Tuesday, 22 January 2019

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.

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