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.
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