Warnings ignored, says boat builder

By JULIE ASH

Team New Zealand boat builder Mick Cookson yesterday said he warned the syndicate of flaws in the structures of their America's Cup boats months before the match against Alinghi, but was ignored.

And Cookson, who remains convinced NZL81 and NZL82 are the best America's Cup boats he has built, also hit out at the performance of Team New Zealand's sailors, saying that "average sailors can make a good boat look bad."

The design and the performance of Team New Zealand's black boats with their controversial hull appendages came under fire this week when the syndicate released a report reviewing the disastrous defence.

It revealed the design-led Team New Zealand campaign suffered a major "catastrophe" when training boat NZL81 suffered "crippling hull and deck structural damage" in early December, and then again just before race one.

That damage meant the syndicate had nothing to trial their race boat NZL82 against, and undermined their confidence in their race boat.

The cause of the failure has yet to be determined, but it is understood to be related to the compression from the load of the rig which caused a buckling effect.

Cookson, who built Team New Zealand's 2000 cup-winning yacht NZL60 and its sister yacht NZL57, said the failure of NZL81 could have been avoided.

The North Shore boat builder, who was also involved in the New Zealand challenge in 1992, admits he had concerns about the structural elements of the boats which he raised with Team New Zealand designers.

"They double checked all their numbers and came back and said it was all right," Cookson said.

However, still concerned, Cookson took the issue up again with the designers, but to no avail.

"The failure of NZL81 came as a surprise to the boys that had done the numbers. It didn't shock me because it was the area that we had questioned. I know what could have prevented it happening and I told them.

"But they are the numbers people. It was frustrating at the time to have to send boys in there to work all night trying to fix it."

On reflection, Cookson said there were a number of things that could have been done differently.

"You would never design a boat for heavy conditions in March.

"The boat was designed for typical March conditions. There was a small chance conditions were going to be heavy, and we were unlucky that we got a big blow.

"There are things they should have done differently, and there are things we could have done differently in general, but I can say that out of it came the best America's Cup boats we have built. We have taken boat building to a new level."

In the review it was highlighted that Team New Zealand felt they had to take a major step forward in boat design and therefore worked on a number of revolutionary concepts.

"We knew we were going to need something special," Cookson said.

"Even though there was depth in the sailing team, a lot of them were not hardened cup sailors. Good sailors can make an average boat look good, and average sailors can make a good boat look bad."

The report claimed the delivery of the boats was late possibly due to the complexity of the design, which meant the testing and trialing period was severely reduced. NZL82 was never tested in extreme conditions until the match. As a result the boat failed to finish two of the five races through gear failure.

* The Government's $5 million grant to Team New Zealand stands despite the damning report.

Trevor Mallard, the minister responsible for the America's Cup, said in Dunedin yesterday that Team NZ had told him it would treat it as a loan and repay the money if it did not launch another challenge.