By FIONA HAWTIN
Even supermodels get the blues.
Cindy Crawford, one of the world's most beautiful women and now the "ambassador" for America's Cup timekeepers Omega, spent most of the first race hanging off the back of the boat seasick.
The 1.8m model, who turns 37 on Thursday, had the task of
counting down the start of the race as it got under way in blustery 22-knot winds and choppy seas.
"I got a little seasick out there on those rough waters," she told the Herald after returning to land.
But she did say that, despite her upset stomach, it was good to be part of such a big occasion.
"It was very memorable and exciting and then disappointing because of all the trouble on the boat."
Within minutes of the start she could see from her vantage point on the race committee boat that Team New Zealand's NZL82 was in trouble.
"We were just headed back [from pressing the pre-start clock] but we could see something bad must have happened.
"There was no sail [on the Team NZ boat] and then we found out what happened.
"I felt bad especially for it to have happened in the first race."
Crawford, who wore black to a press conference on the eve of the race, had declared herself charmed by Team NZ skipper Dean Barker after he showed her over NZL82 on Thursday.
After watching the race, Crawford returned to the Viaduct Harbour and conducted just a handful of interviews.
Afterwards she undertook a photo shoot for the Australian edition of Harper's Bazaar at an Eden Tce photographic studio. She dined at Soul, at the Viaduct, on salad and champagne, sources said.
She was scheduled to fly out late last night but had a free day to look around Auckland.
"I think we're going to try Waiheke, take a helicopter and see as much as we can in the day."
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
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