Even the soap flows in sympathy with the boys in black

By JEREMY REES

At 6am Dave Mason begins his 18-hour journey around the 15 public toilets in downtown Auckland on a special mission.

In each toilet the Auckland City worker will fill the soap dispenser with black liquid soap, not the usual pink.

A small sign of hometown loyalty for the America's Cup, he reckons, but a crucial one.

As he works the city is beginning its last preparations. Years of planning have come down to this: in 24 hours more or less a 25-tonne black yacht will be towed out into the waters of the Hauraki Gulf to face down the Alinghi challengers who want to claim the cup for Europe.

Over at the challenger's base, the Alinghi sailing team are going through their usual routine. It helps calm the nerves. They arrived at 7am, worked out in the gym then had breakfast together.

They will not sail. The day will be spent on final checks on the boat and last-minute meetings.

The nine weather analysts will scour their data for every impending wind change.

First in at Team New Zealand next door will be chef Gretel Jack to make a 7am breakfast.

The team are going out for a short run today to check their sails. Then there is the job of checking every centimetre of the Black Boat while their 10-strong weather team settle down to study.

At Westhaven, cup race director Harold Bennett will be getting ready for a final 7.30am breakfast meeting with the Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Yacht squadron business is on the agenda but no one expects it to take long. Instead there are last-minute details to run through; weather predictions (a southerly, 15 to 25 knots), the rules of the cup day, whether the two mark-laying boats are ready to lay the course tomorrow.

As the city gets down to work Mr Bennett will be among the race officials facing some of the 1000 reporters from around the world at a press conference at the Louis Vuitton media centre at the Viaduct Harbour. He knows the spotlight will mostly be pointed elsewhere, at rival skippers Dean Barker and Russell Coutts.

Behind them will sit the Cup.

Bruno Trouble, the Louis Vuitton media centre director, will spend most of his day at such press conferences; for the skippers, for the sponsors and finally for supermodel Cindy Crawford, "ambassador" for official timekeepers Omega. Attendance, he notes drily, is likely to be very, very high.

At the bars and restaurants around the Viaduct today, the chefs began arriving at 6am.

Most bars are never empty now. When the last patron leaves, the cleaners move in. When they are done the chefs arrive to start again.

While the city eats breakfast, the kitchen staff at Soul Bar will be preparing special biscuits in the shape of a black boat for the day's desserts. Today they will prepare 80kg of fish.

Over at the Loaded Hog, security guards keep a watch over 27 pallets of beer, wine and spirits in storage - a bigger order than some supermarket chains.

Tonia Cawood was on deck at 6.30am getting ready for the first of her 11 skippers for water taxis at the Yellow Boat Co.

Things are busy now but not as flat-out hectic as they will be tomorrow.

"We have been working for this for four months. Now it's just the next day."

Fred Underwood, a civilian hired by the police, will sit today at the little police office answering the question he gets asked most: where's the nearest toilet?

At the Line 7 America's Cup Shop things have gone crazy. Restocking shelves is a constant now, especially with quantities of the black "Loyal" T-shirt.

The Cafe to Go, which sells soft drinks, icecream and has a barbecue, is using the Copthorne Hotel in nearby Quay St to store its back-up stock, including an extra 100 cases of soft drinks.

"On a busy day we'll go through that," says manager Sheldon Noronha.

Tomorrow, though, he expects to sell 120 cases of drinks and that does not include bottled water.

He has 20 boxes of cones ready for tomorrow - that is 6000 icecreams.

He has 56 boxes of sausages - nearly 20,000 sausages. Will he sell them all?

"You bet we will."



nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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