Team NZ old guard hit back at defectors

By EUGENE BINGHAM and HELEN TUNNAH

Sir Peter Blake's old guard of former trustees have fired back at Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth with documents they say show the pair backed out of a deal to stay for the 2003 America's Cup defence.

The centrepiece is a "mutual understanding" agreement dated September 1999 in which they signed up to a transition process to take over running Team New Zealand with Tom Schnackenberg in July 2000.

While Schnackenberg stayed, Coutts and Butterworth decided in May 2000 to switch to Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi syndicate - the challenger that will race Team NZ for the cup.

The agreement established a transition committee and stated as an objective the need to retain key "human and physical" assets for future defences. It was signed by the three sailors, Sir Peter and trustees' and sponsors' representatives.

Former trustee Roger France yesterday described the document as a "powerful statement of intent and honour between the parties".

"Every party to that document has honoured those intentions with the exception of Russell and Brad."



Last night, Jim Farmer, QC, who acted for Coutts and Butterworth until December 1999, said the agreement was not what the pair had sought from the trust - "It was not regarded by me as satisfactory."

The document's release is the latest round of a war of words revealing the bitterness and divisions that racked Team NZ in the build-up to the 2000 defence.

Last week, Coutts released a statement blaming the former trustees, particularly lawyers Richard Green and John Lusk. He said he and Butterworth joined Alinghi frustrated that they had not been able to strike a deal with the family of five sponsors or the old trustees.

The men - who have since been replaced on the Team NZ trust board by a new set of trustees headed by Ralph Norris - responded to Coutts with a statement published today.

It acknowledges the disharmony over the transition, but blames Coutts and Butterworth, saying they fell out with Sir Peter because of their refusal to recognise him as chief executive, and because of their attitude towards the sponsors.

In May 1998, Sir Peter wrote to Coutts about what would have to happen for Coutts to take over as syndicate head. In that note, and in a June 1998 letter, Sir Peter outlined what obligations the new trust and management team would inherit, including a $5.2 million outstanding loan from the sponsors.

As acrimony continued, the parties eventually signed the mutual understanding agreement.

Mr Green said Coutts and Butterworth had insisted on a legally binding contract setting out the terms of how they would take over the team. But no one could commit to anything firm until after the cup.

"What was being asked for was impossible," Mr Green said. "Ultimately we got what was possible, which was the statement where we all say, 'This is what we're committed to and we're driving to win the cup and for you guys to take over'."

Mr France said no one who signed the document recognised it as legally binding, but he believed it was "playing at the margins" to start attacking its standing.

Mr Green said Coutts and Butterworth had known everything there was to know about the transition for two years. A handover deal had been agreed to on their behalf by Mr Norris and the new trustees before the end of March 2000.

He said they had obviously changed their minds about staying with the team. "That's okay, but what we're sad about is that ... they are trying to blame others."

A spokesman for Coutts and Butterworth said they could not comment on the trustees' statement until they had seen it but they stood by the document they released last week, including claims that they were denied vital financial information.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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