Decision on Team NZ bid just weeks away

By HELEN TUNNAH

A decision on whether Team New Zealand will again challenge for the America's Cup could be weeks rather than months away.

Syndicate heads are completing an internal review into what went wrong in their 0-5 rout by Alinghi in the America's Cup. This will include a look at the management of the syndicate and will not automatically guarantee the present jobs.

Skipper Dean Barker said when a boat had two crippling gear failures in five races it was vital the leadership of the team was assessed.

"We obviously have to look at our management processes because management is responsible for any failures.

"That's one of the big things that we have to look at."

It is not known whether an external review of the team will be conducted, or who will assess the roles of Barker, Schnackenberg and key executives.

Team New Zealand Trust chairman Ralph Norris could not be contacted yesterday.

The Government this week gave $5.6 million to the syndicate to ensure key staff are retained while the team decide whether they can afford a challenge in Europe.

Team New Zealand spent $85 million on the failed defence, and a European challenge would be much more expensive.

Barker said it was important now to separate the emotions from the reality of losing so reviews and planning could be done with clear heads.

"We definitely aren't going to just roll over and carry on as is. We have to look at this campaign and put it back, piece by piece."

He wanted to make sure sailors had certainty about their futures, and every person in the team had made a valuable contribution.

There are some positive signs for Team New Zealand if they want to mount a fresh challenge.

Clothing company Line 7, which injected $7 million into the team in 2000 in an exclusive supplier deal, and an unknown amount this campaign, has already pledged support.

German technology company SAP, understood to have spent US$10 million ($17.6 million) this time, has said it will remain with Team New Zealand if they stay involved in the cup.

There is also a suggestion that Toyota, one of the family-of-five sponsors, might be attracted to a campaign in the lucrative European market. In this event the company sponsored Team New Zealand out of both its New Zealand and Japan budgets.

But Telecom and Lotto are not expected to remain involved, and New Zealand's largest company, Fonterra, yesterday confirmed it was unlikely to consider a deal.

"We see our role as maximising our performance to our shareholders," Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden has said.

Schnackenberg said this week that an external opinion on the team's performance might be called for, but that person would probably then be absorbed into the group to maintain confidentiality.

He said there were precedents in the America's Cup for teams to suffer crushing defeats but then "bounce back" and win.

Stars and Stripes, Dennis Conner's team, lost the cup to the Australians, only to reclaim it off Perth four years later in 1987.

"And then our own team in '95 was born out of the ashes of the '92 cup where we tried so hard and didn't quite make it."

But the Government's cash is unlikely to help the boatbuilding industry to protect designers and technicians from poaching raids. Mick Cookson, whose boatyard build Team New Zealand's black boats - rejecting lucrative offers to build Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison's boats - said he lost half his staff of 40 after the last America's Cup.

Losing so many skilled boatbuilders had been a blow to his company, Cookson said - but staff had received telephoned offers of triple their salaries.

"There was no great sense of loyalty because of what our fearless yachtsman had done."

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup