Wanted: cash to hold America's Cup stars

By HELEN TUNNAH

Cash is the main barrier to Team New Zealand preventing its key designers and crew from leaving to work for other teams after the America's Cup.

Syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg said cash prevented the New Zealanders extending restraint of trade clauses in contracts. The clauses could help to cement the New Zealanders' design edge and stop innovations being quickly adopted by rivals.

Team New Zealand crew have both confidentiality and restraint of trade clauses in their agreements.

The former prevents the retention, disclosure, dissemination or use of Team New Zealand confidential information.

However the restraint of trade clauses, which limit a person's ability to switch immediately to a new employer and are common in the commercial world, apply only for the duration of a campaign.

Too little money means a designer, no longer wanted by the defenders, cannot be paid not to work for another syndicate.

"It is only funding," Schnackenberg said. "Our solution would be to offer all the people we wanted to restrain a job - that's the only fair solution.

"But ... if you ask them not to work for anybody else you've got to pay them not to work for anybody else.

"We'll be trying to set ourselves up so we can offer people contracts so they've got a future," he said.

"But we'll be doing that later on - we've got to think about winning this America's Cup now."

Team New Zealand's designers again found themselves in the international limelight this week after claims they had produced one of the most creative innovations allowed by the rules in the 151-year history of the cup.

Schnackenberg will not confirm whether Team New Zealand has developed a partial false hull, which fits as an appendage close to the main hull of the yacht to increase waterline length and speed.

The concept is already being tested by Louis Vuitton Cup finalists Alinghi, and challengers Oracle BMW Racing and OneWorld Challenge have also flirted with the idea.

The radical appendage has created a stir among the overseas yachting community.

It has sparked questions about how it can be legal - and about why the New Zealand team continues to have such a strong design influence on the America's Cup..

It was after creating the winning boats in the 1995 and 2000 cups that Team New Zealand designers and sailors were raided by foreign syndicates.

Already there is talk that the team's stars will be targeted after next year's defence.

Schnackenberg said restraint of trade was one thing, confidentiality was another.

The question of what posed a breach of confidentiality was raised during this month's arbitration panel hearing in which OneWorld Challenge admitted it had broken cup rules for the second time by possessing Team New Zealand design secrets.

Lawyer Jim Farmer, QC, acting for Team Dennis Conner and Prada against Oneworld, argued that asking former Team New Zealand crew to sit down and sketch what they knew of the America's Cup winning boats broke contracts and also the cup's rules.

The arbitration panel dismissed the Conner/Prada joint case.

The reasons behind the decision are due to be released soon.

In his evidence to the panel, OneWorld rig designer Scott Vogel said former Team New Zealand crew now with the Seattle syndicate had been specifically asked to recreate Team New Zealand designs.

They did so by drawing sketches of key NZL60 fittings, particularly involving the innovative millennium rig.

Mr Vogel said after sketches of one specific mast fitting were completed, a US manufacturer refused to build them, saying Team New Zealand had copyright on the design.

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