Sailors afraid to push boat too hard, says Team NZ report

1.30pm

Team New Zealand today said their management structure was the single most important cause of the 0-5 America's Cup loss to Swiss challenger Alinghi.

The Swiss completed the sweep in early March during a cup final series in which Team New Zealand's yacht, NZL82, failed to finish two of the races.

Team New Zealand were hit by the departure of a number of key staff just months after their successful defence in 2000, including skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth.

The pair, and several other crew, moved to Alinghi, headed by billionaire businessman Ernesto Bertarelli.

In report prepared by Team New Zealand director Peter Menzies and released today, the syndicate said all subsequent events and occurrences could be traced to the replacement management structure not delivering.

That structure consisted of three individuals with specific self-contained areas of responsibility reporting to the four-man board

It said those responsible for the structure had collectively and individually accepted responsibility for the team's performance.

They were Menzies and fellow directors Ralph Norris, John Risley and Kevin Roberts; Dean Barker (in charge of sailing), Ross Blackman (administration) and Tom Schnackenberg (boat design).

"Collectively, they developed the structure, and collectively they failed to challenge its ability to deliver."

The report said Team New Zealand had recognised the need to improve their structure and two weeks ago announced the appointment of round-the-world race veteran Grant Dalton as managing director.

It said speculation would remain whether a different structure would have seen Team New Zealand, who won the cup off San Diego in 1995, complete a second successful defence.

"It may have, but what is clear now -- but was not clear at the time -- was that the management structure adopted did not pull together sufficiently well the areas of sailing (including sail development) boat design and administration."

The report said a significant contributing factor was the structural failure that hit back-up boat NZL81 in December, two months before the cup match began.

"The impact this catastrophe had on the team cannot be understated.

"The failure of NZL81 led to downstream decisions being made which severely handicapped and disadvantaged the crew and the preparation of NZL82."

NZL81 suffered "crippling" hull and deck structural damage in early December 2002. At the time the boat had not completed its testing programme.

"The cause of the failure has not been finally determined," the report said.

"However, it was not the result of a manufacturing fault."

The hull and deck on NZL81 failed again just before the start of the first race in the America's Cup.

The same problems did not occur on NZL82, but created concern among all team members, undermining their confidence in the structural soundness of NZL82.

This led to compromises being made when testing the limits of NZL82's capabilities and eventually to pushing the boat during racing.

"Collectively, the sailors expressed confidence in NZL82," the report said.

"However, privately, they harboured the belief that NZL82 might be fragile, and they treated it too protectively.

"There was a genuine concern that if they pushed NZL82 too hard, it too might fail and they would not have a boat with which to defend the America's Cup."

As a result, in training, NZL82 was never made to stretch in more than 25 knots, and the issues this created showed up in the cup match "when the boat was pushed to its limits for the first time".

In race one, NZL82 retired after taking on large amounts of water on the first leg. In race four, it again failed to finish when its mast snapped.

Team New Zealand have said they will make a decision by October on whether to proceed with a challenge in Europe in 2007.

As well as Dalton's appointment, the syndicate have retained the services of Barker, Schnackenberg and Blackman.

The report said the separate functions of sailing, boat design and administration would report to Dalton.

Unlike the last regatta, where Team New Zealand became a design-led campaign, any new challenge would be sailor-led, with the sailors briefing the designers on what they wanted in a boat.

The design team's focus would be on working to the sailors' specifications, while retaining an innovative approach.

The report said the syndicate still lacked committed funding to mount another bid for yachting's biggest prize.

Finding that funding -- the budget needed is expected to be much greater than the $90 million for the last campaign -- was now the priority.

The report said Team New Zealand had two deep disappointments, the first being that of competitors who had lost.

"The second is not giving an on-water performance worthy of the tremendous support we received from the New Zealand public.

"There is a tangible sense of a debt of gratitude that needs repaying."

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup