Shabby Hawaiian shed hides will to win

By Suzanne McFadden

WAIKIKI - John Kolius walks around in bare feet as he answers the telephone.

The entire offices of his multimillion-dollar America's Cup campaign are the size of half a squash court. Somehow, three desks have been squeezed in.

The shed sits on a patch of grassless red dirt, in the back of beyond, 40 minutes drive from Waikiki in Hawaii.

Yet this patch of dirt is smack in the middle of a luxury resort on the edge of a breathtaking expanse of man-made lagoons.

Aloha Racing's neighbours at Ko Olina lounge by a pool of baby sharks in a mammoth hotel, play golf on imported grass, or live in rows of identical condominiums.

There is nothing flashy about Kolius' lot, though. The business is run from the back of a relocatable shed they share with the resort's security guards.

A photocopied sign, Abracadabra 2000, is taped to the door. That's it.

The dead giveaway that they are there is the 30m sail on the horizon, powering their new cup boat.

Kolius, a veteran of five cup campaigns, does not spend the syndicate's money lightly. There are a lot of similarities to Team New Zealand, and this is no coincidence.

Little is forked out on the frilly bits - like office furniture - that do not concern the two new boats.

He chose not to buy an old cup boat to train on, and they did not come to Auckland to practise last summer. Like most serious cup skippers, he believes you cannot win the America's Cup without two new boats.

"You would be hard-pressed to run a decent campaign for under $US20 million this time," he said. "We will spend considerably under that.

"The design part of this campaign has been a lot of fun. Fundraising has been beyond hell. It's very, very difficult, but you don't bellyache about it."

Kolius' concern at the moment is to have two boats ready to race when the Louis Vuitton challenger series begins in Auckland on October 18.

The first boat, Abracadabra 2000, is sailing off the southwest coast of Oahu, Hawaii's main island. But the second boat is still in the construction shed down the road, 30 days behind schedule.

The construction team, who include two Kiwis, may have to put in triple shifts in the next fortnight to get boat number two ready to be shipped to New Zealand.

People in Hawaii have little idea what is going on at Ko Olina.

Ask the locals if they know about the America's Cup campaign, and some think it is soccer. Others want to know when their boats will race in Australia.

A local newspaper this week ran photos of the boat sailing, but coverage has been sparse.

Kolius is not perturbed. "Even though Hawaii is surrounded by water, they're not quite as sailing savvy as some places. The news organisations haven't embraced it yet."

So why Hawaii? Kolius is a Texan who skippered two American campaigns in 1983 and 1987, coached the Italians in '92 and the women's America3 in '95.

Dr Jim Andrews, the orthopaedic surgeon bankrolling the campaign, lives in Alabama.

The syndicate decided to base themselves in the Aloha State because they figured it would be a perfect place to host the cup if they won - good breeze, no shortage of accommodation.

A couple of Hawaiians are in the sailing crew. There are more foreigners - South Africans, Australians, Swedes and a Kiwi - but Kolius argues that this is not the time for "ethnic warm fuzzy feelings."

You choose the best sailors for this job. "There's only room for one Olympics in the world."