The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 10 AKA the final chapter (The stern + my 1st ever tennis report & the underarm incident revisited)

Well, for the last time, here is the 10th & final chapter of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is the stern that I'm doing today on my blog:

Auckland's vast & spectacular waterways are many things & all things to thousands upon thousands of the city's inhabitants as well as a stream of admiring international visitors.
For most the Waitemata Harbour & the outlying reaches of the Hauraki Gulf provide the ultimate playground. For others they may equate to some kind of refuge or escape from the rigours & construction of everyday life.
As long as the elements are kind, many hanker for the weekend & the chance to head to their favourite spot for the solace that fishing can offer. Some are on the lookout out for a brisk breeze to enhance the thrill of full-throttle windsurfing while others hope for the opposite so they can go water skiing.
On any day the waters are home to ferries tripping back & forth with commuters & visitors to various points around the Watemata Harbour or further afield to such destinations as Waiheke Island.
Above all, though, the inner harbour & the gulf are instantly identified with sailing in its most traditional forms, from the youngest in their P Class craft or Optimists through to the more experienced sailors blasting about on a full range of keelboats.
Through years & years of experience, New Zealand's foremost sailors have come to know the gulf's waters in the same way pre-eminent rugby players become familiar with almost every blade of grass on Eden Park.
The best yachties develop a sixth sense that intuitively understands the Hauraki Gulf's nuances. And that's an enormous asset because, of all the courses used for America's Cup regattas so far, non is arguably as unpredictable as the one Team New Zealand has settled on.
Syndicate head & design co-ordinator Tom Schnackenberg is in the ideal position to judge the gulf's vagaries & make accurate comparisons, He's more aware than anyone how variable the conditions can be on that stretch of water; it's the old four-seasons-in-one-day theory about Auckland's weather & the extra demands that places on a design team.
''For San Diego we had a lot of confidence in the weather,'' he says. ''The climatology there is reasonbly consistent. You know you can expect wind in a narrow 7-11 knot band with long swells, sometimes developing a wind wave on top of the swells.''
The Hauraki Gulf's wind range is more extreme & is also known for its short, sharp seas which can be more punishing on boats & gear. ''We have to be thinking in a band of 6-18 knots &, as we saw in the Louis Vuitton series in Auckland in 1999-2000, teams were often racing in winds well over 20 knots.''
That unpredictability ensures the gulf's race course is far more likely to rate highly in the excitement stakes & certainly the area is far more viewer friendly than other tracks (say off Fremantle & San Diego where racing took place well off shore in open expanses of sea).
There's an aesthetic beauty about Auckland's offering, too. It has so many reference points be they gulf islands or landmarks. It's also far more accessible in that people taking up elevated positions can actually watch the racing from on land on Auckland's East Coast Bays. That's a rare treat.
Apart from the close quarters viewing on television there is, however, nothing quite like being out on the water sniffing the sea air & being reasonably up close & personal with the racing yachts. Hundreds & hundreds of spectator craft invade the fringes of the course on race days, some estimates suggesting as many as 3000-4000 boats a day were dotted around the edges when Team New Zealand defended the cup in 2000.
There is surely no better panorama either in any of world yachting's premier contests. All around are the various Hauraki Gulf islands from the majestic landmark of Rangitoto to Motutapu, Tiritiri Matangi, Rakino, Motuihe & Waiheke with Kawau Island & Great Barrier further off in the distance.
There's the long sweep of suburbia stretching from Cheltenham up through Takapuna, Milford, the rest of the East Coast Bays & on to Whangaparoa Peninsula. Further to the south Auckland city's Sky Tower dominates the landscape.
Could there be a better venue to race for the America's Cup? Surely not.

NEW ZEALAND IN THE LOUIS VUITTON CUP
1986-1995

Fremantle 1986-87
Syndicate: BNZ America's Cup Challenge
Head: Michael Fay
Skipper: Chris Dickson
Boat: KZ7 (Kiwi Magic)

Record: WON LOST POINTS POSITION
Round Robin 1 11 1 11 1st equal
Round Robin 2 11 0 55 1st
Round Robin 3 11 0 132 1st
TOTAL 33 1 198 1st

Semi-final
v French Kiss (M. Pajot) 4 0

Final
v Stars & Stripes (D. Conner) 1 4

OVERALL 38 5

San Diego 1992
Syndicate: New Zealand Challenge
Head: Sir Michael Fay
Skipper: Rod Davis
Boat: NZL20 (The Red Sled)

Record: WON LOST POINTS POSITION
Round Robin 1 6 1 6 1st
Round Robin 2 7 0 28 1st
Round Robin 3 5 2 40 2nd
TOTAL 18 3 74 1st

Semi-final
v Nippon (C. Dickson) 3 0
v Il Moro di Venezia (P. Cayard) 2 1
v Ville de Paris (M. Pajot) 2 1

Final
v Il Moro di Venezia (P. Cayard) 3 5

OVERALL 28 10

San Diego 1995
Syndicate: Team New Zealand
Head: Peter Blake
Skipper: Russell Coutts
Boat: NZL32, NZL38 (Black Magics)

Record: WON LOST POINTS POSITION
Round Robin 1 6 0 6 1st
Round Robin 2 6 1 10 1st
Round Robin 3 6 0 24 1st
Round Robin 4 5 0 25 1st
TOTAL 23 1 65 1st

Semi-final
v oneAustralia (J. Bertrand) 3 0
v TAG Heuer (C. Dickson) 3 0
v Nippon (M. Namba) 3 0

Team New Zealand didn't start three of its 12 scheduled races in the semi-finals

Final
v oneAustralia (J. Bertrand) 5 1

OVERALL 37 2

GRAND TOTAL RACES WON LOST
(1986-95) 120 103 17

NEW ZEALAND IN THE AMERICA'S CUP
1988-2000

San Diego 1988 - 27th Match
Syndicate: New Zealand Challenge
Head: Sir Michael Fay
Skipper: David Barnes
Boat: KZ1 (The Big Boat)

v Stars & Stripes (D. Conner)

WINNER MARGIN
Race 1 Stars & Stripes 18m 15s
Race 2 Stars & Stripes 21m 10s

STARS & STRIPES RETAINED AMERICA'S CUP 2-0

San Diego 1995 - 29th Match
Syndicate: Team New Zealand
Head: Peter Blake
Skipper: Russell Coutts
Boat: NZL32, NZL38 (Black Magics)

v Young America (D. Conner)

WINNER MARGIN
Race 1 Black Magic (NZL32) 2m 45s
Race 2 Black Magic (NZL32) 4m 14s
Race 3 Black Magic (NZL32) 1m 51s
Race 4 Black Magic (NZL32) 3m 37s
Race 5 Black Magic (NZL32) 1m 50s

TEAM NEW ZEALAND WON AMERICA'S CUP 5-0

Auckland 2000 - 30th Match
Syndicate: Team New Zealand
Head: Peter Blake
Skipper: Russell Coutts
Boat: NZL57, NZL60 (Black Magics)

v Prada (Francesco de Angelis)

WINNER MARGIN
Race 1 Black Magic (NZL60) 1m 17s
Race 2 Black Magic (NZL60) 2m 43s
Race 3 Black Magic (NZL60) 1m 39s
Race 4 Black Magic (NZL60) 1m 49s
Race 5 Black Magic (NZL60) 48s

TEAM NEW ZEALAND RETAINED AMERICA'S CUP 5-0

GRAND TOTAL RACES WON LOST
(1988-2000) 12 10 2

So that's it for the 10 part series of The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003 book, we will see you next month in February as I will be covering both the 1st few rounds of the brand new Super Rugby season for 2019 (But 1st it is the Six Nations where the emerald isle of Ireland (Who will try to end the All Blacks dominance (Well it's all or nothing for the AB's as they desperately want to successfully do a three-peat by completing a hat-trick of Rugby World Cup titles (We won it 2011 after 24 long years then had successfully gone back to back in 2015) to go along with our success at the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987) at the Rugby World Cup when it gets underway in September this year in the land of the rising sun, Japan) begin their title defence against England on home soil at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin while Scotland begin their Six Nations campaign by facing the Italians at Murrayfield in Edinburgh & the French take on Wales at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis in the tournaments opening fixture) as well as my father & Raewyn's wedding on the 16th of February at Uncle Bryan & Aunty Viv's new place in Westmere & our 3rd venture to the South Island from the 27th of February until the 10th of March (We will be going to my old birthplace of Raetihi in commemoration of my brother Wiremu's birth on the 12th of March 2 days after our epic South Island trip) where I'll be going along with Pops, Aunty Tania & her French Canadian partner since 2011, Rejean Gatineau.

See you then.

So that is my 270th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 10th of this year.

P.S. And Novak Djokovic has thrashed Rafael Nadal to win the Australian Open men's title (He had won 3 consecutive grand slam tournaments (Well he had to achieve the small slam) at both Wimbeldon & the US Open last year before he won in Australia but is attempting to win the French Open when the event takes place in late May-early June to claim a grand slam since the glory days of the great Australian Rod Laver (But the big question is can they stop clay court king Rafael Nadal from continuing his dominance at the French Open? We will find out in 4 months time) a day after Japan's Naomi Osaka had won the Australian Open women's title to add it to her victory at the US Open (Who had beaten home crowd favourite Serena Williams), beating twice Wimbeldon champion from the eastern European nation of the Czech Republic, Petra Kvitova (Who had to make a comeback after being out for a few years but had to move to Monte Carlo in the principality of Monaco from her homeland in the Czech Republic) but I now started following tennis (So too is Pops & Carole) since I bought that AO International Tennis game on the PS4.

And it has been 38 years since the underarm incident took place at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) which shocked the cricket world (Unlike the ball tampering saga by Australia that happened last year in South Africa), well, the Kiwis were supposed to win eh? No, of course not says the Aussies with only 6 more runs to win off the last ball of the match, well, one of the New Zealand players named McKechnie was trying to score a match winning six but one of the Aussie players Trevor Chappell told that he must bowl underarm instructed by his brother Greg but unfortunately for us we didn't win after Trevor Chappell (Who didn't have the chance to get married & have kids post underarm incident) bowled an underarm delivery (Well, it always results in a automatic but immediate no ball since the laws have changed in 1981 because it's an illegal delivery now).

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 9 (Boosting the economy)

Well, here is chapter 9 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is boosting the economy that I'm doing today on my blog:

It's no secret that holding the America's Cup is equally valuable for both sporting & economic reasons.
The difference is the sporting benefit isn't readily measurable. It's more a case of a feel-good rub-off but it's the sporting success - or at least the event itself - that drives the tangible by-products for the economy.
Team New Zealand's victory in San Diego in 1995 provided the opprtunity for the magic of the America's Cup to galvanise New Zealanders in a nationalistic sense but it also opened the door for huge financial benefits. Mounting a successful defence in 2000 then created the chance to at least double the value in 2003.
Various spin doctors insisted the cup would have an enormously positive effect on both the Auckland & national economies. Obviously the ultra rich syndicates coming to town would generate significant spending locally while the impact on tourism could never be under-estimated.
It turned out precisely that way during & even after the 2000 defence & now there's optimism the 2003 event may be potentially even more lucrative.
It's similar to the New Zealand film industry. Projects such as the Lord Of The Rings extravaganza advertise New Zealand in a special & spectacular manner; the expectation is that will have a flow-on boost for tourism numbers down the line.
So it is with the America's Cup. The exposure for New Zealand & Auckland particularly during the 2000 regatta could only be exceptionally positive. The television coverage of the racing itself enhanced Auckland's image & so did the contribution by a vast contingent of international media. The tangible rewards of such promotion are likely to manifest themselves in the 2003 regatta.
Such anticipation is based on the results of an America's Cup 2000 Economic Report which rolled out an array of numbers endorsing the event's influence.
It claims the America's Cup generated $640m of value added to the New Zealand economy & $473 to the Auckland region's economy. Government sources later pointed out the GST take alone from America's Cup revenue was in the region of $100m.
The breakdown of information was even more illuminating in the America's Cup report. Among other statistics it showed syndicates spent $149.2m, super yacht owners contributed $118m & international visitors $164m.
Among business areas to benefit from that significant spend were the marine sector ($126.7m), construction ($491.7m), accommodation ($64.2m), restaurants/hospitality ($51.3m), retail ($56.8m), entertainment & leisure ($33.2m) plus media & communications ($23.6m).
Many of the businesses to prosper can, of course, be found in & around the superb facility now known as the American Express Viaduct Harbour. The immediate vicinity with its restaurants, bars, super yacht facilities & various boat industry businesses is the natural magnet for the America's Cup regatta.
Massive development changed the face of the area for Team New Zealand's first defence. It was unrecognisable from the dilapidated facility it had been & the good news is that considerable improvements & extensions have been made since 2000. There's no question the American Express Viaduct Harbour sets Auckland apart from other venues that have staged America's Cup regattas.
Tourism New Zealand can also point to any number of ways in which the America's Cup benefits the country as a whole.
Once came when the Auld Mug was on display at the Genoa Boat Show in October 2000 (several months after Russell Coutts & others had left Team New Zealand). Dean Barker & Tom Schnackenberg were both present & helped to generate 25 spots on television networks across Italy (plus 29 newspaper articles).
Tourism New Zeland also says 39,000 international visitors were in New Zealand specifically for America's Cup 2000 but also travelled extensively to destinations such as Queenstown.
It points to the media's influence as well, highlighting the fact that of the 1600-strong media contingent covering the last regatta two thirds were from overseas. It was estimated that 400 million people saw 1500 hours of television coverage in 98 countries. As they say, that's publicity money can't buy & the benefits may only become apparent during the 2003 event.
The America's Cup is first & foremost a sporting contest but everyone knows it's also one of the most potent business tools in the sporting world.
Auckland & New Zealand have witnessed that once & are about to do so again. Many people have a vested interest in hoping there'll be more to come after 2003 as well.

So that is my 269th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 9th of this year.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 8 (Sizing up the opposition)

Well, here is chapter 8 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is sizing up the opposition that I'm doing today on my blog:

New Zealand's standing as a world leader in yachting has been unchallenged for more than a decade now. It's been palpable in various forms of round the world events, on the world match racing circuit & especially in the realm of the America's Cup.

That position will surely enhanced for patently obvious reasons throughout the 2002-03 America's Cup regatta. While the America's Cup will never have another name it'll have more of New Zealand in it than ever when it goes on the line again in 2003.

Quite apart from the physical fact that New Zealand owns the cup right now & the geographical one that the country will stage the 2003 defence there's the human ingredient. And this is where the New Zealand flavour has crept into challenger syndicates in a more tangible manner.

Many pundits are confidently predicting The Match for the cup in February 2003 will indeed pit Team New Zealand against another New Zealand team in disguise.

Kiwi sailors have been dotted around challenging syndicates for some time. It's a reality with so many positions available at Team New Zealand. But the clutch of departures from the Kiwi camp after the 2000 defence means the New Zealand presence is far more profound now. It's most distinctive in Oracle Racing, One World &, of course, Ernesto Bertarelli's Team Alinghi featuring Team New Zealand masterminds Russell Coutts & Brad Butterworth.

Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing has New Zealand's John Cutler as its sailing director & CHris Dickson - the sailing face of the trailblazing Kiwi Magic campaign in 1986-87 - has been involved as well. Former Team New Zealand trimmer Robbie Naismith & boatbuilder Mark Turner are also on the roster of a syndicate that's well-fancied by many, although it has had some problems with major breakages in its Hauraki Gulf trials.

OneWorld, with former Team New Zealand designer Laurie Davidson as a driving force, launched its two new boats USA65 & USA67 early in 2002. Apart from Davidson there's ample Kiwi content on & off the water straight from Team New Zealand's class of 2000 - Richard Dodson, Richard Karn, Matt Mason, Ian Mitchell, Craig Monk, Jeremy Scantlebury, Wayne Smith, Andrew Taylor, Peter Waymouth & Neil Wilkinson.

Sailing under the Swiss flag, Team Alinghi can claim New Zealand's highest achievers to date in the America's Cup in Coutts & Butterworth as well as the enormously experienced trimmers Simon Daubney & Warwick Fleury, tactician Murray Jones & bowman Dean Phipps. With that kind of manpower boosted by Bertarelli's billions, there's an awful lot of smart money on the New Zealand ''Swiss'' connection winning the Louis Vuitton Cup to earn the right to challenge Team New Zealand.

That won't preclude Prada from being right there again, though, Patrizio Bertelli also has ample financial resources to fund a campaign that logically will improve after the success in 2000. It was no mean achievement to take on Team New Zealand for the America's Cup then even though it ended in a 5-0 defeat. But there'll be some optimism that the Italians can better than effort this time.

It would seem likely those four will constitute the primary contenders for the ultimate challenge against Dean Barker's best although the process for finding that team is rather more convoluted this time. The insistence among the challenging syndicates is that the new format will ensure the winner will be better prepared than Prada was for its bid in 2000.

Among those excluded from this speculation are Dennis Conner with his umpteenth campaign, Sweden's Victory Challenge & the GBR Challenge, Great Britain's long overdue return to the America's Cup arena with New Zealand's David Barnes as its general manager. None of them is without hope but they don't seem to compare as favourably as any of the more highly-rated syndicates.

For Team New Zealand followers there may be divided opinion on what might be the preferable outcome in the Louis Vuitton Cup - to have Coutts eliminated in the challenger campaign so he has no chance of taking the America's Cup off his old team, or to have him go all the way to The Match & then be beaten by Team New Zealand. Make your pick.

So that is my 268th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 8th of this year.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 7 (Design of the times)

Well, here is chapter 7 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is design of the times that I'm doing today on my blog:

Yacht racing's always a delicate & often fickle business of trying to strike a measured balance between sailing talent & design quality.
The modern era is punctuated with instances of the equation being at odds.
If a rocket ship is put in the hands of a poor or even modest crew can turn a dog into anything better.
That's why Team New Zealand was such a standout performer in winning the America's Cup in 1995 & retaining it five years later. In both campaigns it achieved an unmatched synergy between outstanding design & exceptional sailing skills; the animate & inanimate elements of the formula were in total harmony. But with each campaign the process must be rigorously reviewed & renewed.
On its official website Team New Zealand calls it ''the designer's constant quest'' & refers to America's Cup boat design as ''the eternal paradox.'' Who could disagree?
In this grandest of all yachting events, the design world is full of mystery & secrecy, for very obvious reasons. No syndicate wants rivals to know what it's up to. Yet no matter how sharp the design minds, how much grunt they have in their computers & how much advice they take on, there is no ultimate solution. It's an endless mission trying to design the desired racing boat.
That adds to the magic of the America's Cup. Winning the prize is a battle of wits, of sailing power & boat speed matched by reliability.
Always there's a design conundrum of weight versus speed. And trying to put it on an even keel, so to speak, is an enormous challenge when designing a boat for racing on Auckland's demanding Hauraki Gulf.
Again from the Team New Zealand website comes this: ''The design & construction of an America's Cup yacht is a highly complex undertaking which involves a multi-disciplinary team of specialists in an endless battle against an irresistible paradox.
''Throughout the enterprise, everybody is engaged in a struggle to achieve strength & reliability for the least possible weight. It is a dance with the devil that engages massive computing power, the latest in space-age materials, enormous experience & expertise, science & no small amount of intuition & artistry.''
In layman's language, if the design's too light & fast it's more likely to break in the punishing conditions in the Hauraki Gulf. Go too fat the other way & the boat might be sturdier but that'll be achieved by making it heavier, & therefore slower. How to get it right has teased so many minds for so many years.
Team New Zealand's spar designer Chris Mitchell says: ''Ultimately it is about compromises. You have to chase around & around inside this endless loop, adding strength & reducing weight until you arrive at some kind of acceptable equilibrium.''
In its brief America's Cup history, New Zealand has done a lot of chasing already & has uncorked various design concepts - as well as introducing technological aids - they have left the rest of the world asking: How do they come up with these things? Why can't we do the same?
That's the edge coming in again. Team New Zealand has developed & maintained a discernible advantage in both the pure design & sailing areas.
When it all started in 1986-87 there were the fibreglass boats, or plastic fantastics. In 1992 there was the bowsprit trick, a tandem keel & no rudder, then in 1995 Team New Zealand abandoned the accepted form of using a superstar designer in favour of a radical design unit which aimed to meet the needs of the sailing team. Three years ago were aerodynamic sailing strips, the millenium mast with fewer spreaders, a changed bow, deeper sails & wings placed further forward on the bulb of the keel. That's not forgetting the earpieces for the crew which helped communication on board & therefore contributed to enhanced performance.
So what's in store with NZL81 (launched on August 26, 2002) & NZL82 for the 2003 defence? Don't even ask. That will always be classified information but it's safe to assume the design brains have some more advances to unleash on the ultimate opponent when the cup goes on the line.
Team New Zealand's 2003 design team shows some changes, most obviously with the departures of Laurie Davidson & Richard Karn but many skillful operators remain - design team co-ordinator Tom Scnhackenberg, principal designers Mike Drummond & Clay Oliver, research co-ordinator Andy Claughton, sail designer Burns Fallow, rig design co-ordinator Chris Mitchell & many others.
They've been at the forefront in giving Team New Zealand's sailing team the best possible weapon to work with in the past & no one would expect any different this time. Then it'll be over to the skipper & his crew to maximise the potential of their newest black boat.

So that is my 267th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 7th of this year.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 6 (The new team)

Well, here is chapter 6 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is the new team that I'm doing today on my blog:

The Team New Zealand name remains for the third America's Cup regatta on end but differences abound in its set-up as it counts down to February 2003 & the 31st defence of the Auld Mug.
Those changes can be found in the team's structure. Where Sir Peter Blake was the anointed head of the syndicate in the 1995 & 2000 models, the newest version features a flat management tier with the four chiefs effectively working alongside each other. The chief executive is Ross Blackman, Tom Schnackenberg is both the syndicate head & the design co-ordinator. Tony Thomas the executive director & Dean Barker heads the sailing team skipper.
That represents a philosophical shift in management structure & style as Team New Zealand seeks to keep the cup in Auckland for a third term.
But obviously the most distinct differences between this Team New Zealand & its predecessors can be seen in the personnel involved, especially on the water.
In 1995 & 2000, the crew was built around some of world yachting's highest achievers in Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth et al. But now they've gone, the 2003 defence hails Team New Zealand's new breed, although still with some very experienced hands on board.
Schnackenberg's the definitive veteran. He's a unique achiever as well because he was sails co-ordinator for John Bertrand when Australia II made the historic breakthrough by winning the America's Cup in 1983. And, of course, he was a winner again with Team New Zealand in 1995 & 2000.
So Schnackenberg - who, of course, doubles as an accomplished navigator - gives the present a powerful link with the past. So do Barker, Joe Allen, Tony Rae, James Dagg, Tom Dodson, Mike Drummond, Nick Heron, Peter Evans, Jeremy Lomas, Grant Loretz, Jonathan Macbeth, Winston McFarlane, Barry McKay, Richard Meacham, Chris Mitchell, Matt Mitchell, Hamish Pepper & Chris Ward. They're all hardened sailors who also have a healthy knowledge & understanding of the Team New Zealand culture.
Adding to that fund of expertise are new additions Erle Williams - who's been literally everywhere in yachting - & Frenchman Bertrand Pace, one of the back-up helmsmen who made his mark with Le Defi in Auckland in 2000.
There's proven quality, too, in the likes of weather experts Mike Quilter & Roger Badham, rules adviser Russell Green, sail designer Burns Fallow, principal designer/strategist Clay Oliver & weather boat observer Mark Orams.
Around these so-called old salts are a lot of newer faces, though. In short, it's succession planning at work as Team New Zealand enters a new phase.
Another key to the 2003 defence operation is an adherence to the principle that versatility or multi-skilling is a prime requirement. So when the rule is run over the team personnel those qualities stand out.
Schnackenberg has already been mentioned with his three-pronged responsibilities & Drummond's another who mixes his work as a principal on the design team with his talents as a navigator. Likewise Loretz who's a sail designer & trimmer while project manager Phil Douglas is also a capable sailor & an umpire.
Williams, as another example, is in the sailing team as a tactician/strategist but he's also a vital cog in the spars/rigging unit. Others who double up in both the sailing team & the spars/rigging area are Allen, Heron, sailing team floater Lance Manson & bowman Richard Meacham.
Blackman puts it this way: ''We don't need the best individual in the world in a role. They must be able to cross-pollinate. Everyone here has a primary role & then a secondary one.''
''The sailors must also be capable boat builders, sail makers, strategists or weathermen. It's an underlying pre-condition of being part of Team New Zealand. We don't think of ourselves as being made up of several teams, even though we may loosely talk about the sailing team, the shore crew & the design team. Team New Zealand is just one team.''
Outside Barker & Pace, Team New Zealand has another accomplished helmsman in Cameron Appleton who has the benefit of exposure to the operation in 2000 but, of the names in the 2003 sailing team, the most eye-catching addition is one that comes in the considerable shape of champion Olympic rower Rob Waddell. After striking gold in the single sculls in Sydney in 2000, he swapped his skiff for the ultimate power-packed job of a grinder with Team New Zealand. It would be some feat if Waddell can, in the space of a little more than three years, set himself apart as an Olympic champion & a member of an America's Cup-winning crew.
Team New Zealand has lost an awful lot of sailing manpower to rival syndicates for the 2002-2003 regatta but the depth & breadth of the country's sailing ability is hardly in doubt judging by the names lined up to defend the sport's biggest prize.
It brings to mind an American skipper of world reown who made a telling observation around the time of the 2000 defence.
He marvelled then at the quality of Team New Zealand's crew & those who couldn't even make the cut (being forced to work for other syndicates instead). New Zeakabd, he said, had enough sailors to put together three crews more than good enough to win the America's Cup; the United States, he believed, was flat out trying to find one crew of that standard.
Chancers are that same skipper now thinks the equation has jumped to 4-1 or even 5-1 in New Zealand's favour.

So that is my 266th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 6th of this year.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 5 (The second defence)

Well, here is chapter 5 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is the second defence that I'm doing today on my blog:

Winning & then defending the cup had essentially consumed Sir Peter Blake for close to a decade so he wasn't about to continue for another three years trying to extend the record.
As hundreds partied early into the morning of March 3 at the Nippon compound next door to Team New Zealand's base, Sir Peter & Team New Zealand's executive director Alan Sefton were at once in both celebratory & farewell mode.
The 2000 regatta was always going to be the last for them. Ahead lay some uncharted territory as they eyed what would become Blakeexpiditions, Sir Peter's bid to generate greater global awareness for the environment.
As they reflected on what had been & what lay ahead, there was no indication the end of Team New Zealand era would precipitate other departures as well.
Until then the tried but true line about success had been entirely accurate when associating it with Team New Zealand. This machine boasted such strength in depth that the bar was constantly being raised well out of range of others who wanted to be contenders, but really had been reduced to pretenders by the exceptional black boats. No other conclusion could be drawn after back-to-back blackwashes over first Dennis Conner & now Francesco de Angelis & his Prada crew.
However, it's equally so that success has a tendency to generate other dispositions & afflictions. ANd, in the weeks afterwards, these began to emerge until they manifested themselves in a sensational development on May 19, 2000.
This happened to be a day of uncommonly remarkable news. In Fiji, George Speight was leading an attempted coup but back in New Zealand the nation was being shaken by the revelation that skipper Russell Coutts & long time tactician Brad Butterworth were leaving Team New Zealand to form Ernesto Bertarelli's Team Alinghi.
In essence, lifting the America's Cup & then defending it meant the stakes became much higher. It was never going to be easy retaining the talent base for another campaign as other syndicates began to target the riches of talent that could be found inside the Kiwi camp. In the end, the lure was irresistible not just for Coutts & Butterworth but for many others as well.
While the Team New Zealand brand remained, the immediate challenge wasn't so much planning the 2003 defence but rather the more urgent task of filling the void created by so many defections.
Coutts & Butterworth were the most obvious defectors but a run through the personnel used on & off the water for the 2000 defence shows Simon Daubney, Laurie Davidson, Richard Dodson, Warwick Fleury, Murray Jones, Richard Karn, Matthew Mason, Craig Monk, Robbie Naismith, Dean Phipps, Jeremy Scantlebury & Andrew Taylor were among the others who also turned their efforts from keeping the cup in New Zealand to trying to take away! That obviously represented a sizable dent in Team New Zealand's ranks.
All of this served to emphasise both the importance & significance of Dean Barker taking the helm for the cup-clinching fifth race against Prada on March 2. Without the nation knowing it then, it symbolised the changing of the guard in every sense.
Between that day & May 19 - & the tumultuous weeks that followed - a process had to be put in place to reshape Team New Zealand from the top through to the floor. This is where the team's succession planning paid off. While there had undoubtedly been an A crew that had won & retained the cup, Team New Zealand still boasted rich resources of talent among the supposed back-ups who were ready to make the step up to the next level.
In the wake of the Coutts-Butterworth move Tom Schnackenberg, such as integral figure in New Zealand's triumphant times, was installed as the new syndicate head, Ross Blackman became the chief executive, Tony Thomas the executive director & Barker was named as skipper (& head of the sailing team).
While the infrastructure was still in place, this was a period of enormous upheaval for Team New Zealand & not just so many experienced hands had decided to take their talents offshore.
As well as losing the core of the established sailing team, there were aslo other issues of some magnitude to contend with, not the least of these surrounding allegations over the leaking of some Team New Zealand's design secrets to rival syndicates.
If that was demanding for Team New Zealand's management off the water, quite the most difficult matter to cope with was purely emotional.
This was the appalling death of Sir Peter Blake. His mindless killing in Macapa, Brazil, tore at the heart of the nation as his idealistic goal of working to save the planet cost him his life. Winning the America's Cup had been a major ambition but his work with Blakexpeditions represented his ultimate dream.
His demise devastated the entire yachting world & especially everyone who had ever been associated with Team New Zealand. It was a time of grieving for all as the team's headquarters became a shrine to the man who was such a visionary.
Even then, though, the focus was only briefly taken off the team's primary function - preparing for the next battle on the Hauraki Gulf's trying waters in 2003.
During the period when Team New Zelaand underwent such transformation in May 2000 little time was wasted putting Barker & a reshaped, new-look sailing team back on the water. Since then, right through the period of mourning Sir Peter's death & beyond there haven't been too many days when the Team New Zealand boats haven't been out working.
It's that ethic & culture plus the combination of ramping up the design approach that had served to separate Team New Zealand from the rest as the market leader in this big money contest. Everything is possible is being done to maintain that edge.
So exactly a year out from the 31st defence Team New Zealand took NZL60 out racing again in the America's Cup International Regatta. All challenging syndicates were invited to participate but ultimately only Craig McCaw's OneWorld, the Victory Challenge (Sweden) & Great Britain's GBR accepted for a regatta that mixed both fleet racing & match racing.
Benign weather on the Hauraki Gulf rendered the event little better than a lottery much of the time but along the way NZL60 suffered a rare experience - defeat. After retaining the America's Cup 5-0 over Prada in March 2000, the flying machine stretched its unbeaten run to nine by winning its first four races in the February 2002 event only to then be undone by One World in extremely difficult conditions.
But there was a definite upside to the experience. At least the Team New Zealand crew was exposed to genuine racing in America's Cup boats, a commodity that's usually in rare supply as it's forced to do so much work alone with most ''racing'' being simulated variety against the other trial horse NZL57.
That's not to say the syndicate's sailors lack racing edge. They always have the world match racing circuit to help them retain their sharpness &, in June 2002, skipper Dean Barker celebrated one of the best results of his career when he met & beat Russell Coutts in the Omega Cup final.
Maybe that encounter - & the outcome - will be a forerunner of things to come when the gun goes on the Hauraki Gulf for the first race of America's Cup 2003. No matchmaker could hope for a better scenario.

So that is my 265th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 5th of this year.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 4 (Defending the cup + my America's Cup love affair & the Lomu mania stories)

Well, here is chapter 4 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is defending the cup that I'm doing today on my blog:

Team New Zealand's welcome home parades & parties went on almost unabated after San Diego. It was feel-good time & no one wanted to stop.
Up & down the country hundreds of Kiwis feted the America's Cup heroes &, if they couldn't see them, they joined them in spirit by decking themselves in red socks, the good luck charm Peter Blake had turned into a fashion statement in the quest for the ultimate prize.
But when partying was over - & singular - goal came into the sharpest focus. The America's Cup had become New Zealand's cup. The mission would be to ensure it stayed that way.
Blake had approached Team New Zealand's 1995 undertaking fully aware of the peaks & pitfalls. Having failed in 1992 he wasn't of a mind to head a third assault if he was another reverse in 1995. On the other hand, a triumph would open a new world for him.
''The public might think it's marvellous if we get to challenge for the America's Cup & then lose. I wouldn't,'' he said counting down to the 1995 regatta.
''If we don't win this one I don't think I'll get involved in another America's Cup campaign. But a defence would be another thing altogether. It would be a first. It would be a new afternoon.''
Adventure was a gross understatement because what followed in Auckland after San Diego was a thrilling non-stop ride.
For Blake, it was never going to be a basic three-step equation of putting on a regatta, defending the piece of silver & retaining it. He as much anyone recognised the almost boundless business opportunity the America's Cup presented. Blake was drawn to the very big picture of what this whole event could do for Auckland & for New Zealand.
He'd had first-hand experience of the facilities in San Diego & wasn't overly impressed, nor was he alone in that regard. There seemed to be no real heart or soul in San Diego. Instead, syndicate compounds were dotted all over the place.
Back home in Auckland, Blake identified a potential if initially expensive remedy. His vision was to transform a neglected area of the city's waterfront - the Viaduct Basin - into the best facility anything offered by the Americans in Newport & San Diego or by the Australians in Fremantle.
It wouldn't be purely a yachting resource either. Blake envisaged all the trimmings as well to give the public - and tourists - a reason to gravitate to the America's Cup heartbeat. That meant bars, cafes, restaurants & clubs. It meant high-priced apartments. In other words, it had to be the total package. The mission statement was to make the 2000 America's Cup the best there'd been, & that meant the best in every respect.
Of course, the business on the water was paramount. It had to be because, if all wasn't right there, then the opportunities on land would be never be maximized, at least not in the long-term manner Blake in mind
By now, too, Blake had given Team New Zealand an even loftier reputation.
He was knighted after the 1995 America's Cup success. Being titled didn't change him unduly but it certainly enhanced the status & profile of an organisation that was dedicated to putting a structure in place that would aid New Zealand's cause to retain the cup for a long time.
There was some friction generated among the would-be & could-be challengers for the next regatta. Team New Zealand decreed there would be a long gap of close to five years, the next defence being scheduled for early 2000. That meant the Louis Vuitton Cup would start in October 1999 with Blake reasoning the long lead-in time would be needed to have a facility that was up to scratch. There was also the added lure of being able to stage Team New Zealand's first defence in the new millennium.
The bottom line was that Sir Peter wanted a regatta that brought as many challengers to Auckland as possible. That had to be good for business & especially for tourism.
Naturally there was one challenger above them all. Dennis Conner. He had a claim to America's Cup history with a string of three firsts, only one of which was desirable - the first man to lose the America's Cup, the first to regain it & then the first to lose it a second time (surely no one will, or wants, to emulate).
New Zealanders were loath to see him regain the cup a second time to add to his record, but having him involved would be vital. The America's Cup would not be the same without him.
Conner maintained a highly visible presence in New Zealand after his 1995 defeat &, in many ways, even endeared himself to the country. If that seemed improbable he achieved it with some evident class. The right things were said about the country & about New Zealanders. He seemed to revel in the competitive environment as well when he sailed in Etchells regattas in New Zealand (Etchells being a class he had a distinctly soft sport for).
Dennis Conner giving himself a makeover of this magnitude was something to behold. Dirty Den was being shelved, temporarily at the very least.
It emerged in time that Conner's plans for 1999-2000 would be under resourced. He battled with funding & had difficulty stitching together a campaign at the level he'd planned. As it played out later, it all counted against him being as competitive as he would have preferred.
Compared to Conner's lot, Team New Zealand had plenty of factors running for it. There was crew stability with a core of key men now hardened & wise after failed bids & then the experience gained from success. The syndicate had obviously led the way on the design front in San Diego & everything pointed to it maintaining its edge for its first defence. And of course there was the advantage of being at home, of knowing the race course out in the Hauraki Gulf with its peculiar & distinctive weather patterns & sailing conditions that set it apart from Fremantle & San Diego.
There were difficulties, though.
The central one would be the lack of hard racing. While the challengers would be in constant racing mode from October, there was never scope to have a defender series of any kind. Resources stipulated New Zealand's defence would have to be a one-stop shop, & that dictated Team New Zealand's diet would consist of simulated in-house competition. The nature of its set-up ensured such workouts were highly beneficial yet they could never replicate the genuine article of lining up against a real enemy. Most of all, the Kiwis weren't able to accurately measure themselves against the best of the rest. They had to approach the business end of the regatta knowing they might sail as few as five races.
The Louis Vuitton Cup attracted 11 challengers & an array of the world's foremost yachties including Peter Gilmour, Bertrand Pace, Paul Cayard, Francesco de Angelis, Ken Read, Ed Baird, John Kolius, Dawn Riley & Conner, of course. There was also a healthy spread of New Zealanders among the syndicates including John Cutler on America True.
The challengers generated an all-action - & often boat smashing - event.
The whittling down process eliminated Young Australia, the Spanish Challenge, Fast 2000, Abracadabra 2000 (Aloha Racing) & Young America leaving Prada, AmericaOne, Nippon, Le Defi, America True & Stars & Stripes as the semifinalists.
The last one left standing after an utterly memorable best-of-nine final was Prada's Luna Rossa, skipper Francesco de Angelis guiding the Italians to a 5-4 success over Paul Cayard's AmericaOne. It really was quite a prelude to the main event with enormous backing at the Basin & on the water - especially for the Italians - & huge television audiences glued to the action.
There was another certain pleasure in the outcome of the Louis Vuitton series. For one, Conner wouldn't have a chance of regaining the America's Cup in fact, the United States was right out of the equation completely with Cayard losing. It meant the 30th defence of the cup would be the first in history without an American boat involved.
Prada had benefited from 48 races in all so the Italians weren't short of meaningful preperation for the big one, although there still seemed to be signs crew work wasn't all it could be.
Team New Zealand had been working for years on & off the water & the smart money said it should have minimal trouble with whichever syndicate it faced in ''The Match''.
It was evident the Kiwis had another rocket ship in NZL 60 boasting all manner of technological & design innovations. If the boat was sure to be fast, then the crew was inarguably the best in the business helped immeasurably by the talent at the back of the boat in skipper Russell Coutts, tactician Brad Butterworth & navigator Tom Schnackenberg. That didn't take anything away from the quality of the rest of the crew both on the water & off it; the Kiwis were simply outstanding in all departments with so many world-class yachting minds & talents stitching the operation together.
And the confidence wasn't misplaced.
The scheduled first race on February 19, 2000 turned into a false alarm on account of insufficent breeze. But the experience did at least give Team New Zealand a sense of what the event meant to the entire country. The send-off at the American Express Viaduct Harbour early that morning was something to behold to say nothing of the sights - including red socks being back in vogue - & sounds out on the water where there was an absolute mass of spectator craft & fans. It was always going to be a very big deal; perhaps it was ultimately even bigger than anyone had imagined.
That was to be the tone throughout the defence. Every race day there was an enormous show of public support of Team New Zealand as well as some tangible backing for the Italians, for they had endeared themselves to Auckland.
Out on the course a clear pattern immediately developed on February 20, Prada actually won the start - very narrowly - in the opening race but from then on Luna Rossa was totally eclipsed. De Angelis never won the start again & was behind at every mark in all five races. Team New Zealand turned a supposed contest into sheer humiliation for the Italians.
The winning margins told a clear story themselves - 1m, 17s, 2m 43s, 1m 39s, 1m 49s & 48s. They weren't as embarrassing as the advantages Black Magic built up in dishing it out to Dennis Conner in 1995 but the New Zealanders were still emphatically superior in all departments as they completed a second successive America's Cup blackwash.
There was a nice touch on what was the last race day, too. Coutts could easily have helmed NZL60 in pursuit of a record 10th straight America's Cup race win. Instead he handed over the responsibility to young back-up skipper Dean Barker. At the time, it seemed a magnanimous sporting gesture; only several weeks later did it emerge that there was in fact genuine symbolism in the move.
That was for the future. On the afternoon of March 2, 2000 & into the small hours of the next morning only one thing mattered. The cup was staying in the City of Sails & Auckland turned it on like never before. Throngs & throngs of people were on the water to follow NZL60 back to the Viaduct Basin &, once there, the crew was treated to unforgettable scenes of unashamed celebration & jubilation.
This was just how Sir Peter Blake wanted it to be.
The mission had been to deliver an America's Cup regatta & facilities of unmatched quality. Mission accomplished.
Better still, though, it was mission most definitely accomplished on the most critical score of all - the America's Cup was still New Zealand's Cup.

So that is my 264th blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 4th of this year.

P.S. And my love affair of the America's Cup began in 1995 (The same year that Lomu mania had erupted across South Africa when the All Blacks were in action at the 1995 Rugby World Cup (They swept past England in the semifinal at Newlands in Cape Town including that famous try scored by Jonah Lomu (Who got 4 in that game & he made a video game of himself which is Jonah Lomu Rugby (Greatest rugby video game of all time but there hasn't been a good rugby game for a while since the good old days) in which he ran over English utility back Mike Catt (Although commentator Keith Quinn was like when Lomu scored that try ''LOMU! OH OH!'') before missing out on regaining the crown in which they won in 1987 against the Francois Pienaar led Springboks in the final (Including that drop goal by Springbok first five-eighth Joel Stransky broke New Zealand hearts even the late South African president Nelson Mandela was happy about the result that he was in attendance which united the host country) at Ellis Park in Johannesburg blighted by the food poisoning by one of our players (Captain Fitzy (Sean Fitzpatrick) & the Brooke brothers (Of both Robin (Rob) & Zinny (Zinzan) were the ones unaffected) including Lomu & Goldie (Jeff Wilson) as well as Josh 'Krusher' Kronfeld, Frank 'Buncey' Bunce, future Whanganui cop Glen 'Oz' Osborne, Walter Little, Mehrts (Andrew Mehrtens), Graeme Bachop, Mike Brewer, Kamo (Ian Jones), Olo Brown & Dowdy (Craig Dowd) especially their star player for the AB's Jonah Lomu (He's passed away 3 years & 2 months ago but he married a young 19 year old South African woman named Tanya Rutter in 1996 (Although she was considered too young to marry an All Black like that) through his 1st marriage (Although he had to apologize on the Holmes TV programme about his marriage) until 2000, then he had a altercation with a photographer by breaking or smashing the photographer's camera but it is difficult to become a celebrity like that (As he met several famous persons including his good friend, the late Hollywood movie star Robin Williams as well as famous British boxer Lennox Lewis & famous British Olympic sprinter Linford Christie) but he had lost his driver's licence after being caught speeding by the cops while he was on his way to a function as well as he played in the inaugural Super Rugby final for the Blues at Eden Park (AKA The fortress/The garden of Eden located in Auckland (The city of sails) in which they won by beating the Sharks but he was injured while on tour for the All Blacks in South Africa & missed the NPC (National Provincial Championship) final against Auckland at Eden Park for Counties Manukau because of a suspension after the citing officer had found Lomu who had spear or should I say tip tackled a Canterbury player during the NPC semi final so that was according to the Jonah Lomu My Story book that I got for Christmas but I don't read it now & there was that one important message to Jonah Lomu from a simple loyal young All Black rugby supporter ''Give the ball to Jonah'') when I was in hospital after almost losing a finger when I was trapped in a swimming pool meaning that I was stuck so I had to be hospitalized but I did definitely heard the news that Team New Zealand had won the America's Cup (Even though the yachting commentator Peter 'PJ' Montgomery was like when Team New Zealand was on the verge of winning the race to complete a 5 - 0 blackwash against Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes aboard the Young America yacht in San Diego, California ''The America's Cup is now New Zealand's cup!'') because it was on the old One Network News system way back in 95 (It was on TV at Whanganui Hospital) so my love affair with the America's Cup had just started (But I'm also a die hard Star Wars & Lord Of The Rings fan as well as rock music (My favourite bands are Red Hot Chili Peppers (Main) but I also like the Foo Fighters, Incubus & Linkin Park), gaming especially the Gran Turismo video game series (I'm a lifelong fan of it I reckon) exclusively released on the Playstation & of course the rugby that I watch on TV (I watch MacGyver (The reboot not the original), Police Ten 7 (My favourite part are the wanted faces shown on TV (Especially that Rob Lemoto says that police warn that the offender is considered dangerous, & is not to be approached) & the crime of the week) & The Crowd Goes Wild (Especially the smashed em bro segment that I always watch).

And I told my Mum last month that I'll remain single for the rest of my life (I'll vow that I'll never have a partner until I die) because I'll never be a father when I told both the late Nan & Pops way back in 2013.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 3 (Winning the cup)

Well, here is chapter 3 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is winning the cup:

When John Bertrand & his crew on Australia II were making life miserable for Dennis Conner & the New York Yacht Club in September 1983, Peter Blake had some sort of standing on the world yachting scene but Russell Coutts had none.

Blake was days short of his 35th birthday when the Aussies collected the cup. By then he'd earned a reputation through his exploits in three Whitbread campaigns but he was still some way from truly establishing himself.

His debut as a Whitbread skipper in the 1981-82 race was an experience that had been deflating & exhilarating. In Ceramco New Zealand he had fair reason for confidence when he went to the start line, only to have those expectations demolished after his boat was dismasted on the very first leg of the race. It said much for him & his crew that they recovered to take second in each of the last three legs.

That left him unfulfilled in a race that had become his life, a feeling he wouldn't completely shake off until 1990 onboard Steinlager 2.

As for the America's Cup, the Australian success registered with Blake as it did with any self-respecting person who had even a passing interest in sport. But involvement in the event wasn't even a possibility for New Zealand then, let alone Blake as well.

Ditto a 21-year-old university student by the name of Russell Coutts. His world revolved around small boats then, not the playthings of a rich.

In 1983, he was driven to firm up his claims for a place in New Zealand's team for the 1984 Olympic Games. He was campaigning a Finn, a class that would bring him international recognition with Olympic gold in Los Angeles but the Finn was a boat that would never rank as his favourite.

It wouldn't have been possible then to imagine Blake & Coutts would become the next big things in the America's Cup, that between them they would emulate Australia's achievement of taking the cup off the Americans again - & then go one better as well by defending it.

Their luck, though, was to be exposed to the America's Cup for the first time in 1992 in another of Sir Michael Fay's campaigns.

Sir Michael ignited New Zealand's modern-day passion for the America's Cup, providing invaluable building blocks for future campaigns. He may not have spearheaded the fourth campaign but the foundations were in place.

Neither Blake nor Coutts emerged with glowing reports after their San Diego initiation. Blake had some testing moments establishing himself in his role as syndicate manager while Coutts wasn't comfortable with his ultimate job.

He'd begun the assignment as a contender to steer NZL20 (along with Rod Davis & David Barnes), Coutts missed out, though, & was instead offered the job as tactitian for skipper Davis. That didn't sit well with the ambitious & driven Coutts so he turned it down & opted instead to be skipper on the back-up boat.

But when the New Zealand Challenge's performance began to lose shape in the Louis Vuitton challenger final against Il Moro De Venezia Sir Michael & Blake reacted decisively. They decided to rearrange the afterguard, removing Davis & Barnes & bringing in Coutts & Brad Butterworth to replace them. They couldn't deliver an improbable - if not impossible - comeback win & so Coutts' debut ended unsatisfactorily.

Blake had been involved in the decision-making that left Coutts down the food chain in the 1992 programme but once he started together his 1995 plans, Blake made it obvious he wanted Coutts as his skipper.

Both men had benefited hugely from their first America's Cup experiences.

During the 1995 bid, Coutts said: ''In 1992 we didn't have any working knowledge whatsoever of what's involved in the America's Cup but we were able to go into this one (1995) immediately knowing where out strengths & weaknesses were before we lined up''

And Blake said: ''I'm not in the America's Cup because I have this huge overriding passion which others have in the past. I just see having had a bit of involvement last time that it's winnable & I believe that it's something New Zealand should be able to win.''

Well, Blake & his team didn't just win the cup. They blew everyone else out of the water, exposing other campaigns as woefully inadequate alongside New Zealand's complete operation.

Team New Zealand's inner sanctum covered all contingencies. There was so much to like about the way they trampled the would-be challengers & then annihilated the dastardly Dennis Conner himself (whose effort was made to look decidedly third rate).

The Kiwis were, of course, potent in the area of personnel. What other syndicate wouldn't die to have on the water brains like skipper Coutts, Butterworth & Tom Schnackenberg making the big calls? And across the first-choice crew there was a quality in depth that no other outfit could match.

The clincher, though, was in the design area. When Bruce Farr had figured large in Sir Michael Fay's three campaigns, there was a belief in Team New Zealand that a one-designer mentality was too inflexible. So a design team concept was brought into play instead, tapping into the wide-ranging talents of people such as Doug Peterson - the designer behind Bill Koch's 1992 victory - plus New Zealanders Laurie Davidson, Schnackenberg & others.

With so much energy & creativity coursing through the design team, the upshot was a boat programme that was in another league. Most significantly, though, boats were designed for the sailing team's needs. This wasn't an exercise that was aimed to give a super designer the chance to indulge himself.

So the 1995 contest unearthed the weapons that would carry the name of Black Magic. As it turned out, it was the first design - NZL32 - that proved to be the most dangerous. Lethal even.

Design & sailing ability added up to a winning edge. Throw in tactics & mind games, & the New Zealanders soon had everyone else wondering what was going on.

When the Louis Vuitton series started, Team New Zealand used NZL38, the second boat from its Black Magic stable, & demoralised opponents.

For oneAustralia one race day experience was more than demoralising. It was utterly humiliating & could easily have had tragic consequences.

Racing against the Kiwis in demanding conditions, the Australian boat effectively disintergrated when it buckled in the middle & bent like a banana, forcing the crew to abandon ship. All 17 - including Kiwis Rod Davis, David Barnes & Alan Smith - were safely accounted for but the $4.5 million boat quickly vanished to the ocean floor.

What the rest of the world didn't know in that first phase was that NZL38 was, in fact, not as quick as its predecessor.

So, in the Louis Vuitton semifinals the Kiwis stunned the other contenders by bringing out the rocket ship NZL32 &, from that moment on, there was no question about where the cup was heading (unless there was some catastrophic setback), Coutts & his crew even bailed out of the latter stages of the semi-final round once their place in the final was assured. It was deemed more beneficial to put in meaningful effort on the training track against NZL38 than continue with meaningless races against inferior boats.

The priority at that stage was winning the Louis Vuitton Cup. That wasn't much of a contest as New Zealand beat oneAustralia 5-1 - losing a race on the water for the first & only time in the regatta - to line up its shot at the cup.

Conner had won the right to be the defender but he & everyone knew his Stars & Stripes boat was infinitely slower than NZL32 (And NZL38 for that matter). The New Zealanders had the air of invincibility about them, no matter what Conner tried to do.

As only he can, though, Conner found a way of twisting the America's Cup rules. He succeeded in being allowed to use another syndicate's boat - Young America - instead of his own, believing it was a quicker vessel that just might give Team New Zealand something to think about. It was no more gamesmanship on Conner's part.

The man that New Zealand wanted to beat on the water more than anyone else didn't exactly concede defeat but he might as well have because he never had a sniff. Black Magic overwhelmed what was meant to be America's best to take the series 5-0, winning the races with consummate ease. The margins were 2m 45s, 4m 14s, 1m 51s, 3m 37s & 1m 50s to round out a blackwash.

There were lessons galore in San Diego.

Opponents witnessed in the New Zealand effort a campaign that was so superior to anything else seen before in America's Cup history. The bar had been lifted so far the rest realised they'd have to undertake a crash course in adjusting to the game the Kiwis were now playing. But the New Zealanders, too, would unquestionably improve to protect the gap they'd created.

Peter Blake & Russell Coutts had come a long way very quickly since their first cup foray in 1992. On the afternoon of May 13, 1995 - Mother's Day back in New Zealand - they'd earned a place in sporting history & there would be more to come.

For Dennis it was bye, bye to the America's Cup again. For the Auld Mug, it was hello Auckland for the first time - & it wasn't going to leave in a hurry either.

So that is my 263rd blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 3rd of this year.

P.S. The Black Caps have beaten Sri Lanka in the 1st 2 One Day Internationals (Including that century to the brave Sri Lankan all rounder Thisara Perera in the 2nd ODI at Bay Oval in Tauranga but they didn't manage to pull it off with the win) to clinch the 3 match ODI series 2 - 0 with 1 game to spare (And both Ross Taylor & Henry Nicholls both got a ton in the 3rd & final ODI against Sri Lanka today compared to Martin Guptill getting a ton in the 1st ODI before the Black Caps have just won the series 3 - 0 against Sri Lanka yesterday at Saxton Oval in Nelson).

And finally I saw the Spiderman movie last night on Prime & I really enjoyed that movie experience (I have 1st seen that movie in 2004 & it felt great about it).

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 2 (New Zealand goes cup hunting)

Well, here is chapter 2 of The Team New Zealand story 1995 - 2003 book which is New Zealand goes cup hunting:

Think of the America's Cup & the names roll out - from the modern age the Americans Turner & Conner. Australia's Bond & Bertrand plus the Kiwi trio of Fay, Blake & Coutts. They're readily associated with the contest. It's much the same with those from earlier times - Lipton, Vanderbilt, Sopwith, Stevens & ...
Hang on, Stevens? Yes, Colonel John C. Stevens.
Now that's a name that's not synonymous with the America's Cup as it might be, certainly not among those New Zealanders converted to the event since Team New Zealand's successes.
But Stevens could be thanked & cursed for what the America's Cup is today. He should be classified in the same breath as both a sporting villain & a hero. A hero because he was the catalyst for an event that stands as the world's oldest & arguably greatest sporting competition.
But a villain as well because this exceptional contest has also been a magnet for some of the most inappropriate conduct the sporting world has witnessed.
Then again, it's that mix of the glorious & notorious that's ensured the America's Cup is such an irresistible event. And why it can be revered one moment & reviled the next. There's never a dull moment in the America's Cup.
Yet when Colonel Stevens happened on the scene he can't have imagined his escapades would lead to what the world sees today, a battle that generates both fervour & rancour. Nor can he possibly have conceived global outposts Australia & New Zealand would ultimately figure so strongly in the cup's annals. After all, New Zealand hadn't long secured its nationhood through the Treaty Of Waitangi when the colonel breathed life into his now grand trophy in 1851. If truth be known, he probably didn't know New Zealand existed.
But through the ages men with vision, passion & tenacity have helped create a rich tapestry that sets the America's Cup apart from all other contests.
And it was the pursuit of this previously elusive prize that has ensured New Zealand is now the most successful country outside the United States in America's Cup history. The quest for victory compelled Sir Michael Fay & Sir Peter Blake to their names added to the cup's folklore, ultimately with contrasting results.
To understand why the event has always meant so much to so many means trawling back through time to the deeds of John C. Stevens & others who followed.
As the New York Yacht Club's first commodore, Colonel Stevens relished a challenge. He had a daredevil sense about him combining passions that sat comfortably beside each other - he was both an adventurer & a gambler.
So in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, he was driven to sail his twin masted schooner America to England to race against the British. He had glory on his mind & he intended making some good money at the same time.
The British weren't so enthusiastic about taking up the colonel's proposition of racing up to 10,000 guineas. It was, after all, clear to them that America was vastly superior to any yacht Britain could line up.
Stevens was invited instead to sail in the Royal Yacht Squadron's annual regatta around the Isle of Wight with the One Hundred Guinea Cup at stake.
The Americans cleaned up. No big money for the colonel but he did have some booty to show for it in the shape of this cup.
That the One Hundred Guinea Cup would eventually be transformed into an obsession for a succession of the world's richest men surely can't have occurred to Stevens at the time.
But he clearly had something reasonably grand in mind. That became evident in 1857 when he & his syndicate presented the cup - a bottomless jug - to the New York Yacht Club for international competition. It's that cup & that competition that are now known as the America's Cup.
It was still some time before the New York Yacht Club was able to mount its first defence of the trophy. With the American Civil War intervening, it wasn't held until 1870 when Sappho dissmissed James Ashbury's Cambria, sailing under the flag of the Royal Thames Yacht Club.
More than 150 years on, the cup has been associated with everything imaginable. There's been drama & controversy aplenty, no amount of celebration & desolation & loads of mystery. And tied up in all that have been countless & often graphic illustrations of greed, envy, corruption, deception, abuse & cheating.
That shouldn't be too surprising. Obviously John C. Stevens wasn't averse to having the odds stacked in his favour & the America's Cup has unearthed a string of personalities since who have displayed many qualities widely viewed as repugnant.
That, though, makes the competition what it is.
The statistical record seems to portray the cup as a dull affair through the Americans going decade after decade without relinquishing it, & not looking like they would. In fact, before 1983 the Auld Mug was defended in a total of 85 races yet, of those, challengers won just nine.
In a perverse way that made the cup an even more magnetic prize. Some day someone had to relieve the Americans of their valued possession. The pursuit of it has seen so many famous characters involved, both on the defending & challenging sides.
It's impossible to delve into the past without mentioning Sir Thomas Lipton. He knew an awful lot about tea but not so much about sailing. That never stopped him fervently pursuing his burning passion to take the cup back to its original home.
He first tried with Shamrock in 1899 & tried - & tried - another four times after that without unlocking the secret. Shamrock II in 1901, Shamrock III in 1903, Shamrock IV in 1920 & finally Shamrock V in 1930 all proved futile attempts; although Sir Thomas had glory in his eyes after winning the first two races in his 1920 challenge against Resolute only to be swamped 3-2 in the end.
Another standout personality was Harold S. Vanderbilt who three times defended the New York Yacht Club's honour in 1930, 1934 & 1937. The second & third of those campaigns pitted Vanderbilt against another noted owner & skipper in T. O. M. Sopwith, the avation magnate best-known for the First World War planes that made him a millionaire.
And moving into the modern era, Ted Turner - absolutely dripping rich - introduced a new phase with his successful 1977 defence at the helm of the marvellous Courageous when he hammered Alan Bond's Australia.
Bond. Now, there was a name connected with mystery. It would also become one of the most celebrated in this yachting game, although the man would later bring so much shame on himself as well.
Before that he changed the face of the America's Cup forever.
Bond first entered the frame with Southern Cross in 1974. His bid faltered 4-0 then & his original Australia had to suffer another whitewash in 1977 plus a 4-1 defeat by Dennis Conner's Freedom in 1980 before his breakthrough.
But in 1983, with John Bertrand helming Bond's Australia II, one of the sporting stories of the century unfolded.
Locked at 3-3, Bertrand & his crew outwitted Conner's Liberty to take the match 4-3 & hand the Americans their first defeat in the cup's 132-year history.
Stevens had started it all when he won what became the America's Cup - the One Hundred Guinea Cup - in 1851. In the 24 defences from 1870 through to 1980, the Americans had barely been stretched until Bond & Bertrand took the trophy off American soil for the first time since Stevens had won it.
That reverse ironically opened the way for Conner to carve his own very special chapter as an America's Cup legend. Even more significantly it enabled New Zealand to stake a claim in this richest of rich men's games - & Colonel John C. Stevens wouldn't have counted on that happening in 1851.
For the big wigs from the New York Yacht Club had to be accustomed to life without the Auld Mug. Worse than that, the club's top brass had to accept some interlopers from somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere had taken the trophy from its so-called rightful home at Newport, Rhode Island.
Losing to skipper John Bertrand & his Australian crew was extremely difficult for Conner. He chose to avoid the presentation ceremony & left immediately for his home town of San Diego to reflect his defeat & his future. Perhaps that could be forgiven but not so justifiable was the decision by the New York Yacht Club's commodore Robert McCullough to flee as soon the final race is over.
In Born To Win Bertrand wrote: ''The commodore, who had been such a terrible antagonist in all the controversy over the (winged) keel & the legality of our design, did not bother to say goodbye to his own skipper, so he certainly was in no mood to say goodbye to the America's Cup.
''In fact, I thought this was not very sportsmanlike, & did not show him in a particularly good light.''
At least the hierarchy at the New York Yacht Club knew Australia existed. They'd become used to the Aussies by 1983. Australia had broken the sequence of British challenges when Sir Frank Packer's Gretel had a challenge in 1962. After that Dame Pattie & Gretel II were followed by Bond's failed bids using Southern Cross & Australia. That still didn't make it any more palatable for the New York Yacht Club losing in 1983, although it could be argued the club should have seen it coming.
What it would hardly have anticipated was that Australia's small neighbour in the South Pacific would soon become an even more dominant force in America's Cup racing.
The New York Yacht Club knew something of New Zealand. That's because of Chris Bouzaid, whose exploits in winning the One Ton Cup in 1969 opened the door to the yachting world for New Zealand. Having lived virtually on the club's doorstep he was signed to run the sails programme for the New York Yacht Club's unsuccessful challenger America II in Fremantle in 1986-87 (he later wished he'd been able to help New Zealand but by then he was committed to the Americans).
It was in Western Australia that New Zealand's ties with the America's Cup began when Auckland merchant bankers Michael Fay & David Richwhite mounted a brave & infectiously enthusiastic challenge. Provided the financial backing could be found & sustained in future years, it was obvious that summer that the Kiwis would become very big players from a very small country in the America's Cup.
They were undone by a touch of naviete first time out. In KZ7, the New Zealand Challenge syndicate had a rocket ship & one the world envied.
Dennis Conner preferred to infer there might be something sinister in the boats tagged 'plastic fantastics'. Why, he asked, would anyone want to build boats with fibreglass unless they wanted to cheat?
Instead of mounting a measured campaign, the New Zealand Challenge threw everything into the regatta from the outset & then seemed to have very little development left for the business end. That's where it probably lost it, allowing Stars & Stripes to advance to the America's Cup match where Conner duly won for the San Diego Yacht Club. He may have suffered the shame of becoming the first man to lose the prize but he savoured the jubilation of being the first one to regain it.
Fay's second shot at winning the cup in 1988 was yet another major turning point in the path of this colourful regatta.
While the yachting world waited for Conner to announce the venue & timing for the next event Fay, now titled Sir Michael, & his lawyer Andrew Johns studied the America's Cup Deed of Gift & issued the Big Boat challenge on terms allowed by the Deed.
Johns was probably the first person to read the Deed of Gift for many years and this challenge drew everyone's attention back to the fact the America's Cup is a trophy designed whose destiny is reliant on a challenger - a trophy to be defended, not offered.
The San Diego Yacht Club cried foul, accused Sir Michael of ambush & applied to the New York Supreme Court for an injunction to stop the challenge.
San Diego must race, it was decreed. So it fronted with a catamaran! And, of course, it won.
Back to the Supreme Court, Sir Michael gaining judicial agreement that the San Diego club's catamaran was an ineligible defender. San Diego wouldn't settle for that ruling, lodged an appeal & won it on the grounds that there was no mention anywhere in the Deed of Gift that America's Cup competition had to be fair.
Although to many onlookers it appeared the America's Cup had hit an all time low, behind the scenes designers from around the world were taking the opportunity to create a new design rule that would produce a new & exciting class of yacht.
The traditional 12-metre design was slow & no longer attracted interest from spectators. So the Big Boat challenge became the catalyst for the new International America's Cup Class (IACC) which would reignite interest in the contest.
The 1992 regatta in San Diego was Sir Michael's final attempt to bring the cup back to New Zealand. With a new management structure responsibility for the campaign to designers, sailors & sailmakers, the 1992 effort was New Zealand's boldest & most costly challenge so far.
The Farr team designed four new yachts & Sir Michael's syndicated moved 140 people to San Diego for 18 months to leave nothing to chance. But when it became obvious the management team needed help, Sir Michael approached Peter Blake & asked him to take control.
This was the challenge based around the boat dubbed ''The Red Sled''. otherwise known as NZL20. The Farr-designed machine was radical featuring a tandem keel & a supposedly innocuous bowsprit. It turned out not to be so innocuous after all.
The New Zealanders found themselves leading Italy's Il Moro di Venezia 4-1 in the Louis Vuitton Cup final, just one win away from challenging for the America's Cup.
By then this game of high stakes had become heated.
Paul Cayard threw in a series of protests against the use of the bowsprit - & succeded.
With the fifth race result overturned, New Zealand's lead was cut to 3-1 but most of all it to reassess the way it used the bowsprit. The resulting dent in the Kiwis' confidence was matched by a simultaneous leap in confidence by the Il Moro crew. Cayard drove his men to new levels & the Italians began to exploit the speed advantage they had finally discovered in their yacht.
It was the beginning of the end for NZL20 as Cayard recovered to win four races on end for a 5-3 triumph - only to be swamped by Bill Koch's America3 in his challenge for the cup.
It also closed New Zealand's first chapter in the America's Cup. Sir Michael Fay's role as backer & founder of New Zealand's challenges was over but the vast pool of knowledge that he & David Richwhite had created was made available to a new team hungry to succeed.
What Sir Michael didn't realise then was that he held the secret to future success in a discontented skipper & a man Sir Michael had signed as his syndicate manager. Neither man gained a high profile in the 1992 campaign but learned their lessons well.
Three years later their names would become the stuff of America's Cup legend - Blake & Coutts.

So that is my 262nd blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 2nd of this year.

The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003: Chapter 1 (Sir Peter's legacy + my 1st blog of 2019 (MMXIX)

Well, happy new year ladies & gentlemen, welcome to 2019, I hope I enjoyed a lovely day yesterday on New Year's Day but this is my 1st ever blog of 2019 but my 1st blog is about the book that I've got for Christmas, which is exactly a new copy that I've read before of The Team New Zealand Story 1995 - 2003 (But this book is about Team New Zealand's history at the America's Cup leading up to the events of the 2003 America's Cup) with the next America's Cup set to be held in Auckland (And 6 challengers have announced they will take part in the 2021 America's Cup with Malta Altus Challenge (New Zealand used to be the smallest country to compete in the America's Cup but it is the Maltese now) confirmed their place along with the return of the famous Stars & Stripes name for the 1st time since 2002-03 competing under new management which is Stars & Stripes Team USA & a Dutch syndicate along with the already confirmed challenger of record Luna Rossa Challenge (Representing the Circolo de la Vella Sicila club), INEOS Team UK & the New York Yacht Club's American Magic with the winner of the newly christened Prada Cup will challenge the defender Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) in 2 years & 2 months time, so here is the 1st chapter of the book:

The Team New Zealand Story

The Second America's Cup defence

'Black on the Road Again'

First came the campaigns to win the America's Cup. Three times up and three times down.

Then in 1995 Team New Zealand produced the moment that mattered most - taking the Auld Mug off the Americans and bringing it back to a new home in Auckland

If winning it was seemingly a breeze - a 5-0 blackwash - then defending it for the first time was just as emphatic when on March 2, 2000, the Kiwis made it 5-0 again ... in trouncing Prada.

In 1995 Peter Montgomery, 'the voice of yachting', told the world: ''The America's Cup is now New Zealand's Cup''. And on that March afternoon in 2000 he needed to change just one word in another unforgettable commentary: ''The America's Cup is still New Zealand's Cup''.

New Zealanders like the sound of that, and no one's in any hurry to see the landscape change when the America's Cup again goes on the line in 2003.
This special publication sets the scene to mark the onset of the 2003 America's Cup defence.

One week the world was mourning the anticipated but still achingly sad loss of a man who'd help write the musical soundtrack for hundreds of millions in lives.
The music didn't go with him, not after the role he'd played in a revolution generated by a matchless phenomenon.
Just a week later there was more outpouring of global grief. This death wasn't simply sad. It was stunning for its mindlessness, brutality & unexpectedness.
Everywhere there was mind-numbing disbelief over the assassination of a man who redefined yachting. He too was a phenomenon, leaving a legacy that won't be forgotten.
The unrelated deaths of these two world figures on the American continent ensured the week from November 30 to December 7, 2001 must rank as one of the darkest of this lifetime. The double dose of grief within sight of Christmas shook & shocked millions around the globe.
It started with George Harrison finally losing his battle with cancer in Los Angeles, the news breaking late on Friday, November 30 (New Zealand time). For a generation, it was the end of another phase for musicdom's greatest & most influental band. Now The Beatles are down to just two survivors.
Harrison affected people everywhere, not least New Zealanders. But this country was collectively more profoundly upset when it awoke to even more shocking news the following Friday, December 7.
It seemed so unimaginable in its simplest form - Sir Peter Blake was dead. Gunned down by pirates on the Amazon River.
Sir Peter didn't connect with as many people & cultures as George Harrison did through The Beatles or later in his solo career. Harrison's musical contribution transcended all manner of divides, races & creeds. In any assessment, The Beatles will always be ranked among the elite musical influences of at least the last 100 years & probably much longer.
But, in his special world of yachting, the Kiwi giant was a legendary figure, even before the senseless & horribly premature end to his life. Sir Peter wouldn't even care for it but in death he was destined for something almost touching on sainthood.
After the devastating events of early December, countless tributes were paid to the man. Thousands upon thousands of words were written about him.
But as is often the case at times like this there were some earlier quotes that suddenly meant just as much, if not more.
Like the comment Sir Peter's fellow ocean racer Grant Dalton made about him in Champions Under Sail in 1995: ''He wrote the book. All we're doing is developing the chapters.''
In the same book, published before Team New Zealand won the America's Cup that year, Blake said of himself: ''I'm not finished with the sea yet. I'm not decrepit but I'm looking at having a change away from the sea eventually. I'm not too sure what that'll be. I'll wait & see.''
Now no one will ever know but it makes no difference to the Sir Peter Blake story. It's etched in the Kiwi consciousness through his varied round the world sailing feats, his America's Cup deeds & his sadly truncated bid to help save parts of the planet through his crusade with Blakexpeditions on his boat Seamaster.
Beyond Sir Peter's environmental cause, the next America's Cup was shaping as another special time for him. Having won it & then defended it he passed on the baton, wanting to see someone else emulate the 2000 success.
So his death means the 2003 defence will now become hugely significant for his old Team New Zealand & the nation as a whole.
Sir Peter was regarded as New Zealand's America's Cup godfather after bringing the famous trophy back to Auckland. That was only half the job for him. He then wanted to ensure the city benefited from it, that the 1995 win was going to be the start of a long tenure.
He had a vision to transform Auckland's dilapidated Viaduct Basin into the best facility in America's Cup history & no one could say he failed.
Having put the framework in place, he & his team then ensured the defence itself was also one of the most compelling & convincing ever witnessed. No one could accuse him of failure there either.
All of this means Sir Peter's spirit will hang over the entire regatta when it starts later in 2002.
It will consume the newlook Team New Zealand syndicate as Ross Blackman, Tom Schnackenberg, Tony Thomas & Dean Barker et al strive to add another chapter to the famous contest's long-running story. The trick will be to use Blake's legacy as a motivating force, to bind the team & the nation.
The displays of grief & sorrow after Sir Peter's death were overwhelming just before Christmas 2001. The memories of those times are as sad as they are unforgettable.
Sir Peter Blake would never want his demise to weigh down emotionally Team New Zealand's 2003 defence. He'd expect everyone to move on & pay attention to the business of keeping the Auld Mug in New Zealand for another three years.
But there won't be many dry eyes as the Team New Zealand crew leaves the American Express Viaduct Harbour for race one of its second cup defence early in 2003. That morning Sir Peter Blake's legacy will be encapsulated as never before.
Sport is laced with poignant moments; that will be one of them. Sir Peter Blake's spirit will be palpable that day.

So that is my 261st blog of the year 2019 (MMXIX) & my 1st of this year.