The Emirates Team New Zealand crew take actor Tom Cruise and his son Connor for a sail around San Francisco Bay. Photo / Chris Cameron
Tom Cruise thought it was just going to be a journey back to the jetty. Instead, he and 18-year-old son Connor were put to work on Emirates Team New Zealand's AC72 catamaran.
"Unbelievable. Really extraordinary," said Cruise later. "I thought we were just going to get on and just cruise
back to the slip ... but the next thing we hear, 'You're on this one; you're on that one. Go! Go! Faster! Faster! Slow! Stop!"'
That was Tom Cruise, grinder, on board Aotearoa, transferred on to the 22-metre catamaran from the hospitality boat, on which he was a surprise guest, after the Kiwis cruised into the Louis Vuitton Cup final position yesterday. "We were put right on the grinders and got to, you know, work with the crew. It was remarkable actually, remarkable," he said.
Then it was Tom Cruise, skipper.
"We took them for a bit of a blat round San Francisco Bay," said Team NZ skipper Dean Barker yesterday, adding that they sailed under the Bay Bridge. "Tom jumped on the handlebars and probably did a better job than me."
