Bob Fisher SAILING
Days before the start of the America’s Cup, New Zealand’s defence has come under fire – and not solely from their Italian challengers.
The Kiwi skipper Russell Coutts and his crew are at odds with Team New Zealand chief executive Sir Peter Blake and his team responsible for the defence of the trophy won in 1995.
The gap between the factions over major policy issues has grown as the best-of- nine series, starting on Saturday, comes closer. They were already structurally separated in their Halsey Street headquarters in Auckland, and now their offices are on opposite sides of the street and they sometimes communicate by letter.
Blake has acknowledged that there are differences between the crew and management, but he says these are only “family squabbles” which he feels are to be expected in an 80-member team.
“It would be pointless thinking there won’t be,” he added. “You would be a pretty poor outfit if you didn’t have the odd scrap. We’ve got strong individuals. We don’t want, and we didn’t want, yes- men around. Just like families, you have disagreements. We sort them all out and we carry on.”
The tactician Brad Butterworth has also admitted that serious problems exist. “Last time we had one objective, and that was to win,” he said. “This time there have been a lot of other agendas which have got in the way.”
Coincidentally with the news of the split, the Italians’ lead designer Doug Peterson, the American who five years ago was Team New Zealand’s principal designer, has begun taunting the Kiwis, saying that their design development programme has failed to come up with a boat which will be fast enough to match his latest creation, Luna Rossa. Laurie Davidson, the 70-year-old who headed the design effort for New Zealand this time, has set much store by the knuckled bow of Black Magic, but this was first seen in an Uffa Fox design of 1938. It is a method of artificially increasing a boat’s waterline length, and thus its potential speed, without increasing its measured length. “Do they plan to win the cup with a funny bow?” Peterson said. “I don’t think so.”
Both sides have also unveiled their keels, and New Zealand’s has wings protruding from the centre rather than towards the rear of its bulb, almost identical to that unveiled a month ago but then considered to be a decoy.
The consensus is that the New Zealand boat may be powerful in stronger winds but that she will be extremely vulnerable in winds of under 12 knots.