Yachting: A safer life with the cup yachts

After a poor start at Valencia, Team NZ say they are getting better.

VALENCIA - Nathan Hislop admits his heart skipped a beat when the sound of fireworks echoed around Valencia last week.

The Hastings-born 31-year-old arrived in Spain this month from war-torn Iraq to join Sweden's Victory Challenge as a grinder.

Originally in the Army, Hislop left to work in security. The company he was working for, Onix, was involved in the 2000 America's Cup, and Hislop's job was to guard the Auld Mug and be a bodyguard to Sir Peter Blake after he received death threats.

It was during that job that his interest in sailing was sparked.

Onix folded soon after the cup - there wasn't enough work to keep the company going in New Zealand.

But after the Iraq war there was a big need for private security operators so Hislop and a number of those who had worked at Onix offered their services.

In Iraq the clients he protected were mostly Americans with aid agency backgrounds.

He worked in Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi, and spent the last 14 months in Basra, where he wore body armour and a helmet and carried a semi-automatic rifle.

He drove a large armoured American SUV, taking his clients to and from meetings which were mostly in safe zones.

However, that didn't mean he was not exposed to constant attacks.

"There were a lot of close calls. You'd be driving down the road and the team behind you would get bombed."

Despite the dangers, he enjoyed the work.

"I was with a good bunch of guys - we had a lot of fun and a lot of down time. We had a little saying when we went into our compound, 'okay boys it is time to go to work' and that is when we switched on. If we messed up there was no coming back."

After two years Hislop, who is married to Ellaine with an 8-year-old daughter, Taylor, decided he'd had enough.

"It is getting worse, it is definitely getting worse," he said of the situation in Iraq.

On his final day, he drove an hour and a half to the Kuwait border with his body armour on. At the border he removed it, went to the airport and flew to Valencia.

He said the transition from war to sport had been challenging.

"I remember the first day I got here was a lot of fireworks on the beach. It was bomb, bomb, bomb and I was sort of 'oh okay'. It takes a while to get your head around that I am out of there and sailing here.

"There are a couple of times when guys have got stressed out here, and I have said 'you really don't know what stress is'."

However he said there was no danger of his not taking the event as serious as he should because of that. "I want to win and I really want this team to do well."

* The big four - Alinghi, Emirates Team New Zealand, BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa - all secured two wins in the opening day of the 12th America's Cup pre-regatta in Valencia.

Team New Zealand scored an easy 2m 53s win over China Team in their first match, and followed it with an equally decisive 2m 08s win over +39, which was penalised in the prestart.

Team New Zealand were keen to sharpen up their crew work after disappointing performances in the previous regattas, which was put down to over rotating and general tiredness following the move to Valencia.

Yesterday, although their opposition was weak, they definitely looked slick around the course.

"The last regatta was potentially rock bottom - there was nowhere to go as an afterguard than up," tactician Terry Hutchinson said.

Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker said it was always a little nervy going into the first day, so it was nice to get two wins under their belt.

"On paper we should have won those races, but it was very pleasing how every one worked on the boat."

Also picking up two wins yesterday were Spain's Desafio Espanol, racing their new boat, ESP88 for the first time.