US syndicate always feared sabotage of 'weather weapon'

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

The AmericaOne team worried that someone would sabotage the New Zealand-made weather buoy they have been using in the middle of the America's Cup course in the Hauraki Gulf.

The $250,000 buoy, owned by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), has been badly damaged by vandals who removed covers, cut wiring and smashed solar panels.

Not only is it no longer working, its beacon light is broken, making it a navigational hazard.

Police hope to take fingerprints from the buoy and from a screwdriver found in the wreckage.

AmericaOne, finalists in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, paid Niwa $220,000 for exclusive rights to data from the buoy.

While there are no immediate clues as to who did the damage, the AmericaOne team said yesterday that they felt it was sabotage.

"We're disappointed someone would go to these lengths," said team spokeswoman Gina von Esmarch. "We're not surprised - we knew it was always a risk. We always anticipated something like this could happen."

Early yesterday, the weather team in the AmericaOne camp realised that something was wrong; the last information received from the buoy had been recorded just before midnight on Monday.

Crew discovered the damage when they checked the buoy, anchored in the middle of the cup course off the East Coast Bays, Whangaparaoa and Rangitoto Island.

"We thought a boat may have hit it in the Anniversary Day Regatta," Gina von Esmarch said.

"But it was clear that that wasn't the case - it was pretty blatant damage."

Gavin Fisher, of Niwa in Auckland, said it would cost $50,000 to repair the buoy.

But it cannot be removed from the water until strong winds, which have pounded the gulf for the past week, subside.

"It's a monstrous thing, and the wind will have to drop below five knots before we can get a diver underneath to undo it," Mr Fisher said. "We tried to get a technician out there [yesterday] but it was too rough.

"It's a Kiwi invention so we are pretty proud of it," he said. "We are labelling it 'targeted vandalism'."

AmericaOne have used wind and wave data recorded from the buoy since they signed up two years ago.

At the time, the deal was controversial because it was seen to disadvantage Team New Zealand against one of the big challengers.

AmericaOne skipper Paul Cayard said the Niwa buoy had been one of the syndicate's best investments.

"It came at a time when we didn't have a lot of money but we paid $US110,000 to keep it in the water," he said.

"We first used it as a design tool and now it gives one-sixth of the weather data we get every morning. So this is not going to wipe us out."

AmericaOne is back in contention in the Louis Vuitton series after beating Prada by 34s yesterday. Prada leads the best-of-nine series 3-2.