Team NZ lick wounds after day of destruction

9.30pm - by MICHAEL DALY

Team New Zealand estimate their yacht NZL-82 had between two and six tonnes of water aboard during the run of disasters that led to them crashing out of the first America's Cup race on the Hauraki Gulf today.

The defenders pulled out of the race without even completing the first leg, leaving Swiss-based challengers Alinghi to sail cautiously on and go 1-0 up in the best-of-nine series.

In the first few minutes NZL-82 had looked good, getting its nose in front of Alinghi's SUI-64, before the worst of the water problems set in as the combatants raced in 20 to 24 knot southerlies and choppy seas.

Thirteen minutes into the race the end of the boom on NZL-82 broke off, presenting the team with a major problem.

Four minutes later their predicament worsened as the tack of the headsail exploded away from its fastening.

The metal headfoil that held the headsail on to the forestay had also been damaged in the incident, making it impossible to hoist a replacement headsail.

At 1.40pm, just 25 minutes after the start, Team New Zealand officially retired from the race.

It was a premature end to a much-anticipated day on which, officials estimated, 2500 spectator boats gathered under clear skies to see whether the defenders had a yacht good enough to fend off Alinghi's challenge.

A subdued Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker said "it's one of the days you'd like to forget".

"In all the sailing that we have done, I don't remember a day when we've actually broken this much gear.

"It is disappointing that it is the race for the America's Cup.

"I have every confidence in the team that we'll be able to rectify that and the boat, when we go sailing tomorrow, will be fine."

Team New Zealand did not think they were out of the event because of one "bad day".

"It seems like we had a lot of gremlins on the boat today," Barker said.

"We've had lots of breakages, as I'm sure most of the other teams have, in our preparations. You always test to the limits on how hard you can push things."

During the short time the two boats had raced alongside each other, his feeling had been that they were "near enough to even".

"So I guess for us that's reassuring, because we haven't raced against another team.

"The good thing for us is that tomorrow is another day, and we believe that we are in a position to go out and race against these guys and give them a decent run for their money," Barker said.

The problem with the amount of water coming on board had not been experienced before.

"The sea state was fairly short chop and I think that was a factor of the strong breeze and also a lot of spectator wash," Barker said.

"We certainly haven't encountered a problem like that in any of the other sailing we've done," he said.

"It was a bit of a shock to us to have the leeward side pretty much full of water after only eight or nine minutes sailing."

The team were looking at ways of dealing with the problem and he was confident it would not happen again.

Barker said it had been estimated somewhere between "two and five tonne" of water had been on board while syndicate boss Tom Schnackenberg suggested it could have been as much as six tonne.

Schnackenberg also said there had been problems with a shackle holding the headsail up before racing began.

"What we have to do is obviously take a very good look at all the assumptions we made on the engineering, and the boys will be having a very good look around everything on the boat."

"We think we'll be fine, but we're not taking it lightly," Schnackenberg said.

The bucket used to empty the water from the boat was not there for that purpose.

Team New Zealand mid bowman Matt Mitchell revealed the large bucket he used to bail out NZL-82 was "the toilet so to speak".

"It certainly felt like it was a losing battle for a little while there, a bit of an ambush, I guess," he said.

Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth said everyone on both teams wanted to compete and sail the boats the way they were supposed to be sailed.

"It's a shame when one boat or the other breaks down and that doesn't happen," he said.

During the few minutes when the boats had been racing their performance had looked similar.

"There wasn't a lot in it. We were happy with our performance."

- NZPA

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