a totally awesome day with Pops (And we're going to Caroline's for a birthday dinner tonight).
And the 3rd one is taken from Higher Ground/Suck My Kiss: Another wonderful night at Caroline's & British GP preview:
Well...Me, Pops & Sherry went to Caroline's on Wednesday night because I had something light such as the chicken nachos & I had Eaton mess for dessert (I had pasta for lunch & had one again this time with chili beans yesterday for lunch while dinner was tomato soup with pizza) & I saw a waitress named Tessa who looks like my biological aunty Cathey Middelplaats's daughter (And the sister of Nico & Luca), Paige Williams (Well she is only 23 because she was born on the 5th of April in 1994).
And finally we are halfway through the 2017 Formula 1 season as the F1 circus heads to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone (Although they are in doubt of hosting the event in 2019) which will host the 10th round of the championship (And we are halfway through the season) because it is not only Lewis Hamilton's home race or should I say homecoming because he had won the last 3 races over the past 3 years in front of his adoring home fans but he is 20 points behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel (Germany) in the championship so here is the circuit guide anyway:
''Rightly called 'The Home of British Motor Racing', Silverstone's title could extend globally since this is the track where the very first round of the Formula 1 World Championship was held in 1950. The former wartime aerodrome has changed beyond recognition as the British Grand Prix continues to be one of the most respected on the F1 calendar.''
And finally the 4th one is taken from California/Movies/Smooth Criminal: Back to back Black Magic:
And finally the 4th one is taken from California/Movies/Smooth Criminal: Back to back Black Magic:
Well, in light of success of Emirates Team New Zealand's America's Cup campaign in Bermuda 2 months ago against Oracle Team USA, I have decided to do a blog about the back to back Black Magic book which is about Team New Zealand defending the Auld Mug against Luna Rossa of Prada way back in 2000:
That auld black magic
That auld black magic
2 sleek racing machines circle each other in the aquatic version of a bullfight. They're teasing, prodding, intimidating in the water dance that constitutes the pre-start in match-race yachting.
One boat, the favourite in most people's estimation, stands out with it's striking black, almost sinister, hull.
The other, with sentimental support, has an understated, almost bland, grey hull which dosen't seem to fit with the copious amounts of money behind it.
This isn't the prelude to just another boat race. It's February 20th, 2000 - after a day's delay, its the 1st race at last in a best-of-9 series to determine the holder of yachting's most coveted & discussed prize, the America's Cup.
More than that, it's the 1st time in the cup's 149-year history that the 'America' has effectively been taken right out of an America's Cup defence. The 1st time Uncle Sam can do nothing about deciding where its own cup will rest for the next 4 years. Instead, Americans are forced to watch as America's Cup whipper-snappers New Zealand & Italy take care of business. And taking care of business in this race, & in the others to follow, underlines the magnitude of what has happened. That the cycle - America's tangible link with the trophy - has been well & truly broken.
America's historic hold was 1st weakened by John Bertrand & his men on Australia II in 1983. Losing the cup for the 1st time wasn't all palatable; it never could have been after owning it for 132 years. But at least that wrong was recitified when, at the very 1st chance 4 years later, the Americans regained the Auld Mug as the belligerent Dennis Conner swept aside Kookaburra III's timid Australian defence. He'd disgraced himself as the 1st American to lose it - but he was also celebrated as the 1st man to win it back.
Trouble was Dirty Den then ensured himself greater notoriety in 1995 by writing a new chapter in this famous event's history as the 1st man to lose the America's Cup twice. Twice the South Pacfic's upstarts - 1st Australia & then New Zealand - had taken the wind out of Conner's & America's sails. For 132 years, it had been an American obsession to keep the cup; now it will become a mega obsession for someone, anyone, to put it back in American hands...whenever that might be.
All of which brings the focus back to the start line for race 1 in America's Cup 2000. While Australia had failed to defend the prize when it had the cup, there's nervous optimism Team New Zealand will change that this time.
Nervous because this is the Kiwis' 1st race against an enemy, the 1st time they'll really find out how their boat measures up against a syndicate that's already been out on the race track 48 times in the Louis Vuitton challenger series.
Skipper Russell Coutts & his men have the desire to keep the cup in Auckland, the city that is so definitively the City of Sails. And they also know there's a calling from an entire country for them to succeed in their mission. It was there to see & hear as NZL60 was towed out of the Viaduct Basin just on 10 a.m. on February 19th, around 3 hours before the scheduled start of race 1. Tens of thousands thronged to Auckland's waterfront for a view as boats in the super, & not so super, categories blasted horns & made as much din as they could in giving the Black Boat an extraordinary send-off. Overhead, there was a thrilling fly-past & aerobatic display from New Zealand Air Force Aermacchis (Which are actually Italian planes!). And, on television sets throughout the land, hundreds of thousands watched it live. For any person with even the slightest interest in the event, it was 'lump on the throat' time.
The 16 Kiwi sailors carrying the nation's hopes also seemed to be moved, which probably wasn't part of the plan. Their intention was to focus on what they'd been waiting for since 1995, to shut out the trimmings around them, switch on to racing mode & head out to the race course stony-faced & unsmiling. In reality they couldn't. Many of them waved as they digested the all too clear evidence that the big day out had arrived - this was the magic of defending the America's Cup in their own waters & realising what it meant to them & their nation.
As it turned out, it was a false start; there wasn't enough wind for what's known as 'The Match' to start. So, here they are going through the whole routine again. The farewell was just as rapturous, the public's passion for the event no less intense than it had been 24 hours earlier.
New Zealanders in their hundreds of thousands have turned on & tuned in to this marathon regatta that started 202 races & 4 months ago with the 1st round-robin phase of the challenger series. That in itself is remarkable because those 202 races encapsulated the deeds & dramas of a competition that didn't involve New Zealand (Apart from numerous Kiwi sailors spread among the 11 foreign syndicates from the United States, Italy, Japan, France, Switzerland, Spain & Australia). Yet, by the time the best-of-nine-races Louis Vuitton final arrived, there was a voracious appetite, especially when Prada locked up the contest up 4-4 & took it into a sudden-death decider. Those cynics who doubted the event's magnetism were left incredulous when TV One's audience peaked around a million during the last race that gave the Italians a 5-4 win over AmericaOne.
Little wonder then that the Kiwis have lifted interest to another league now Team New Zealand is counting down to this moment of truth for this 1st race. Red socks were the lucky fashion statement in 1995; now they're back in vogue. The Kiwi sailors are wearing them & so, too, New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden during the one-day cricket international against Australia the previous day.
The level of enthusiasm & zeal isn't so surprising. After all, Auckland & sailing have always been a perfect fit. For the not-so-adventurous & those in smaller craft, the Waitemata Harbour is an ideal playground. For those wanting a more exacting challenge, the often glistening but sometimes unpredictable Hauraki Gulf has more to offer.
And it's on the Hauraki Gulf where all the America's Cup action is centred. It's there that the Louis Vuitton series was run on often unforgiving days that left a costly trail of damage of many of the syndicates. It's a venue like no other used in the America's Cup before. It's certainly not a case of towing boats out to som unspectacular stretch of water with few or no refrence points. Out on those courses, landmarks are everywhere. Auckland's East Coast Bays on one side, a cluster of Hauraki Gulf islands like Tiritiri, Rakino, Motutapuu & the resplendent Rangitoto bordering the northern & eastern sides as well as a southern backdrop of Auckland city marked by the easily identifiable Sky Tower.
And it's in this racing enviroment that Team New Zealand's NZL60 (Or Black Magic) & Prada's Luna Rossa (Or Red Moon) are making the America's Cup sing like it never has before.
There's no Conner, no Cayard, nothing American. The air's rich with Kiwi & Italian accents, expletives muttered or shouted as the 2 amazingly manoeuvrable monsters joust for the preferred end of the start line. And while the sailors aren't thinking about it, there's the realisation that this contest assures the America's Cup of another history-making chapter. If Team New Zealand triumphs, it'll be the 1st time the cup has been successfully defended outside the United States; if Prada wins, the America's Cup will be headed for a defence in Europe for the 1st time.
But New Zealanders care for only 1 scenario, & that's keeping it in a city that's given the America's Cup a sharp facelift. It's there to see in the Cup Village, a fantastic all-purpose facility taht's given Auckland a soul & provided the event with a clearly defined home.
That it has all come to this is still like a dream for many. For Team New Zealand head Sir Peter Blake the dream has come true. He had a vision that this was how it would be; now he craves the right result.
The scene is stunning on a superb Auckland day. The gulf is shimmering under the sun although, once again, the wind isn't filling in to Team New Zealand's liking. Keeping their distance are perhaps 2,000 boats & yachts. forming an incredible grandstand as Coutts tries to outwit Prada's Francesco de Angelis in the pre-start.
The fact the talented Coutts is back at the helm with so many familiar faces - Brad Butterworth, Tom Schnackenberg, Andrew Taylor, Simon Daubney & others - makes it impossible not to reflect on New Zealand's part in America's Cup folklore.
How, in 1986-87, an ambitious Michael Fay fired up the 1st tilt in the plastic fantastic KZ7, or Kiwi Magic as it was known, How Chris Dickson & his crew shocked the big boys off Fremantle, only to lose out through inexeperience as much as anything else.
How Sir Michael, as he became, tried & failed again with his ill-fated Big Boat project in 1988 & then his 1992 campaign dogged by the bowsprit controversy.
How Peter Blake & Alan Sefton took over where Fay had failed & mounted the 1995 challenge, when no one could touch the Kiwis & the fabulous NZL32, the 1st of the Black Magic breed. How the Kiwis swept Australia aside 5-1 in the Louis Vuitton final & then faced the ultimate enemy - Dennis Conner - & ambushed him as well in a boat (Young America) that wasn't even his.
And the 5-0 walkover was greeted with Peter Montgomery's commentary: 'The America's Cup is now New Zealand's cup!' A line that has certainly repeated on air more than often than any other in New Zealand's history.
Now, seconds out from taking the gun in race one of America's Cup 2000, the goal is singular - to ensure 'New Zealand's Cup' stays exactly that way for at least another 4 years.
Village people, village life
New Zealand's monuments as a major global player usually arrive too rarely then disappear to quickly. But the final stages of the 20th century offered a relative surfeit of chances to educate the rest of the world about a wee corner of the planet Bill Clinton has labelled a 'jewel'.
In less than 4 months, APEC, the America's Cup regatta & the dawning of the new millennium ensured New Zealand varying degrees of international exposure. Bill Clinton certainly saved New Zealand tourism strategists a lot of trouble when he was here for APEC, his sales pitch shamelessly endorsing almost everything he saw. New Zealanders didn't mind that one little bit. Their overriding sentiment was: 'Don't stop now, Mr President.'
But not everyone was as seemingly enamoured of things Kiwi as Mr Clinton. During APEC. one Australian journalist decided it was better to offend than to commend. In a column ridiculing Auckland, he rated its waterfront 'boring'.
Just what his observation was based on remains a total mystery. The Cup Village was up & running by then, and it made the Auckland waterfront many things - but 'boring' wasn't one of them.
Indeed, the village evolved into a genuine jewel after starting out as nothing better than a derelict & neglected part of the city's harbour landscape. It gaind unanimous acclaim as an all-round facility of unrivalled quality. At least that's the way many visiting America's Cup syndicates rated it.
The challengers & Team New Zealand were housed in well-designed & appointed compunds at one end of the village while around 70 moorings were developed for a breathtaking array of visiting super yachts & boats.
And all of this was supplemented by apartments, cafes, restaurants, bars, clubs & a performance stage to generate an atmosphere that had some overseas visitors claiming it was up there with Monte Carlo.
Auckland's waterfront with its Cup Village was the place to be throughout the 1999-2000 America's Cup regatta.
Louis Vuitton - the race is on
Winning the America's Cup was the easy part for Team New Zealand 5 years ago. Defending it in 2000 always promised to be another matter altogether.
The fact was the Kiwis & their rocket ship NZL32 were on easy street in San Diego in 1995. To call the Louis Vuitton Cup a challenger series then was rather a contradiction in terms.
There were only 7 challengers & the other 6 provided no threat at all to Team New Zealand. In fact, the New Zealand camp even decided not to complete the semifinals. Assured of a place in the final, it argued that training between its 2 boats was far more valuable than racing against modest opposition.
And, if the semifinals were meaningless, then the final wasn't much of an improvement as Black Magic demolished oneAustralia's bid 5-1.
Switch to Auckland, & the challengers always knew they'd have a better deal...
While there were early hopes that as many as 15 or 16 syndicates would be looking for space in the Cup Village, the end result was a still impressive list of 11 challengers. Not bad at all compared with the 13 that Fremantle had in 1986-87.
The 11 syndicates represented 7 countries ranging from huge money operations like Patrizio Bertelli's Prada (Which reportedly spent more than $100 million mounting its bid) to Syd Fischer's Young Australia, a basement budget effort if ever there was one. The Australians, with James Spithill as skipper, certainly delivered on the 'young' part in a challenge that was built around surviving as cheaply as possible.
While the Francesco de Angelis-skippered Prada & Young Australia represented the top end & bottom end of the spectrum, there was plenty of interest of the other 9 syndicates sandwiched in between.
The United States provided 5 of them. There was Paul Cayard's AmericaOne. Dennis Conner & his familiar Stars & Stripes brand, the New York Yacht Club's Ed Baird-skippered Young America, Dawn Riley's America True & Hawaii's Aloha Racing, skippered by John Kolius.
Of the other 4, 3 were from Europe - Bertrand Pace skippering Le Defi Bouygues, Switzerland's Fast 2000 with Frenchman Marc Pajot as skipper & the Spanish Challenge (Pedro Campos). Rounding out was Japan's Nippon Challenge, Australian Peter Gilmour the skipper.
The 3 shakedown, round-robin phases soon sorted out the haves & have-nots - but being a have-not didn't necessarily mean that it was all a alost cause this time. That's because the challengers reached agreement, although not universally accepted, to allow 6 boats in the January semifinal series.
Young Australia, the Spanish Challenge, Fast 2000 & Aloha Racing soon realized their prospects were limited. Equally so, Prada, AmericaOne & Nippon were usually travelling smoothly enough while Team Dennis Conner, Le Defi, America True & Young America scrapped over the other 3 semifinal spots.
There was however, no sympathy from the other syndicates when Young America missed the cut for the top 6. After all, it figured in the most dramatic mishap in a series that had a demolition derby mentality about it.
The proud New York Yacht Club was indeed humiliated the day Young America broke up, bending like a banana.
But Ed Baird wasn't on his own in suffering such embarrassment. Nippon lost its rig one blustery day, the Swiss had similar troubles & spinnakers were blowing out all over the place, especially the lime green ones on Cayard's AmericaOne. Nippon's disasters also included a broken boom plus a crewman being belted senseless when struck by spinnaker pole. And Stars & Stripes had the fairly frightening experience of its transom splitting & lifting alarmingly just before the start of a race.
Always the racing was spectacular in conditions which wavered wildly between the slow, the sublime & often the plain scary. No one was spared
So it proved in the semifinals involving 10 races for each boat (All each other racing twice). Prada was in poor shape early on, left with just win from 3 starts after ITA45's mast broke in light breeze while racing AmericaOne. And the Italians were no better off when their 2nd clash with Cayard turned into an absolute dog fight, the sea air rich with all manner of accusations before the Americans squeezed home.
That helped Cayard assume a position of strength as the 1st boat to reach the final. As for the other spot, Conner's men were staging a dramatic recovery after losing a point in the protest room for breaching protocol (They had a rudder manufactured in Australia). All the time it was a grim battle for Prada to stay in contact for that 2nd spot.
In the end, it all came down to just one race - the very last one. Team Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes, having been granted a postponement earlier in the series, had a held-over race against America True. All Conner needed from his sailing crew was a win & it would mean a sail-off against Prada to find the 2nd finalist.
All around the place people wandered how there could be anything other than a Stars & Stripes win. For her part, Dawn Riley was adamant she wasn't about to give Stars & Stripes a soft passage to the final, not after losing out to Conner in dramatic & embarrassing circumstances in San Diego 5 years earlier.
Well, she wasn't kidding. America True picked a big shift early & left Conner's campaign out the back. End of story. End of glory. End of Conner. Jubilation, though for Prada in knowing that its millions & millions of dollars still had earning power. Yet, if the Louis Vuitton had already been unbelievably dramatic, controversial & thrilling, there was even more astonishing fare ahead.
Of helmsmen...
They Came from Europe & America, Asia & Australia - 11 syndicates going head to head for the right to challenge Team New Zealand for the greatest yachting prize of all.
Italy (Prada): Francesco de Angelis
Japan (Nippon): Peter Gilmour (Australia)
Spain (Bravo Espana): Pedro Campos
France (Le Defi Bouygues): Bertrand Pace
Switzerland (Fast 2000): Jochen Schumann (Germany)
Australia (Young Australia): James 'Jimmy' Spithill
Hawaii (Aloha Racing): John Kolius
AmericaOne: Paul Cayard
America True: John Cutler (New Zealand)
Team Dennis Conner: Ken Read
Young America: Ed Baird
America chokes on pasta fantasta
The verdict was unanimous. This was as good as it gets. Whether it was the skippers & sailors themselves, commentators, journalists or the yachting public, everyone agreed - the Louis Vuitton Cup final produced match racing of matchless equality.
Nippon skipper Peter Gilmour was adamant he hadn't seen anything like it before. He was far from alone as Paul Cayard's AmericaOne & Prada's Francesco de Angelis-skippered Luna Rossa delivered an absolutely exceptional contest.
New Zealand wasn't involved at all. but the event still captivated Kiwis just the same. So much so that close to a million viewers were drawn to TV One's live coverage at the business end of the decider. Oddly enough, too, New Zealanders had made it clear they had a favourite, & it wasn't the American boat. That sounds & scenes at the Cup Village, comments on talkback radio & anecdotal evidence had long since established the Italians as the syndicate Kiwis wanted to see challenging for the ultimate prize. But, if that was to happen, Prada had to negotiate the most demanding waters yet seen in Louis Vuitton decider. It unfolded like this race by race...
Race 1: Prada's comeback (January 26)
Prada cops a pre-start penalty but wins the favoured left side of the course. De Angelis builds a big lead on the 2nd beat as AmericaOne fails to cover. Prada has enough time to complete its penalty turn & still lead by 25 seconds around the 3rd mark. Cayard closes on the run to the finish but not soon enough to stop the Italians.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (2 Seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (25 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (33 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (25 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (34 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (28 seconds)
Finish: Prada (24 seconds)
Prada 1
AmericaOne 0
Race 2: Big turnaround (January 27)
Shifty light breeze. Prada reads it right for huge 1 minute 49 second lead at the 1st mark. Lead trimmed on the 1st run then Prada was caught among spectator boats. Cayard closes it up only to blow a spinnaker but recovers brilliantly to lead by 1 minute 27 seconds around 4th mark. Prada couldn't make any impression on AmericaOne after that.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (8 Seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (1 minute 49 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (1 minute 4 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (18 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (1 minute 27 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (1 minute 35 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (1 minute 33 seconds)
Prada 1
AmericaOne 1
Race 3: Mayhem on the gulf (January 29)
Conditions at the limit gusting to 25 knots. Cayard works to an early lead but is penalised on a port starboard incident. On the next downhill slide, AmericaOne loses its 7th spinnaker in 43 races, as well as a headsail. Cayard hears a cracking, splintering noise up the mast. He pulls out of race fearing more serious damage. Prada sails solo for the win.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (1 Second)
Mark 1: AmericaOne (14 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (23 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (45 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (51 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (AmericaOne withdrawn)
Finish: Prada
Prada 2
AmericaOne 1
Race 4: Cayard Brawls (January 30)
Tight tussle upwind but on the 1st run, Cayard sees another spinnaker blow (The eighth of the campaign). Keeps control brilliantly though. AmericaOne still leads by 41 seconds at final mark but Prada closes. Cayard incurs a windward-leeward penalty close to finish line. Crosses line 1st without taking the penalty so incident-packed race awarded to Prada.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (4 Seconds)
Mark 1: AmericaOne (18 seconds)
Mark 2: AmericaOne (39 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (54 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (47 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (41 seconds)
Finish: Prada (2 minutes 32 seconds, AmericaOne failed to complete penalty)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 1
Race 5: Staying alive (February 1)
A must-win day for AmericaOne. They can't afford to go 4-1 down. Another sensational race unfolds. Cayard's early lead was cut to only 10 seconds after 1st run. There were more spinnaker fears when a small tear appeared near the head of the sail. Luna Rossa closes only to be thrown by Cayard's dummy gybe & broaches - an embarrassing error that costs Prada the race.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (7 Seconds)
Mark 1: AmericaOne (32 seconds)
Mark 2: AmericaOne (10 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (18 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (26 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (42 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (34 seconds)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 2
Race 6: All tied up (February 2)
More dazzling sailing. AmericaOne has tennis great Steffi Graff as 17th 'man'. Prada has the advantage over the 1st 2 legs. Disaster strikes as sloppy crew work sees Prada's spinnaker dragging in water. Part of it catches around the rudder & a man is dangled over the side to free it. Cayard cruises by but is chased all the way before winning with little to spare.
Margins
Start: Even
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (16 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (9 seconds)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 3
Race 7: Match point Cayard (February 4)
Down 3-1 just 5 days earlier, Cayard is on the verge of being all but there. He seems to have Prada on the run after winning 2 straight. Pressure tells on Prada's afterguard as it makes some ill-judged calls. Cayard able to take control from the outset to lead by 2 minutes 31 seconds at the 3rd mark. Prada trimmed margin but AmericaOne had match point.
Margins
Start: Even
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (16 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (9 seconds)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 4
Race 8: All square again (February 5)
AmericaOne knew what desperation was all about - now it was Prada's turn. Lose today & it would be all over. Coming back from 3 straight defeats would be difficult but the Italians found the formula, helped by a penalty against AmericaOne had to make a penalty turn near finish line.
Margins
Start: Prada (2 seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (19 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (30 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (16 seconds)
Finish: Prada (37 seconds)
Prada 4
AmericaOne 4
Race 9: Prada KOs Cayard (February 6)
The tension was unbelievable as the start was delayed almost an hour. More than 1,200 spectator boats are on the water as Prada makes all the right moves - no errors this time. They are in control at 1st mark & from then on. Italy takes glory on New Zealand's national day in fantastic final series. For the 1st time in 149 years, America won't be in the America's Cup!
Margins
Start: Prada (2 seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (19 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (30 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (16 seconds)
Finish: Prada (37 seconds)
Prada 5
AmericaOne 4
Graphically speaking
New Zealand always had the big picture in mind as it revolutionized the America's Cup - & it's scarcely an exaggeration to suggest a small nation has indeed revolutionised a big event.
That same small nation has also had an equally remarkable impact on a much smaller picture - the one we use to watch the drama unfolding. That small picture is, of course, television. And its influence on the America's Cup has been very bit as powerful as New Zealand's rise & rise as the yachting world's pre-eminent force. While New Zealand's bid to lift the cup intensified, so too did TVNZ's efforrs to take coverage of the event to another stratosphere.
It reached still new levels during the 1999-2000 Louis Vuitton Cup & America's Cup in Auckland; & again one of the most eye-catching & user-friendly features was the ever-developing on-screen animated graphics package provided by Dunedin's Animation Research Ltd.
ARL director Ian Taylor & his team pioneered it during the America's Cup in 1995. It's an invention TVNZ's head of sport Denis Harvey rates as one of the best ever devised for covering sport on television. Few would disagree with him.
Let's face it, when you watch yachting on television without the graphics, it can be a case of 2 boats heading off in opposite directions & nobody having a clue which one is in the lead. Bring up the graphics & it's a whole new world. When they're combined with live pictures on the water, it's a sporting symphony. Suddenly, it's possible to extrapolate just where boats are on the course, who's leading & by how much. In essence, it gives viewers the kind of context they would have though possible only a few years ago.
Taylor recalls a moment during the America's Cup 1995 final when Black Magic was taking on Dennis Conner. ''I was going through Wellington Airport'' He says ''And there was this crowd gathered around a television set and all I could hear them saying was: 'Show us the graphics!' ''And I thought: 'Yes!"'
It was said that it wasn't a lot of use trying to follow America's Cup 2000 from a boat out on the Hauraki Gulf. That you were far better off watching TV One's coverage at home, graphics & all.
In fact, there was something better. And that was being on a boat with a television set in front of you - then you could watch the yachts in front of you & still use the animation to give you a frame of reference. Now, nothing could beat that.
Watching yachting on television has never been the same since Animation Research Ltd opened up a whole new world for viewers. Until ARL came along with its graphics tricks, it was often impossible to figure out who was leading a yacht race.
Not now. Using GPS technology on boats, data is collated & generated on screen from a variety of perspectives & angles to give the viewer the best possible look at how a race is unfolding.
Luna eclipse - the black boat rules
As Prada celebrated sailing into the challenger's spot in America's Cup 2000, New Zealand were enhancing their deserved reputation for changing the competition's landscape.
The Kiwis might have been late starters in a game known as much for its huge stakes as its dubious past, but they're never been slow to connect new-age edges designed to lift them above the mainstream. Ditto for the 30th defence of the ancient prize.
Just like New Zealand's 1st 4 tilts at the Auld Mug, it wasn't always about the old number 8 wire ingenuity that has characterized the Kiwi psyche. Instead, the New Zealanders in this game have been ahead of their time & have stayed there; they were shaking the technological tree well before the emergence of the Information Technology age that's so much a part of our lives today.
That was evident the moment Michael Fay began his driven, but ultimately unsuccessful, quest to snare the famous ever in Fremantle in 1986-87.
Back then, New Zealand's party trick in their America's Cup boat was the boat called KZ7 or Kiwi Magic. A party trick because it was a fibreglass boat, or what came to be known as the 'plastic fantastic'. The America's Cup world was stunned, Dennis Conner especially so, as the New Zealanders gatecrashed the Louis Vuitton Cup series. Conner contended no one would build fibreglass boats unless they wanted to cheat.
He used the 'c' word but no one else agreed with him. This was patently a case of Kiwi innovation at work for the 1st of many times in their short history in the long-running America's Cup. Australian ingenuity in the shape of Ben Lexcen's famous winged keel on Australia II accounted for Conner in 1983, & he didn't intend to be undone by technology again. He wasn't & took the cup back to the United States.
Yest just as quickly the now-knighted Sir Michael Fay was putting his head above the crowd again. Having pored was over the America's Cup Deed of Gift, Sir Michael audaciously launched his abortive Big Boat challenge (Using the maximum size sloop permitted). It was doomed to become a courtroom fight rather than a fair one on the water. Actually, it wasn't fair one on the water. Actually, it wasn't fair on the water either as Conner's catamaran mad the contest a mismatch. The court battle proved even more unfair in the end.
But what you discover throughout New Zealand's cup history is that setbacks failed to discourage innovation. So, for the 1992 challenge, there were more tricks. NZL20 (The Red Sled) was certainly a radical design with its tandem keel & no rudder. It also had a seemingly innocuous bowsprit, an appendage that finished up causing no end of trouble. Paul Cayard rained protests at the New Zealand challenge & eventually overturned the way the Kiwis had been using the bowsprit; it was the turning point in a Louis Vuitton final Cayard went on to win.
Move forward 3 years to New Zealand's 4th & finally successful shot at the trophy & you find a campaign that may not have appeared as overtly innovative as the previous 3. But there was one very significant change. Instead of continuing with one-stop designer Bruce Farr, the Peter Blake-headed Team New Zealand bypassed Farr for a total design team concept. It was a breakthrough; the various strands of that team's brains gelled to generate a rocket ship in NZL32 or Black Magic. It was way too hot for everyone else &, innovatively, it was painted an intimidating black.
A deliberately low-key approach also worked in San Diego, a mood the New Zelaanders sought to emulate in their defence in Auckland.
Of all New Zealand's 5 campaigns, this one proved more innovative than the others. Crucially, there was the decision to forgo a defender series, to focus on just one unified New Zealand syndicate. To mount any more than one defence syndicate would have diluted ab already limited sponsorship base; the country couldn't afford that. And a 2nd syndicate would arguably split the nation as well. The downside was no genuine racing, the Kiwis being forced to subsist instead on a diet of constant training.
Well, it didn't hurt the sailing team, not least because Team New Zealand had so many other tricks to unveil - like slick new, aerodynamic sailing strips & the invaluable earpiece technology (So skipper Coutts could communicate clearly with his crew during races).
But, most of all, Team New Zealand's accomplished design team delivered the masterstrokes. The latest from the Black Magic production line had a revolutionary so-called millennium mast featuring fewer spreaders, a new-style bow, deeper sails & wings placed further forward on the bulb of the keel. It all added to a total package that clearly outpointed Luna Rossa.
And to think Prada's chief designer, Doug Peterson - part of Team New Zealand's set-up in 1995 - claimed before The Match that NZL60 would be slow. Obviously not slow enough.
New Zealand's penchant for trend-setting created another slice of history - Team New Zealand becoming the 1st syndicate to successfully defend thew America's Cup outside the United States, & doing it in a contest minus American involvement for the only time in the cup's 149-year existance.
Roll on 2003 for more of the same.
Race 1: Black on track (Sunday, February 20)
Team New Zealand had been practicing for more than 4 months, able only to watch the challengers racing on the Hauraki Gulf. Now they had the chance at last to mix it themselves in real racing, if still a little nervous about how they would compare to the Italians.
In a southerly breeze of 8-10 knots, Prada had the early edge but Russell Coutts & his crew started throwing tacks at the Italians, making gains each time until they passed Prada & never gave up the lead from then on.
Francesco de Angelis tried throwing dummy tacks but the experienced New Zealand crew weren't fooled as the Black Boat built a handy 22 second lead at the 1st mark.
NZL60's upwind speed was impressive on the 1st beat & it also looked sharp on the 1st downwind leg as its lead was extended. Again excelling upwind, the margin was more than a minute around the 3rd mark but then the complexion of the race changed. The Italians brought down more wind on the 2nd run & Luna Rossa was just 25 seconds behind after the 2nd downhill slide.
That proved something of an aberration as Coutts immediately applied the blow torch upwind to go well clear & stay there, providing plenty of encouragement for the Team New Zealand camp.
Margins
Start: Prada (3 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (22 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (36 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 3 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (25 seconds)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 16 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (1 minute 17 seconds)
Team NZ 1
Prada 0
Race 2: Blood red moon (Tuesday, February 22)
Prada failed to make much of an impression in the 1st race but, in race 2, it gave itself no chance at all after a series of disasters.
The boats started in a southerly of 14-16 knots, the wind varying from 10-17 knots during the race. This time, Russell Coutts nailed the pre-start & had a huge 18 second lead at the start line.
That alone might well have marked the begging & end of the contest had it been a more regular race. As it turned out, Luna Rossa ensured it was distinctly irregular with a terrible 1st beat.
1st Prada slowed suddenly. It seemed there was some plastic entwined around the keel. If that wasn't enough, bowman Massimiliano 'Max' Sirena had his head cut when a carbon fibre stick being used to clear the problem, whipped back & hit him. Blood was splattered over the bow & he was eventually taken off the boat to have the wound stitched.
Another crewman hung over the side trying to clear the trouble & finally Piero Romero dived into the water to sort it out. All of which left Prada 2 minute 19 seconds behind at the 1st mark.
To top it off Prada lost more time with a disabled port side jib sheet track on the 2nd beat. End result - a total disaster for Prada with Team New Zealand untested.
Margins
Start: Team NZ (18 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (2 minutes 19 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (1 minute 55 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 49 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute 59 seconds)
Mark 5: Team NZ (2 minutes 26 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (2 minutes 43 seconds)
Team NZ 2
Prada 0
Race 3: The beat goes on (Saturday, February 26)
A lack of solid breeze at the low end of the scale had forced the abandonment of racing 2 days earlier but brilliant Saturday weather helped generate the biggest display of support yet for race 3 of America's Cup 2000.
Estimates put the number of boats on the Hauraki Gulf at 2,500+ &, after waiting in vain on February 24, those spectators & a worldwide television audience witnessed a telling display of Team New Zealand's sailing power.
Russell Coutts rotated his afterguard, bringing Mike Drummond onto NZL60 for regular navigator Tom Schnackenberg. That did nothing at all to disrupt Team New Zealand's sailing rhythm.
Coutts won the preferred right side & then set about putting the squeeze on Prada. The contest simply became a case of how much New Zealand would win by, despite some fears when they tore a gennaker on the 2nd downhill run. The sail held & there was little cost to the Kiwis' lead. From then on, upwind superiority took them well clear.
Everyone was in awe of Team New Zealand's total package - boat speed & crew work - in this sort of breeze (7-14 knots) with 5-0 now looking the most likely of outcome. In fact, in a total of 8 America's Cup races in 1995 & this campaign, New Zealand still hadn't lost a race or even behind at any mark.
Margins
Start: Team NZ (1 second)
Mark 1: Team NZ (19 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (17 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 11 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 43 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (1 minute 39 seconds)
Team NZ 3
Prada 0
Race 4: On the brink (Wednesday, March 1)
After leaping to a 3-0 lead, Team New Zealand had hoped to make it 4-0 on February 27. And an even bigger spectator fleet numbering at least 3,000 wanted action on that sizzling Auckland Sunday.
Once again, though, the wind gods failed & racing was abandoned for the 3rd time in 6 scheduled race days. It became 4 out of 7 race days when the weather again failed to yield 2 days later. That forced a re-think, with race director Harold Bennett gaining agreement from all parties to use a scheduled lay day for racing.
On what was Russell Coutts' 38th birthday, a much smaller fleet of spectator boats was on the gulf with just enough wind (5-11 knots) to allow race 4 to go ahead. And, by now predictably, it was another Black Magic benefit. Team New Zealand set the tone in the pre-start when it unveiled yet another weapon from its back of tricks - a Code Zero headsail, designed to give it a speed edge in the starting box. It had the desired effect as Coutts grabbed a 7-second edge at the start.
That wasn't quite game over as Prada actually led on the 3rd cross - but the Italians then chose not to tack on top of NZL60. From that moment, Prada was gone. Team New Zealand cruised to match point, Coutts securing his 9th consecutive win in an America's Cup race, to equal a century-old record.
Margins
Start: Team NZ (7 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (45 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (39 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 39 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute 46 seconds)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 30 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (1 minute 49 seconds)
Team NZ 4
Prada 0
Race 5: Still New Zealand's cup! (Thursday, March 2)
Just after 3:00pm on Thursday March 2, the voice of yachting Peter Montgomery told it like it was to a world-wide television audience: ''The America's Cup is still New Zealand's Cup.''
It was always going to be that way the moment Team New Zealand showed its power in the 1st race of America's Cup 2000 on February 20. It became a near procesion as the Kiwis emulated their 1995 success with yet another 5-0 blackwash.
The latest Black Boat NZL60 was every bit as superior as the famous NZL32 that lifted the cup in San Diego. Back then Dennis Conner could do nothing about it. This time Prada faced the same predicament.
What became the last day's racing in the 5-month regatta had an air of predictability about it from the outset. Team New Zealand was always going to win. But it was also a day of emotional extremes. There was sorrow initially as the Kiwis, wearing black armbands, scattered the ashes of former Team New Zealand boatbuilder Derek Tremain in the Hauraki Gulf. He died in October & never saw his boat race.
There were also nerves for 26-year-old Dean Barker as regular skipper Russell Coutts gave him the helm, unselfishly surrendering the chance to claim a record 10th consecutive America's Cup race win.
There was jubilation & then celebration (And plenty of it) when NZL60 finished 48 seconds clear to retain the cup.
And then the sheer joy of witnessing the incredible scenes as the mighty Black Boat edged into a Cup Village choked with tens of thousands of supporters.
But most of all there was the feeling of total satisfaction as the crew again got their hands on what it was all about - the America's Cup.
All you could say after that was: ''Bring on the next one in 2003.''
Margins
Start: Team NZ (12 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (24 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (22 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (47 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute 1 second)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 13 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (48 seconds)
Team NZ 5
Prada 0
Let's party!
Starved of sporting success for longer than most New Zealanders care to remember, tens of thousands of Aucklanders basked in the reflected glory of the America's Cup. As Team New Zealand made its way back to the Viaduct Basin, having rammed home the final nail in Prada's hull, homes & offices in Auckland's inner city emptied in a mad scramble for vantage points right along the waterfront. Let the party begin...
Meet the team
Team New Zealand's America's Cup defence had a very obvious shop window - the latest rocket ship from its Black Magic brand plus skipper Russell Coutts & the 15 other sailors that made it fly. Sydnicate head Sir Peter Blake was another highly visible part of the campaign but there were more than 80 others who all had a role in making Team New Zealand what it was.
Russell Coutts CBE
Skipper
Sir Peter Blake KBE
Syndicate Head
Lesley Acutt
Sponsorship servicing
Joe Allen
Bowman
Cameron Appleton
Traveller
John Appleton
Skipper of Archangel
Dean Barker
Helmsman/Tactics
Trevor Berry
Machinist/Spar builder
Richard Booten
Shore Crew - Boat Builder
Debbie Bradley
Accountant
Brad Butterworth OBE
Afterguard/Tactician
Scott Chapman
Executive Director
James Dagg
Trimmer
Simon Daubney
Genoa Trimmer, Sail Design
Laurie Davidson
Principal Designer
Richard Dodson
Afterguard
Tom Dodson
Afterguard
Mike Drummond
Designer/Afterguard Navigator
Kristy Dunhill
Receptionist
Geoff Dunn
Schorecrew
Peter Evans
Weather Programme
Burns Fallow
Head of Sails Department
Warwick Fleury
Mainsail Trimmer
Jamie France
Design Team
Craig Franks
Chase Boat Driver
Russell Green
Rules and Technical Advisor
Paul Gudgeon
Sailmaker
Tim Gurr
Construction Boss
Jared Henderson
Pitman
Nick Heron
Bowman
Tobias Hochreutener
Weather Team
Nick Holroyd
Design Team
Matthew Hughes
Grinder
Mickey Ickert
Sail Designer
Diana Jack
Personal Assistant
Philip Jameson
Shore Team - Chase Boats
Melanie Jones
Media Liason
Murray Jones
Tactician/Afterguard
Richard Karn
Design Team
Grant Loretz
Sail Development/Trimmer
Fiona Lovell
Assistant Accountant
Jonothan Macbeth
Winch Team/Grinder
Chay McIntosh
Shore Crew
Barry McKay
Pitman
Bruce McKay
Tender Boat Skipper
Matthew Mason
Mastman
Roy Mason
Shore Crew
Richard Meacham
Bowman
Tony Millet
Shore Crew - Sailmaker
Chris Mitchell
Design Team (Rigs)
Ian Mitchell
Design Team
Matthew Mitchell
Bowman
Crag Monk
Port Grinder/Sail Maker
Paul Murray
Shore Crew/Back-up sailor
Robbie Naismith
Genoa Trimmer
Andrew Nottage
Shore Crew/Engineering Machinist
Clay Oliver
Principal Designer
Dr Mark Orams
Co-ordinator
Hamish Pepper
Mainsheet
Dean Phipps
Bowman
Loren Poole
Design Team
Mike Quilter
Weather/Electronics
Tony Rae
Mainsail Trimmer
Sean Reeves
Rules Advisor
Bob Rice
Chief Meteoroligist
Selwyn 'Crowbar' Ross
Shore Crew
Jeremy Scantlebury
Boat Boss/Pitman
Tom Schnackenberg
Design Co-ordinator/Navigator
Alan Sefton
Executive Director
Kevin Shoebridge
Weather & Support Craft
Wayne Smith
Design Team
Kristen Sneyd
Sailing Team Co-ordinator
Jason Squire
Shore Crew - Boat Builder
Michelle Tapper
Reception/Team Assistant
Andrew Taylor
Starboard Grinder
Neville Thorpe
Shore Crew
Mark Turner
Shore Crew
Chris Waird
Grinder
Peter Waymouth
Pitman
Neil Wilkinson
Design Team
Steve Wilson
Spar/Rig Designer
Andrew Wotherspoon
Sailmaker
So that is my 176th blog of the year 2017 (MMXVII) & my 96th this year (And it is 10 days remaining until Christmas).
P.S. And I went with Pops to see the new Star Wars movie which is Star Wars: The Last Jedi & my thoughts to enjoy the new Star Wars movie: And me oh my I have enjoyed that? Yes boy! Because I was feeling the force compared to being shagadelic when I watched all 3 Austin Powers movies. But Luke Skywalker...is dead, & he is long gone now because he was the last of the Jedi left (And my favourite part of the movie was Rey teaming up with Kylo Ren (Born as Ben Solo) to take out the royal bodyguards of supreme leader Snoke (Who got destroyed by Rey's lightsaber) then Kylo Ren told Rey that she must join him to the dark side in order to rule the galaxy (Just like Darth Vader wanting Luke Skywalker to become evil in order to rule the galaxy in The Empire Strikes Back) but she refused because she wants to become a Jedi like Luke).
The verdict was unanimous. This was as good as it gets. Whether it was the skippers & sailors themselves, commentators, journalists or the yachting public, everyone agreed - the Louis Vuitton Cup final produced match racing of matchless equality.
Nippon skipper Peter Gilmour was adamant he hadn't seen anything like it before. He was far from alone as Paul Cayard's AmericaOne & Prada's Francesco de Angelis-skippered Luna Rossa delivered an absolutely exceptional contest.
New Zealand wasn't involved at all. but the event still captivated Kiwis just the same. So much so that close to a million viewers were drawn to TV One's live coverage at the business end of the decider. Oddly enough, too, New Zealanders had made it clear they had a favourite, & it wasn't the American boat. That sounds & scenes at the Cup Village, comments on talkback radio & anecdotal evidence had long since established the Italians as the syndicate Kiwis wanted to see challenging for the ultimate prize. But, if that was to happen, Prada had to negotiate the most demanding waters yet seen in Louis Vuitton decider. It unfolded like this race by race...
Race 1: Prada's comeback (January 26)
Prada cops a pre-start penalty but wins the favoured left side of the course. De Angelis builds a big lead on the 2nd beat as AmericaOne fails to cover. Prada has enough time to complete its penalty turn & still lead by 25 seconds around the 3rd mark. Cayard closes on the run to the finish but not soon enough to stop the Italians.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (2 Seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (25 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (33 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (25 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (34 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (28 seconds)
Finish: Prada (24 seconds)
Prada 1
AmericaOne 0
Race 2: Big turnaround (January 27)
Shifty light breeze. Prada reads it right for huge 1 minute 49 second lead at the 1st mark. Lead trimmed on the 1st run then Prada was caught among spectator boats. Cayard closes it up only to blow a spinnaker but recovers brilliantly to lead by 1 minute 27 seconds around 4th mark. Prada couldn't make any impression on AmericaOne after that.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (8 Seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (1 minute 49 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (1 minute 4 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (18 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (1 minute 27 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (1 minute 35 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (1 minute 33 seconds)
Prada 1
AmericaOne 1
Race 3: Mayhem on the gulf (January 29)
Conditions at the limit gusting to 25 knots. Cayard works to an early lead but is penalised on a port starboard incident. On the next downhill slide, AmericaOne loses its 7th spinnaker in 43 races, as well as a headsail. Cayard hears a cracking, splintering noise up the mast. He pulls out of race fearing more serious damage. Prada sails solo for the win.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (1 Second)
Mark 1: AmericaOne (14 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (23 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (45 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (51 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (AmericaOne withdrawn)
Finish: Prada
Prada 2
AmericaOne 1
Race 4: Cayard Brawls (January 30)
Tight tussle upwind but on the 1st run, Cayard sees another spinnaker blow (The eighth of the campaign). Keeps control brilliantly though. AmericaOne still leads by 41 seconds at final mark but Prada closes. Cayard incurs a windward-leeward penalty close to finish line. Crosses line 1st without taking the penalty so incident-packed race awarded to Prada.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (4 Seconds)
Mark 1: AmericaOne (18 seconds)
Mark 2: AmericaOne (39 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (54 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (47 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (41 seconds)
Finish: Prada (2 minutes 32 seconds, AmericaOne failed to complete penalty)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 1
Race 5: Staying alive (February 1)
A must-win day for AmericaOne. They can't afford to go 4-1 down. Another sensational race unfolds. Cayard's early lead was cut to only 10 seconds after 1st run. There were more spinnaker fears when a small tear appeared near the head of the sail. Luna Rossa closes only to be thrown by Cayard's dummy gybe & broaches - an embarrassing error that costs Prada the race.
Margins
Start: AmericaOne (7 Seconds)
Mark 1: AmericaOne (32 seconds)
Mark 2: AmericaOne (10 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (18 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (26 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (42 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (34 seconds)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 2
Race 6: All tied up (February 2)
More dazzling sailing. AmericaOne has tennis great Steffi Graff as 17th 'man'. Prada has the advantage over the 1st 2 legs. Disaster strikes as sloppy crew work sees Prada's spinnaker dragging in water. Part of it catches around the rudder & a man is dangled over the side to free it. Cayard cruises by but is chased all the way before winning with little to spare.
Margins
Start: Even
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (16 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (9 seconds)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 3
Race 7: Match point Cayard (February 4)
Down 3-1 just 5 days earlier, Cayard is on the verge of being all but there. He seems to have Prada on the run after winning 2 straight. Pressure tells on Prada's afterguard as it makes some ill-judged calls. Cayard able to take control from the outset to lead by 2 minutes 31 seconds at the 3rd mark. Prada trimmed margin but AmericaOne had match point.
Margins
Start: Even
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 3: AmericaOne (16 seconds)
Mark 4: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Mark 5: AmericaOne (7 seconds)
Finish: AmericaOne (9 seconds)
Prada 3
AmericaOne 4
Race 8: All square again (February 5)
AmericaOne knew what desperation was all about - now it was Prada's turn. Lose today & it would be all over. Coming back from 3 straight defeats would be difficult but the Italians found the formula, helped by a penalty against AmericaOne had to make a penalty turn near finish line.
Margins
Start: Prada (2 seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (19 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (30 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (16 seconds)
Finish: Prada (37 seconds)
Prada 4
AmericaOne 4
Race 9: Prada KOs Cayard (February 6)
The tension was unbelievable as the start was delayed almost an hour. More than 1,200 spectator boats are on the water as Prada makes all the right moves - no errors this time. They are in control at 1st mark & from then on. Italy takes glory on New Zealand's national day in fantastic final series. For the 1st time in 149 years, America won't be in the America's Cup!
Margins
Start: Prada (2 seconds)
Mark 1: Prada (20 seconds)
Mark 2: Prada (19 seconds)
Mark 3: Prada (30 seconds)
Mark 4: Prada (17 seconds)
Mark 5: Prada (16 seconds)
Finish: Prada (37 seconds)
Prada 5
AmericaOne 4
Graphically speaking
New Zealand always had the big picture in mind as it revolutionized the America's Cup - & it's scarcely an exaggeration to suggest a small nation has indeed revolutionised a big event.
That same small nation has also had an equally remarkable impact on a much smaller picture - the one we use to watch the drama unfolding. That small picture is, of course, television. And its influence on the America's Cup has been very bit as powerful as New Zealand's rise & rise as the yachting world's pre-eminent force. While New Zealand's bid to lift the cup intensified, so too did TVNZ's efforrs to take coverage of the event to another stratosphere.
It reached still new levels during the 1999-2000 Louis Vuitton Cup & America's Cup in Auckland; & again one of the most eye-catching & user-friendly features was the ever-developing on-screen animated graphics package provided by Dunedin's Animation Research Ltd.
ARL director Ian Taylor & his team pioneered it during the America's Cup in 1995. It's an invention TVNZ's head of sport Denis Harvey rates as one of the best ever devised for covering sport on television. Few would disagree with him.
Let's face it, when you watch yachting on television without the graphics, it can be a case of 2 boats heading off in opposite directions & nobody having a clue which one is in the lead. Bring up the graphics & it's a whole new world. When they're combined with live pictures on the water, it's a sporting symphony. Suddenly, it's possible to extrapolate just where boats are on the course, who's leading & by how much. In essence, it gives viewers the kind of context they would have though possible only a few years ago.
Taylor recalls a moment during the America's Cup 1995 final when Black Magic was taking on Dennis Conner. ''I was going through Wellington Airport'' He says ''And there was this crowd gathered around a television set and all I could hear them saying was: 'Show us the graphics!' ''And I thought: 'Yes!"'
It was said that it wasn't a lot of use trying to follow America's Cup 2000 from a boat out on the Hauraki Gulf. That you were far better off watching TV One's coverage at home, graphics & all.
In fact, there was something better. And that was being on a boat with a television set in front of you - then you could watch the yachts in front of you & still use the animation to give you a frame of reference. Now, nothing could beat that.
Watching yachting on television has never been the same since Animation Research Ltd opened up a whole new world for viewers. Until ARL came along with its graphics tricks, it was often impossible to figure out who was leading a yacht race.
Not now. Using GPS technology on boats, data is collated & generated on screen from a variety of perspectives & angles to give the viewer the best possible look at how a race is unfolding.
Luna eclipse - the black boat rules
As Prada celebrated sailing into the challenger's spot in America's Cup 2000, New Zealand were enhancing their deserved reputation for changing the competition's landscape.
The Kiwis might have been late starters in a game known as much for its huge stakes as its dubious past, but they're never been slow to connect new-age edges designed to lift them above the mainstream. Ditto for the 30th defence of the ancient prize.
Just like New Zealand's 1st 4 tilts at the Auld Mug, it wasn't always about the old number 8 wire ingenuity that has characterized the Kiwi psyche. Instead, the New Zealanders in this game have been ahead of their time & have stayed there; they were shaking the technological tree well before the emergence of the Information Technology age that's so much a part of our lives today.
That was evident the moment Michael Fay began his driven, but ultimately unsuccessful, quest to snare the famous ever in Fremantle in 1986-87.
Back then, New Zealand's party trick in their America's Cup boat was the boat called KZ7 or Kiwi Magic. A party trick because it was a fibreglass boat, or what came to be known as the 'plastic fantastic'. The America's Cup world was stunned, Dennis Conner especially so, as the New Zealanders gatecrashed the Louis Vuitton Cup series. Conner contended no one would build fibreglass boats unless they wanted to cheat.
He used the 'c' word but no one else agreed with him. This was patently a case of Kiwi innovation at work for the 1st of many times in their short history in the long-running America's Cup. Australian ingenuity in the shape of Ben Lexcen's famous winged keel on Australia II accounted for Conner in 1983, & he didn't intend to be undone by technology again. He wasn't & took the cup back to the United States.
Yest just as quickly the now-knighted Sir Michael Fay was putting his head above the crowd again. Having pored was over the America's Cup Deed of Gift, Sir Michael audaciously launched his abortive Big Boat challenge (Using the maximum size sloop permitted). It was doomed to become a courtroom fight rather than a fair one on the water. Actually, it wasn't fair one on the water. Actually, it wasn't fair on the water either as Conner's catamaran mad the contest a mismatch. The court battle proved even more unfair in the end.
But what you discover throughout New Zealand's cup history is that setbacks failed to discourage innovation. So, for the 1992 challenge, there were more tricks. NZL20 (The Red Sled) was certainly a radical design with its tandem keel & no rudder. It also had a seemingly innocuous bowsprit, an appendage that finished up causing no end of trouble. Paul Cayard rained protests at the New Zealand challenge & eventually overturned the way the Kiwis had been using the bowsprit; it was the turning point in a Louis Vuitton final Cayard went on to win.
Move forward 3 years to New Zealand's 4th & finally successful shot at the trophy & you find a campaign that may not have appeared as overtly innovative as the previous 3. But there was one very significant change. Instead of continuing with one-stop designer Bruce Farr, the Peter Blake-headed Team New Zealand bypassed Farr for a total design team concept. It was a breakthrough; the various strands of that team's brains gelled to generate a rocket ship in NZL32 or Black Magic. It was way too hot for everyone else &, innovatively, it was painted an intimidating black.
A deliberately low-key approach also worked in San Diego, a mood the New Zelaanders sought to emulate in their defence in Auckland.
Of all New Zealand's 5 campaigns, this one proved more innovative than the others. Crucially, there was the decision to forgo a defender series, to focus on just one unified New Zealand syndicate. To mount any more than one defence syndicate would have diluted ab already limited sponsorship base; the country couldn't afford that. And a 2nd syndicate would arguably split the nation as well. The downside was no genuine racing, the Kiwis being forced to subsist instead on a diet of constant training.
Well, it didn't hurt the sailing team, not least because Team New Zealand had so many other tricks to unveil - like slick new, aerodynamic sailing strips & the invaluable earpiece technology (So skipper Coutts could communicate clearly with his crew during races).
But, most of all, Team New Zealand's accomplished design team delivered the masterstrokes. The latest from the Black Magic production line had a revolutionary so-called millennium mast featuring fewer spreaders, a new-style bow, deeper sails & wings placed further forward on the bulb of the keel. It all added to a total package that clearly outpointed Luna Rossa.
And to think Prada's chief designer, Doug Peterson - part of Team New Zealand's set-up in 1995 - claimed before The Match that NZL60 would be slow. Obviously not slow enough.
New Zealand's penchant for trend-setting created another slice of history - Team New Zealand becoming the 1st syndicate to successfully defend thew America's Cup outside the United States, & doing it in a contest minus American involvement for the only time in the cup's 149-year existance.
Roll on 2003 for more of the same.
Race 1: Black on track (Sunday, February 20)
Team New Zealand had been practicing for more than 4 months, able only to watch the challengers racing on the Hauraki Gulf. Now they had the chance at last to mix it themselves in real racing, if still a little nervous about how they would compare to the Italians.
In a southerly breeze of 8-10 knots, Prada had the early edge but Russell Coutts & his crew started throwing tacks at the Italians, making gains each time until they passed Prada & never gave up the lead from then on.
Francesco de Angelis tried throwing dummy tacks but the experienced New Zealand crew weren't fooled as the Black Boat built a handy 22 second lead at the 1st mark.
NZL60's upwind speed was impressive on the 1st beat & it also looked sharp on the 1st downwind leg as its lead was extended. Again excelling upwind, the margin was more than a minute around the 3rd mark but then the complexion of the race changed. The Italians brought down more wind on the 2nd run & Luna Rossa was just 25 seconds behind after the 2nd downhill slide.
That proved something of an aberration as Coutts immediately applied the blow torch upwind to go well clear & stay there, providing plenty of encouragement for the Team New Zealand camp.
Margins
Start: Prada (3 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (22 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (36 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 3 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (25 seconds)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 16 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (1 minute 17 seconds)
Prada 0
Race 2: Blood red moon (Tuesday, February 22)
Prada failed to make much of an impression in the 1st race but, in race 2, it gave itself no chance at all after a series of disasters.
The boats started in a southerly of 14-16 knots, the wind varying from 10-17 knots during the race. This time, Russell Coutts nailed the pre-start & had a huge 18 second lead at the start line.
That alone might well have marked the begging & end of the contest had it been a more regular race. As it turned out, Luna Rossa ensured it was distinctly irregular with a terrible 1st beat.
1st Prada slowed suddenly. It seemed there was some plastic entwined around the keel. If that wasn't enough, bowman Massimiliano 'Max' Sirena had his head cut when a carbon fibre stick being used to clear the problem, whipped back & hit him. Blood was splattered over the bow & he was eventually taken off the boat to have the wound stitched.
Another crewman hung over the side trying to clear the trouble & finally Piero Romero dived into the water to sort it out. All of which left Prada 2 minute 19 seconds behind at the 1st mark.
To top it off Prada lost more time with a disabled port side jib sheet track on the 2nd beat. End result - a total disaster for Prada with Team New Zealand untested.
Margins
Start: Team NZ (18 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (2 minutes 19 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (1 minute 55 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 49 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute 59 seconds)
Mark 5: Team NZ (2 minutes 26 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (2 minutes 43 seconds)
Prada 0
Race 3: The beat goes on (Saturday, February 26)
A lack of solid breeze at the low end of the scale had forced the abandonment of racing 2 days earlier but brilliant Saturday weather helped generate the biggest display of support yet for race 3 of America's Cup 2000.
Estimates put the number of boats on the Hauraki Gulf at 2,500+ &, after waiting in vain on February 24, those spectators & a worldwide television audience witnessed a telling display of Team New Zealand's sailing power.
Russell Coutts rotated his afterguard, bringing Mike Drummond onto NZL60 for regular navigator Tom Schnackenberg. That did nothing at all to disrupt Team New Zealand's sailing rhythm.
Coutts won the preferred right side & then set about putting the squeeze on Prada. The contest simply became a case of how much New Zealand would win by, despite some fears when they tore a gennaker on the 2nd downhill run. The sail held & there was little cost to the Kiwis' lead. From then on, upwind superiority took them well clear.
Everyone was in awe of Team New Zealand's total package - boat speed & crew work - in this sort of breeze (7-14 knots) with 5-0 now looking the most likely of outcome. In fact, in a total of 8 America's Cup races in 1995 & this campaign, New Zealand still hadn't lost a race or even behind at any mark.
Margins
Start: Team NZ (1 second)
Mark 1: Team NZ (19 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (17 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 11 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 43 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (1 minute 39 seconds)
Prada 0
Race 4: On the brink (Wednesday, March 1)
After leaping to a 3-0 lead, Team New Zealand had hoped to make it 4-0 on February 27. And an even bigger spectator fleet numbering at least 3,000 wanted action on that sizzling Auckland Sunday.
Once again, though, the wind gods failed & racing was abandoned for the 3rd time in 6 scheduled race days. It became 4 out of 7 race days when the weather again failed to yield 2 days later. That forced a re-think, with race director Harold Bennett gaining agreement from all parties to use a scheduled lay day for racing.
On what was Russell Coutts' 38th birthday, a much smaller fleet of spectator boats was on the gulf with just enough wind (5-11 knots) to allow race 4 to go ahead. And, by now predictably, it was another Black Magic benefit. Team New Zealand set the tone in the pre-start when it unveiled yet another weapon from its back of tricks - a Code Zero headsail, designed to give it a speed edge in the starting box. It had the desired effect as Coutts grabbed a 7-second edge at the start.
That wasn't quite game over as Prada actually led on the 3rd cross - but the Italians then chose not to tack on top of NZL60. From that moment, Prada was gone. Team New Zealand cruised to match point, Coutts securing his 9th consecutive win in an America's Cup race, to equal a century-old record.
Margins
Start: Team NZ (7 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (45 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (39 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (1 minute 39 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute 46 seconds)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 30 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (1 minute 49 seconds)
Prada 0
Race 5: Still New Zealand's cup! (Thursday, March 2)
Just after 3:00pm on Thursday March 2, the voice of yachting Peter Montgomery told it like it was to a world-wide television audience: ''The America's Cup is still New Zealand's Cup.''
It was always going to be that way the moment Team New Zealand showed its power in the 1st race of America's Cup 2000 on February 20. It became a near procesion as the Kiwis emulated their 1995 success with yet another 5-0 blackwash.
The latest Black Boat NZL60 was every bit as superior as the famous NZL32 that lifted the cup in San Diego. Back then Dennis Conner could do nothing about it. This time Prada faced the same predicament.
What became the last day's racing in the 5-month regatta had an air of predictability about it from the outset. Team New Zealand was always going to win. But it was also a day of emotional extremes. There was sorrow initially as the Kiwis, wearing black armbands, scattered the ashes of former Team New Zealand boatbuilder Derek Tremain in the Hauraki Gulf. He died in October & never saw his boat race.
There were also nerves for 26-year-old Dean Barker as regular skipper Russell Coutts gave him the helm, unselfishly surrendering the chance to claim a record 10th consecutive America's Cup race win.
There was jubilation & then celebration (And plenty of it) when NZL60 finished 48 seconds clear to retain the cup.
And then the sheer joy of witnessing the incredible scenes as the mighty Black Boat edged into a Cup Village choked with tens of thousands of supporters.
But most of all there was the feeling of total satisfaction as the crew again got their hands on what it was all about - the America's Cup.
All you could say after that was: ''Bring on the next one in 2003.''
Margins
Start: Team NZ (12 seconds)
Mark 1: Team NZ (24 seconds)
Mark 2: Team NZ (22 seconds)
Mark 3: Team NZ (47 seconds)
Mark 4: Team NZ (1 minute 1 second)
Mark 5: Team NZ (1 minute 13 seconds)
Finish: Team NZ (48 seconds)
Prada 0
Let's party!
Starved of sporting success for longer than most New Zealanders care to remember, tens of thousands of Aucklanders basked in the reflected glory of the America's Cup. As Team New Zealand made its way back to the Viaduct Basin, having rammed home the final nail in Prada's hull, homes & offices in Auckland's inner city emptied in a mad scramble for vantage points right along the waterfront. Let the party begin...
Meet the team
Team New Zealand's America's Cup defence had a very obvious shop window - the latest rocket ship from its Black Magic brand plus skipper Russell Coutts & the 15 other sailors that made it fly. Sydnicate head Sir Peter Blake was another highly visible part of the campaign but there were more than 80 others who all had a role in making Team New Zealand what it was.
Russell Coutts CBE
Skipper
Sir Peter Blake KBE
Syndicate Head
Lesley Acutt
Sponsorship servicing
Joe Allen
Bowman
Cameron Appleton
Traveller
John Appleton
Skipper of Archangel
Dean Barker
Helmsman/Tactics
Trevor Berry
Machinist/Spar builder
Richard Booten
Shore Crew - Boat Builder
Debbie Bradley
Accountant
Brad Butterworth OBE
Afterguard/Tactician
Scott Chapman
Executive Director
James Dagg
Trimmer
Simon Daubney
Genoa Trimmer, Sail Design
Laurie Davidson
Principal Designer
Richard Dodson
Afterguard
Tom Dodson
Afterguard
Mike Drummond
Designer/Afterguard Navigator
Kristy Dunhill
Receptionist
Geoff Dunn
Schorecrew
Peter Evans
Weather Programme
Burns Fallow
Head of Sails Department
Warwick Fleury
Mainsail Trimmer
Jamie France
Design Team
Craig Franks
Chase Boat Driver
Russell Green
Rules and Technical Advisor
Paul Gudgeon
Sailmaker
Tim Gurr
Construction Boss
Jared Henderson
Pitman
Nick Heron
Bowman
Tobias Hochreutener
Weather Team
Nick Holroyd
Design Team
Matthew Hughes
Grinder
Mickey Ickert
Sail Designer
Diana Jack
Personal Assistant
Philip Jameson
Shore Team - Chase Boats
Melanie Jones
Media Liason
Murray Jones
Tactician/Afterguard
Richard Karn
Design Team
Grant Loretz
Sail Development/Trimmer
Fiona Lovell
Assistant Accountant
Jonothan Macbeth
Winch Team/Grinder
Chay McIntosh
Shore Crew
Barry McKay
Pitman
Bruce McKay
Tender Boat Skipper
Matthew Mason
Mastman
Roy Mason
Shore Crew
Richard Meacham
Bowman
Tony Millet
Shore Crew - Sailmaker
Chris Mitchell
Design Team (Rigs)
Ian Mitchell
Design Team
Matthew Mitchell
Bowman
Crag Monk
Port Grinder/Sail Maker
Paul Murray
Shore Crew/Back-up sailor
Robbie Naismith
Genoa Trimmer
Andrew Nottage
Shore Crew/Engineering Machinist
Clay Oliver
Principal Designer
Dr Mark Orams
Co-ordinator
Hamish Pepper
Mainsheet
Dean Phipps
Bowman
Loren Poole
Design Team
Mike Quilter
Weather/Electronics
Tony Rae
Mainsail Trimmer
Sean Reeves
Rules Advisor
Bob Rice
Chief Meteoroligist
Selwyn 'Crowbar' Ross
Shore Crew
Jeremy Scantlebury
Boat Boss/Pitman
Tom Schnackenberg
Design Co-ordinator/Navigator
Alan Sefton
Executive Director
Kevin Shoebridge
Weather & Support Craft
Wayne Smith
Design Team
Kristen Sneyd
Sailing Team Co-ordinator
Jason Squire
Shore Crew - Boat Builder
Michelle Tapper
Reception/Team Assistant
Andrew Taylor
Starboard Grinder
Neville Thorpe
Shore Crew
Mark Turner
Shore Crew
Chris Waird
Grinder
Peter Waymouth
Pitman
Neil Wilkinson
Design Team
Steve Wilson
Spar/Rig Designer
Andrew Wotherspoon
Sailmaker
So that is my 176th blog of the year 2017 (MMXVII) & my 96th this year (And it is 10 days remaining until Christmas).
P.S. And I went with Pops to see the new Star Wars movie which is Star Wars: The Last Jedi & my thoughts to enjoy the new Star Wars movie: And me oh my I have enjoyed that? Yes boy! Because I was feeling the force compared to being shagadelic when I watched all 3 Austin Powers movies. But Luke Skywalker...is dead, & he is long gone now because he was the last of the Jedi left (And my favourite part of the movie was Rey teaming up with Kylo Ren (Born as Ben Solo) to take out the royal bodyguards of supreme leader Snoke (Who got destroyed by Rey's lightsaber) then Kylo Ren told Rey that she must join him to the dark side in order to rule the galaxy (Just like Darth Vader wanting Luke Skywalker to become evil in order to rule the galaxy in The Empire Strikes Back) but she refused because she wants to become a Jedi like Luke).
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