'Tache or cash? Mo has to go

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

With his upper lip naked for the first time in 31 years, Tom Schnackenberg is a little nervous about entering the United States this week.

The head of Team New Zealand lost his trademark moustache for $10,000, paid by an anonymous phone bidder, at a cancer charity auction on Saturday.

Schnackenberg will try to grow the mo back while he's on holiday in Maui later this week, but is concerned that his passport photo no longer matches his face.

"Maybe I'll have to keep a false moustache in my pocket to whip out at US Customs. Maybe I'll be arrested," he mused.

"I keep looking at this strange face in the mirror. My wife seems to like it - she says she can see me smile more often now."

Maybe Team NZ skipper Dean Barker did not want to look at a smooth-lipped Schnack - he bid $5300 to keep the moustache on.

The Sail For Cancer auction raised over $50,000 for the Children's Cancer Foundation and the Auckland Cancer Society. Another bidder paid $4600 for a round of golf with Barker.