Team NZ insist they have kept distance from Blackheart

4.00pm

America's Cup yachting defenders Team New Zealand are today continuing to deny ties with BlackHeart, despite a Swiss television item suggesting the two groups have worked closely together.

The television piece included an interview with Charlie Stone, editor of the newsletter put out by BlackHeart, in which Stone said his group were in constant contact with the defenders.

As well as supporting Team New Zealand, BlackHeart has been strongly critical of former members of the syndicate such as Russell Coutts, now skipper of the Swiss-based Alinghi team that will challenge for the America's Cup from February 15.

Today, Team New Zealand spokesman Murray Taylor would say little about Stone's comments.

"Team New Zealand has had no relationship with this organisation. That's what we have always said," was the only public comment he would make.

Stone today said he had been interviewed by the Swiss in early January.

The item, which had screened several days later, had been "mischievous spin", in which he had been selectively quoted and his comments taken out of context, he said.

He would not talk about the matter further, saying anything he wanted to say about it had been included in a statement now on BlackHeart's website.

In that statement, Stone said every writer covering the America's Cup was in constant contact with Team New Zealand in order to get their stories straight.

He had been in constant contact with many of the syndicates, any that would take his calls.

Stone also told Swiss television he always asked Team New Zealand if there was any phrase they would like him to change.

That was good protocol, Stone said in his statement.

Other syndicates were given the same opportunity, and any suggestion Team New Zealand had influenced the strategy of BlackHeart was "preposterous".

A third of Stone's comments screened by the Swiss was that Team New Zealand members were "all smiles" when they saw BlackHeart members publicly.

"It remains my personal opinion that BlackHeart has helped by saying things Team New Zealand could not and should not," Stone said in his statement.

When wearing BlackHeart merchandise around the area where the America's Cup syndicates are based, he and many of his newsletter's subscribers had been given the distinct impression Team New Zealand members approved of "such staunch support".

Referring to an article in the Italian newspaper La Republica, in which he was quoted as saying he was embarrassed to be writing BlackHeart's newsletter, he said he had been inaccurately paraphrased.

The report had been based on off-the-record comments he had made to the journalist who wrote it, Stone said.

What he had told the journalist, who had "ridiculously quoted" him as being an Alinghi supporter, was that his job with BlackHeart was no longer the fun it had been when he started.

That was because of the anonymous threatening letters that had been written to some Alinghi crew members.

- NZPA

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