Broken mast adds to woes for Team NZ

By HELEN TUNNAH

Team New Zealand's America's Cup defence suffered another setback today when one of its innovative masts snapped for a second time, while the crew were racing in tough conditions on the Hauraki Gulf.

No one was hurt when the mast and sails crashed over the side of NZL57 in strong, gusting winds.

"We were very fortunate," said skipper Dean Barker. "Given the angle and the amount of breeze, it was lucky that no one did get injured. In those conditions it can be pretty dangerous.

"Joey Allen heard it breaking and jumped straight over the side, so we're giving him a bit of stick about that. Everyone else did what you should do, and stuck with the ship."

The loss of the millennium rig for the second time in six months is a blow to Team New Zealand's budget and racing schedule, and comes as it battles fears that it has lost key secrets to rival American syndicate OneWorld Challenge.

Team New Zealand crew have sworn affidavits saying OneWorld has obtained critical design information from its winning 2000 campaign, including hull, deck and rigging data.

OneWorld denies the claims.

Ironically, OneWorld also broke one of its new rigs, similar to the millennium rig, on the Hauraki Gulf last year.

Frenchman Bertrand Pace was at NZL57's helm and was trailing close behind Barker on NZL60 when the mast snapped in winds approaching the limit of what would be encountered in cup racing.

"We were in the middle of a race, and it was quite breezy, 15 to 27 knots," Barker said.

"We were pushing the boats pretty hard and there was just a bang and we looked around and saw the mast toppling over the side.

"We're still trying to ascertain what actually happened, but it was a case of us pushing the boats incredibly hard with old masts which have done a lot of work."

Team New Zealand unveiled the millennium rig, which has less drag than a conventional rig, on its way to defending the America's Cup two years ago.

Barker said that until the broken mast was examined it would not be known why it failed for the second time since November.

Both times the 32m mast snapped about 10m above the deck.

"We're lucky that it's happened at this stage of the campaign. It obviously has an impact on our budget and our time. There's no panic to repair the one that's broken.

"We can try and figure out what caused the problem and then all that development can go on the new mast that we start building.

"It's not human error, it's a mechanical, structural problem."

Team New Zealand had a spare rig that would be fitted on NZL57, while NZL60 would continue racing with the team's second millennium rig.