America's Cup: Win gives Team NZ big boost

By JULIE ASH


Former Oracle sailor Mike Sanderson believes Emirates Team New Zealand will take confidence more than anything from their victory in the second America's Cup pre-regatta in Valencia.

The final day of match racing was cancelled because of light winds, leaving Team New Zealand overall first, ahead of Team Luna Rossa.

Favourites BMW Oracle Racing finished third and defenders Alinghi fourth.

"Team New Zealand have taken a few hits over the last 18 months so it is fantastic for them to have won the event," said Sanderson who sailed with Oracle in the last cup.

"They certainly won't be beating their chests and saying now we are the men to beat, but it means that Grant [Dalton] is doing a nice job in getting the thing back on track and Dean [Barker] is sailing well with the new afterguard.

"It is a really positive thing for all their new combinations ... it just means the changes they have made are shaping up."

Team New Zealand completed the match racing section of the regatta with 10 wins and only one loss, against Team Luna Rossa.

Most of the regatta was battled out in shifty conditions, and a lot of the team's success can be attributed to the performance of the new afterguard which now includes Briton Ben Ainslie and Americans Kevin Hall and Terry Hutchinson.

Apart from the one hiccup against Team Luna Rossa, skipper Barker also had a good regatta, allaying any concerns about his helming ability.

Another confidence-booster will be the performance of the race boat, NZL81, which has been similar in speed to Alinghi and Oracle.

"I think a lot of us always knew that NZL81 and NZL82 were going to be fast boats once they had done the racing," said Sanderson who will skipper Danish entry ABN Amro in the next round-the-world race.

"Team New Zealand's situation of defending the cup in 2003 was always going to be tough because the likes of Alinghi and Oracle were so strong and had done so much racing.

"Now the racing has evened up a bit and wham, the boys are back at the top of their game."

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton, whom some brave soul threw off the dock during yesterday's prize giving, was quick to say that it was early days yet.

"I think to the New Zealand public, it says we are serious about this, we'll do what we gotta do.

"Kiwis are still the best," he said. "But the game is not until 2007. We have got to build to try things."

Morale in the Alinghi camp is obviously a little low following the sacking of Russell Coutts, but the performance of Oracle in the regatta was the most surprising.

After winning the opening regatta in Marseille, Oracle did not fire a shot in Valencia.

Their crew work was very ordinary considering the side has many of the world's best sailors and they were one of few teams who trained for the event.

"In the top four teams, someone is going to come first and someone is going to come fourth," was all chief executive Chris Dickson could offer.

"This time it was our turn to come third and the two teams that sailed better than us finished at the top of the regatta."

Alinghi sailing manager Jochen Schueman said the defenders were extremely disappointed with their showing.

"We lost the most important races against our direct opposition, against Oracle, against Prada against Team New Zealand. So finally they are in front of us and that happens."

He said reasons for their losses ranged from bad tactical decisions to equipment failure.

But he did not believe the result proved Alinghi were vulnerable without Coutts.

"Losing Russell was a big loss, but he helped to put a great team together and the whole team is still there ... so I think that we will prove that this team was a big part of Russell's performance."

But yesterday belonged to Team New Zealand, who have well and truly re-emerged from the ruins of last year's cup defence.

When asked if it was the first time he had really smiled since holding the America's Cup aloft in 2000, Barker replied: "I have smiled a couple of times since then ... I got married," he said.

The third pre-regatta, which is made up of fleet racing, started overnight.

* Julie Ash was assisted to Valencia by Emirates Airline.

Cup regattas

Team NZ third in Marseille

BMW Orcale won from Alinghi

First in Valencia

Ten wins

One loss (to Team Luna Rosa)