Dawn till dusk aboard the black boat

From the din of the alarm clock at 5am until the post mortems end about 7.30pm, a Team New Zealand sailor is on the go all day, JULIE ASH discovers.

It may look a glamorous life being a Team New Zealand sailor, swanning around on one of the famous black boats, with the wind in your hair and the whole country behind you.

But life as a sailor really isn't a breeze.

In fact it is gruelling enough to send most landlubbers scurrying back to their day jobs.

Six in the morning is when Team New Zealand sailor Dan Slater, affectionately known as Smoothie to his team-mates, drags himself out of bed.

Still rubbing his eyes, it is time for Slater to embark on the first requirement of the day - a workout.

With little time before race one of the America's Cup match, it is up to the sailors to maintain their own fitness.

"This morning, for example, I ran from home," says Slater. "I left home at 6.30am and got back around 7.15am."

As a tactician/traveller, Slater has be one of the lighter crew members.

"I do a lot of cardio stuff," he says, " a lot of running and swimming."

The sailors' fitness levels are closely scrutinised by trainer David Slyfield, responsible for ensuring the team are fit, strong and healthy enough to power the black boats.

"Often we have a group run, group abdominal session, play touch, or some times we have a boxing class," said Slater.

"You can never be too fit or too strong. It is just looking for that little bit extra."

But it is not just the need for strength that makes it important for the sailors to be lean, mean, fighting machines - the rules state the crew must not weigh more than 1450kg in total.

That means an average weight of just over 90kg for the 16 crew members. The grinders generally weigh a little more; the afterguard and traveller (who goes up the mast to look for wind) weigh a little less to compensate.

To ensure teams are within the rules, the measurers can weigh the team whenever they chose.

"We are pretty close to 1450kg on our heaviest possible combination," says Slater.

" But you really want to be about 20kg under with any combination, because people can fluctuate just on fluids."

After their work-out is done, it's off to the base for breakfast, where chef Gretel Jack is in charge of preparing the team's important first meal of the day.

She checks in with Slyfield and a dietician, to make sure the team are eating the right food.

"She has got a pretty wide range of menus," says Slater.

"There is always cereal and then we have either bacon and egg rolls, or a beef dish once a week and a fish dish once a week."

Unfortunately, breakfast is the only meal Jack prepares. For lunch and dinner, they are left to fend for themselves.

For most of the boys, lunch consists of good old sandwiches, which most have to rattle up themselves, says Slater.

"There is nothing special when you have to make it at 6am in the morning."

After breakfast, at around 8.30am, it is time to launch the boats. "Everyone has their own areas to go into. I'm part of the launching team. There are six of us under the two boats and another two on top of each boat."

For launching, the boats have to be taken out of the shed and to the water via a travel lift, a process taking anywhere from half an hour to an hour.

"The sail team then loads the sails on to the boats. Then we have the rig team who are doing whatever has to be done to the rig each day. The weather guys also have a briefing with the afterguard.

"We try and leave the dock around 9.30am. Each boat has two chase boats, plus the tender which tows both boats out.

"The full weather team also goes out on boats." On the hour-long tow out to the race course, the team discuss the day's sailing.

"We may be doing two races or testing something - it is important that everyone knows what is happening," says Slater.

Apparently it is regarded as a bit of a "score" to get on the same boat as designer Clay Oliver or grinder Chris Ward.

Oliver often brings along two king-sized blocks of chocolate, and Ward brings a bag of biscuits.

Then, depending on the weather, Team New Zealand will generally spend the next six to seven hours out on the Hauraki Gulf racing, testing or practising manoeuvres.

"We normally hit the dock around 6pm," says Slater.

Then the sailors and shore crew help unload the boats, taking ashore heavy, wet sails before the boats are lifted, skirted and put back into the boatshed for the night.

The afterguard then meet to discuss the day's events and once everything is completed (about 7pm or 7.30pm), the sailing team head for home, 13 hours after they started their day.

"Generally we have one day a week off," says Slater.

"It is long hours, but we are all such good mates that even on our days off, we end up hanging out together.

"Sailing is something that we all love and we're all working towards one goal - defending the America's Cup."

But to hold on to the Cup, Slater and the boys have to get past their Syndicate Row next-door neighbour, Alinghi.

"It is an exciting challenge. I think we are going in as underdogs because people see Russell [Coutts] and Brad [Butterworth] as the favourites because they have been there and done that before. But we all think we can beat them."

And a win would make those gruelling days out on the Hauraki Gulf so worthwhile.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

Racing schedule and results